Paving the Way for Creative Change and Innovation: Approaching GLOBIS’s 10th Anniversary in 2002

Happy New Year! 2002 marks the 10th anniversary of the foundation of GLOBIS. In the course of reflecting on the path we have traveled over the past ten years, I’ve been thinking about what GLOBIS should focus on for the next decade. Here is my summary of what we’ve seen so far:

· 10 years of continually listening to our customers
· 10 years of placing top priority on the GLOBIS mission, vision and principles
· 10 years of constant self-innovation, self-development, and continuing to challenge ourselves without giving up

Over the last ten years, we have freely applied our spirit of imagination and challenge based on sound reasoning without being limited by conventional wisdom. Placing value on a certain resonance with society, we created GLOBIS, made it grow, and creatively evolved as an organization.

So what have been the fruits of these last ten years? I think they can be described in terms of a decade of building business infrastructures that encompass human, capital, and knowledge resources.

Human infrastructure

GMS has had the privilege of teaching over 5,000 students in Osaka and Tokyo, and GMB has established a system for gathering and providing human resources.

Knowledge resource infrastructure

By publishing about twenty titles and creating digital content for e-learning and assessment tests, we have established a system for delivering knowledge to over 300 corporate clients, as well as individuals.

Capital infrastructure

We have been able to formulate and invest a fund exceeding 20 billion yen.

One of the companies we invest in, Works Applications, has issued an initial public offering. Through this success, we confirmed our position as the No.1 venture capital. We have established a system for raising and investing money.

In this way, we have successfully created a structure for gathering and providing people, capital, and knowledge resources. However, our vision—aiming for business change and creativity by building a high-quality business infrastructure that encompasses these three areas has only just begun.

Therefore, I have thought up the following three themes for the next decade of GLOBIS.

1. Paving a Way for Creative Change and Innovation

I think the biggest question we face over the next ten years is whether we can use the business infrastructure we have constructed to actually effect change and creativity in society. The previous ten years have been merely a period of preparation.

· How many excellent leaders of change and creativity will we be able to turn out?
· How many corporations will we be able to become true partners with in promoting change?
· To how many people will we be able to provide knowledge of change and creativity?
· How many global venture corporations will we be able to generate?
· To how many people will we be able to offer a place for change and creativity?

Our frame of reference is not sheer scale; the important thing is the extent to which we achieve these goals. Although I believe the real value of these goals may be questioned over the next decade, this is what we intend to do.

2. Japan Focus, Global Entity

Japan Focus:
Our Japan Focus is about commitment to bringing change and creativity into Japanese society. We will focus on change and creativity in Japan over the coming decade. Japan requires this GLOBIS infrastructure, and we place the highest priority on bringing change and creativity into Japanese society. In principle we are not thinking about expanding GMS, GOL, GCP, and GMB overseas.

Global Entity:
The name GLOBIS is an abbreviation of “global business.” The Harvard Business School and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are local, but operate with a global mindset; it is possible to be global while having a local focus. I would like to keep this model in mind. It has been written that strategy is all about choice, and two years ago we chose not to go public and to proceed down the path of a partnership corporation.

In the same way, the path we will choose over the next 10 years is focused on Japan, but is also global.

3. Toward a continually evolving organization

The last decade was spent creating GLOBIS, making it grow and creatively developing the organization. We will continue progressing as we move into the future. We will become a continually evolving organization with a system in which outstanding human resources come together, grow, network, and communicate. The following three points will be required for that:

1) A flow of talented staff
I want to establish conditions in which GLOBIS constantly attracts a highly motivated and talented faculty and staff.

2) A learning system that allows individuals to fully bloom
I am going to actively cultivate talent among GLOBIS staff.

3) Delivering knowledge, enhancing our networking power
We will extend the reach of our external network by delivering the knowledge of GLOBIS staff (through writing and so forth) and communicating the GLOBIS vision through publicity.

Closing Summary

This is how I see it: We have achieved ample results over the past ten years, yet what we do going forward will make or break us. In this sense, the year 2002 certainly represents a year of maintaining our foundation for the next decade of GLOBIS. While thinking about our mission, we want to primarily focus on Japan to continue to build a foundation and to effect change and creativity.

I want to value every company, every day, every person, one by one.

And I want to do all of this without forgetting these considerations.

I wish you all the very best for this coming year.