Global Professionals, a Strategic Project for Creating Globally Competent Professionals.
Minutes of the 1st course of the GP lecture held at the Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Bldg. on 21 May 2016.
Attendees: the 11th GP Class of 2016, and Alumni
PartⅠ「 Strategic Management ; How to Become Globally Competent Professionals 」
Speaker: Manabu Yamamoto President of Yamamoto International Marketing Institute
Introduction
【The Mission of GP】
With the acceleration of globalization and the coming together of social, cultural, and economic
factors, we provide a learning environment to inform students of what is very important
in life at the earliest stage as possible.
【The key to achieving our task】
●To realize what brings you success as an individual ; without any support from others,
you will never truly succeed.
●To extend your vocabulary to influence others.
→to read many books, newspapers, etc. in order to increase your vocabulary.
●To have many friends from all over the world
●To visit your beloved parents as often as possible.
To always remind yourselves of where you are from and who you owe your life to in the first place.
●To produce something creative that is worthy of the time you spent doing it.
→The moment of the truth.
Theme 1
「Common sense & Consciousness」
Comprehending the true meanings of common sense and consciousness, and improving these two
senses are essential in order to survive the age of globalization.
●Why are these senses so crucial?
→ Raising your consciousness, you can make moral judgements in any kind of living
environment, which will lead you to become a person of integrity.
→Having good sense enables us to change our ways of thinking and our actions.
A steady record of good behavior will earn your credibility.
「 How do you grasp the meaning of common sense and consciousness?」
Some of Students’ answers:
1.Common knowledge varies from one country to another. Appreciating differences and
accepting them help you to grasp the true meaning of common sense on a global scale.
2.Gaining wisdom makes you a person of good sense.
3.The word, ‘common’ used in common sense, literally means every day, so common sense
is universal. On the other hand, Awareness, a synonym for ‘consciousness’ depends on
each person, reflecting their own living history or living style.
4.You can’t always make sound judgements about people.
It is very important to look at the larger picture, to put yourself in other people’s shoes,
so that you can raise your own awareness.
5.Not everyone will agree with your opinions or actions based on your own criteria, due to
differences in the way people live, as well as cultural differences. You can’t alter the culture
of another country, but you can understand those differences through education. Therefore,
we should focus on educating ourselves first.
6.Common sense, in a way, reflects identity, and also a moral code. Consciousness determines
what’s right and wrong.
Final comments on this topic from Mr. Yamamoto:
●You always have common sense shared with Japanese people in Japanese society. As a Japanese
person, you should acquire social manners.
●Developing common sense helps you to gain wisdom.
◯Present some reasons when you offer counterarguments in the open discussion.
Theme 2
「Goal Setting with Strategic Management 」~Life, Time, Money~
●Time equals money.
→Be aware of your hourly wage, and improve yourself.
●The important thing is how to keep a balance of three factors;
A triangle of happy life, time, and capital should form a triangle.
●It is important to set high personal standards and raise them.
Assess your competencies regularly.
「What is strategy?」
●Strategy is a plan, a method of obtaining a specific goal or result.
Intensity and severity are key components to strategy.
→To clarify the overall purpose and desired results, and work on the results to achieve
your goals－leading to accomplishments ( Human beings can use motivational techniques
like auto-suggestion to make positive changes.)
●Finding awareness in everyday life, in everything you do, you see, will lead you to craft
a personal strategy. You can map out your strategy now.
●To make a strategic plan in business and transform the planning into reality.
Ex. How to make a profit and how much profit you’d like to make.
Inspiring Tips:
◎Embrace yourself (to help you to have high self-esteem.)
◎Develop your marketing skills
◎Write down your goal, purpose in life, which will rewire your brain for what you want
and will motivate you to take action.
◎Invest in yourself to be well-informed. Read newspapers.
PartⅡ「 A New Global Strategy for Japanese Companies
Transition from 「Manufacturing」to 「Developing Marketing Channels」(In Asian emerging Countries.)
Speaker: Mr. Kazuki Moribe President and CEO of SPYDER INITIATIVE Inc.
PartⅠ
「 Japanese Companies Winning in the Manufacturing Environment, but Losing in Creating Marketing Channels」
Summary
●Entering the age of placing more emphasis on developing channels than manufacturing.
●The key source of value in business has made the transition from “ manufacturing” to “marketing”.
・The era of “ Japan is No.1 in manufacturing.” has gone. Japan has rapidly lost its ability
to compete in the international marketplace over the last two decades.
→ Japanese companies relentless in positioning, facing stiff competition from China and South Korea.
Ex. To sell a product:
Country Selling Price Numbers of Function
Japanese firms $100 10
Western firms $ 150 7
Chinese firms $ 50 5
South Korean firms $ 70 7
・In the early 1990s, American companies already articulated their business visions, and
they have developed their marketing strategies.
→Breaking into the Southeast Asia market.
1)Cooperate branding and marketing 2)Focusing on Software (user experience)
・Positioning Japanese products in New Asia
→ Products made in Japan are not so attractive to customers as they were before,
Those who used to love Japanese brand are now the elderly people.
→ Other Asian countries have become competitive manufacturing countries, and they
can manufacture the same kinds of commodities as Japan can.
→ Chinese and Korean brands take over the market in Asian countries and young people
especially buy them.
→ Those who can afford to purchase Japanese products are only a minority of wealthy people.
PartⅡ
「A Channel Marketing Strategy Learned from Leading Countries of the West, and Successful Local Business Model.」
Summary
●Target market are the people that are “middle class” in emerging countries in Asia.
→ Actual population: 1.5 billion people
→ The estimated population of emerging countries in Asia: 2.3 billion people.
= A sharp decrease in the number of the poverty people.
●The advantages of Western companies.
→ Since 1980’s, they’ve defined their target market, “middle class” in ASEAN and have
developed their clear strategies for investing in ASEAN.
●The weakness of Japanese companies.
→ The criterion for choosing countries are ambiguous.
→ No marketing strategies, only products.
Dependence on their business partners overseas and expatriate employees.
= Their wrong assumption that high-quality product always sells well.
People in the headquarters have no clear marketing strategies.
●The key to success which is learned from the Western companies.
→ Traditional trade (TT) remains the dominant retail, so Japanese companies must work
with a huge number of small, independent outlets through a network of distributors.
→ In addition, to avoid competition among these distributors, they should create their channel
system. So far Japanese companies have focused on the modern retail, modern trade (MT),
landscape of large hypermarket, dependent on a limited number of partners. Therefore,
they can’t expand their market share.
PartⅢ
「 Future of Global Marketing Strategy 」
Summary
●Marketing is the most vital tool for expanding business globally.
●The key to success:
Break away from being dependent on export and develop channel marketing strategies.
→ Set your goals; Where do you see yourself in three years, in five years, in ten years.
It is very important to do business in Asia.
→ International distribution channels are not built in a day.
・Transition from the 4P’s of Marketing Mix to the 4C’s of Marketing Mix
(From a Seller-oriented Perspective to a Customer Perspective)
4P’s
1.Product
2.Price
3.Place
4.Promotion
4C’s
1.Commodity
2.Customer Cost
3.Channel
4.Communication (mouth-to-mouth)