As we do a series of interviews with the top management of the companies in the running for the Porter Prize, I have realized the importance of asking questions. Based upon their written submissions, we try to ascertain the core strengths and key assets of the companies during the interviews. In the process of asking so many questions, we learn many things that are difficult to capture in the written application forms.
While we do so, I realize how much it helps to ask questions of ourselves. Sometimes, we take for granted our uniqueness or core strengths. When asked rather unexpected questions, we realize how blindly we have accepted certain things about ourselves, and how often we are mistaken or outdated. It is one thing to develop the capability of asking questions of others, but it is another to make inner inquiries.
The other day during a get-together with the class of 2010 (new students who just have begun their first term at ICS), many students asked me about the career of consulting, as I used to work for a management consulting firm many years ago. One of the students asked me to do a sales pitch for management consulting as a career. I thought it was such a fascinating and great question that I tried very hard to cover all that’s exciting about consulting and, at the same time, what challenges are involved in such a job. Since very few Japanese students ask such pointed questions at school, I found it refreshing and stimulating to have such a question posed to me. I had to think hard to respond!
Yoko Ishikura is a Professor at Hitotsubashi University ICS in the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy in Japan. She has held positions as a professor at the School of International Politics, Economics and Business of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, as a consultant at McKinsey and Company Inc. Japan and a visiting professor at Darden School.
Professor Ishikura is a consultant to a number of multinational companies and has been a frequent speaker at management conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the world. She was a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee for the Japanese government and the International Competitiveness Commission for METI. She is currently a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum.
She is the author of Strategic Shift from OR choices to AND paradigm, Building Core Skills of Organization , and the co-author of the following publications: Managing Diversity in the 21st Century, Strategy for Cluster Initiatives in Japan , and Building a Career to the World Class Professionals – all in Japanese. Her books in English include: Asian Advantage, Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management and Trust and Antitrust in Asian Business Alliances.
Professor Ishikura’s current research interests are focused on global competition, innovation, and knowledge management. She received her BA from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; MBA from Darden School, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia; and DBA from Harvard Business School.
