Influencer Marketing

Expand your reach and engage with your target audience using this trending technique that blends celebrity endorsements with social media marketing.

Leading High Performing Remote Teams

How can leaders ensure that performance remains high in remote or hybrid-work environments?

Design Thinking

Learn the 5 phases of this problem-solving methodology and switch from technology-centered to user-centered thinking.

Reciprocity

Learn what reciprocity is and how it can motivate people and boost sales.

Gantt Chart

Invented in the early 20th century, the Gantt Chart is one of the building blocks of modern project management. In this online course, you'll learn how this tool can be used effectively to monitor progress and achieve your team's goals.

Navigating Change Successfully

The working landscape is continually shifting and being disrupted, so how to employees maintain a sense of stability? Listen to CEO and president of Carl ZEISS Japan Stefan Sacre share his expertise on dealing with change in organizations and entire industries.

Halo Effect

The halo effect is often leveraged for marketing and promotion. But as a type of cognitive bias, it can also have a subconscious impact on decision-making in the workplace. Learn why and (how to overcome it) in this online course.

Anchoring and Framing

Want to increase your confidence during negotiations? Master the principles of anchoring and framing to take your negotiation skills to the next level.

ZOPA and BATNA

Understanding ZOPA and BATNA will help you become a better negotiator, create more value, and feel more confident at the table.

Content Marketing

In this course, you’ll learn how compelling blogs, videos, podcasts, and other media can reach customers and drive sales. You’ll also learn steps for creating an effective content marketing plan, and some important ways to measure its impact and success.

Content marketing is a essential digital marketing strategy for companies looking to provide relevant and useful information to support your community and attract new customers.

Get started on your content marketing journey today.

Sustainable Innovation in Times of Disruption: Choices for a Better Society

There are opportunities for progress all around us. The key is to innovate on these opportunities sustainably.

To help identify most effective path forward, you'll need to gain a global perspective to these challenges in an open discussion. How can Japan and the world take action to create a more sustainable, innovative world? Where do you fit in?

It's time to find out.

Social Media & Digital Communications: Impact on Global Public Opinion

Social and digital media have dominated the communications industry for decades. But it's no secret that social media has the power to sway public opinion, and the way in which many companies use these platforms could be seen as manipulative.

What do companies need to be aware of when utilizing social and digital media? How can these mediums be used to better communicate strategically with the world?

Discover what top media and communications experts have to say.

Blockchain

Blockchain is one of the most captivating technologies out there. Learn what it is and how to make use of its opportunities in this short online course.

Mehrabian’s Rule

The 7-38-55 Rule, developed by Albert Mehrabian, suggests that effective communication relies less on the words we choose than on our tone of our voice, appearance, and body language. Learn how to put this theory to use for better communication in business.

Pareto Principle

Your time and resources are limited. Efficiency means learning to prioritize. The Pareto principle (also called the 80-20 rule) can help you identify the best way to use your time for maximum results.

Country Analysis Framework

Overseas expansion requires careful planning. The Country Analysis Framework can help you look beyond an industry-level analysis and reframe your view based on performance, strategy, and context. Try this short course to learn how it works.

SECI Model

The SECI model illustrates how knowledge is created and shared. Learn how to put it to use for best practices, and how the Japanese concept of “ba” fits in to broaden your perspective.

Johari Window Model

The Johari Window Model is a self-awareness framework that helps you better understand . . . you. Learn how its four quadrants can help you identify gaps between how you see yourself, and how others see you.

Sunk Costs

Wondering if you should continue an investment or look for something new? Sunk costs can have a powerful psychological impact on decision-making. Learn how to recognize them to ensure rational decisions.

CAGE Distance Framework

Want to expand overseas? The CAGE distance framework can help ensure you're constructing a solid global strategy in four areas: cultural, administrative, economic, and geographic. Learn how to leverage useful differences between countries, identify potential obstacles, and achieve global business success.

Groupthink

Groupthink refers to group pressure and the perception of consensus which together lead to ill-formed decisions—or even unnecessary risks. Learn to identify the warning signs of groupthink and apply countermeasures in this online course.

Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

Solving problems with the best results means using two types of thinking: deductive and inductive reasoning. In this online course, learn to form a broad premise, make observations, and form conclusions from different perspectives.

Critical Thinking: Hypothesis-Driven Thinking

Anyone can come up with a good idea. The real challenge is putting that idea into action. In this online course, explore how to form compelling, testable hypotheses and bring ideas to life in your own organization.

Critical Thinking: Structured Reasoning

Even a few simple techniques for logical decision making and persuasion can vastly improve your skills as a leader. Explore how critical thinking can help you evaluate complex business problems, reduce bias, and devise effective solutions.

Critical Thinking: Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is a central business skill, and yet it's the one many people struggle with most. This course will show you how to apply critical thinking techniques to common business examples, avoid misunderstandings, and get at the root of any problem.

How to Dream

Join globally renowned author and Columbia Business School professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar as she explains how to approach your dreams with a new perspective. Learn to reflect on what you long to accomplish and what stands in your way.

Logical Thinking

Logical thinking is at the heart of confident, persuasive decisions. This course will equip you with a five-point approach to more becoming a more logical thinker. Learn to classify ideas and distinguish fact from opinion.

Investing & Diversity: The Changing Faces of Venture Capitalists

Is the venture capital industry embracing diversity in investors? Watch global venture capitalists from around the world discuss the state of things and what needs to be done for a more inclusive future.

Servant Leadership

There's more to leadership than driving a team to profit. In fact, there's a word for looking beyond self-interest to prioritize individual growth: servant leadership. Try this course for a quick breakdown of what that is, how it works, and how it can lead to organizational success.

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Ever wonder what makes a great leader? Whether your role requires leadership or not, understanding organizational behavior is useful for your career. This course from GLOBIS Unlimited can set you on your way.

Leadership vs. Management

Leadership and management are different skills, but today’s leaders must have both. Try out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited to understand the difference, as well as when and why each skill is necessary for motivation, communication, and value.

Strategy: Creating Value Inside Your Company

Have you ever wondered why certain companies are more successful than others? The answer is strategy: internal processes that control costs, allocate resources, and create value. This course from GLOBIS Unlimited can give you the tools you need for that strategic edge.

Strategy: Understanding the External Environment

To plan strategy on any level, you need to understand your company's external environment. In fact, your level of understanding can impact hiring, budgeting, marketing, or nearly any other part of the business world. Want to learn how to do all that? This course from GLOBIS Unlimited is the perfect first step!

Using Japanese Values to Thrive in Global Business

Japanese companies have unique cultural, communication, and operational challenges. But they also have values that have led to remarkable longevity. Check out this seminar to hear how these values help earn trust from overseas head offices and develop employees.

Turnaround Leadership: The Differences Between Japan and the West

What's the best way for leaders to communicate a shift in corporate strategy? How do you even know when it's time for such a change? This course explains how Japan might have one answer, Western companies another.

Conflict Management

Conflicts in the workplace are inevitable. But they can lead to positive outcomes if they’re managed well. Check out this online course for a two-step process that can help you manage conflict successfully.

Evernote Founder: How Tech Startups Can Break through in Japan

Can startup models from Hollywood and Silicon Valley succeed anywhere? Phil Libin, cofounder and CEO of startup incubator All Turtles, explains how AI can solve everyday problems to bring products to market.

Women Empowerment: Lessons from Cartier

How can women overcome gender inequality and reach their leadership goals? Cartier Japan CEO June Miyachi shares her secret in this special course from GLOBIS Unlimited.

Marketing: Reaching Your Target

Every company works hard to get its products into the hands of customers. Are you doing everything you can to compete? In this course, you’ll find a winning formula to turn a product idea into real sales. Follow along through the fundamentals of the marketing mix and see how companies successfully bring products to market.

Marketing Mix

Seeing good products into the hands of customers is no easy task. The marketing mix can help. It's a collection of strategies and tactics companies utilize to get customers to purchase their products or services, and is an essential part of the overall marketing process.

The Principles of Negotiation

With the proper skills and attitude, anyone can become a successful negotiator.  But first, you'll need to learn the basics to prepare for, assess, and respond to offers for the best results. GLOBIS Unlimited can help.

Negotiation: Creating Value

Want to create more shared value between yourself and your negotiation opponent? Discover how cognitive bias affects the judgment of others. Try this course from GLOBIS Unlimited to master the value of negotiation.

Finding Your Life Purpose with Ikigai

Ikigai can guide you in your quest for self-discovery. Listen to Japanese brain scientist Ken Mogi explain why and how.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Want to leverage Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a leader? Try this short course to see how the theory can be applied in practical work scenarios.

Confirmation Bias

We all subconsciously collect information that reinforces our preconceptions. It's natural . . . but it does lead to a kind of flawed decision-making called confirmation bias. To become more objective and impartial, check out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited!

An Investor's Lesson to Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs have the power to transform societies for the better. But how do you attract investors to start or grow a business? Or to sell one? Check out this seminar for the answers to these and more, straight from a master venture capitalist!

Managerial Accounting

Managerial accounting is a powerful way to measure progress, identify problems, and meet your goals. Check out this course to learn how data-backed decisions can help you run your business.

Finance Basics: 1

For a healthy mix of quantitative planning, evaluation, and management, you need solid decision-making. And finance is the secret sauce! Get the essentials of finance in this two-part course from GLOBIS Unlimited.

Basic Accounting: Financial Analysis

Want to compare your performance vs. a competitor? Or evaluate a potential vendor? Then you'll need to conduct a financial analysis. This course will teach you how to use three financial statements and evaluate financial performance in terms of profitability, efficiency, soundness, growth, and overall strength.

Career Anchors

What drives you to be good at your job?

Career anchors are based on your values, desires, motivations, and abilities. They are the immovable parts of your professional self-image that guide you throughout your career journey.

Try this short GLOBIS Unlimited course to identify which of the eight career anchors is yours!

Digital Marketing Psychology to Transform Your Business

How does digital marketing really differ from traditional marketing? How is social media changing things really? And what's going on in Asia?

Pyramid Structure

Having the pyramid structure in your communication toolkit can not only help you approach a problem, but convince others that your solution is valid. Break away from linear thinking and test your logical thinking with this course from GLOBIS Unlimited!

Leadership with Passion through Kokorozashi

The key ingredient to success? Passion.

Finding your kokorozashi will unify your passions and skills to create positive change in society. This GLOBIS Unlimited course will help you develop the values and lifelong goals you need to become a strong, passion-driven leader.

AI First Companies – Implementation and Impact

AI is changing the way companies operate. How do you structure teams to increase efficiency?

Technovate in the Era of Industry 4.0

Is Industry 4.0 is the next step of human evolution human civilization? Dr. Jorge Calvo seems to think so. Join him to learn how the past can help you set goals for an exciting future of digital innovation.

Technovate Thinking

Business leaders of tomorrow need to harness the power of technology and innovation. That means understanding algorithms and how they drive business results. Discover opportunities to make technology work for your competitive edge.

Product Life Cycle

Every product takes a natural course through the market—there's a how, when, and why customers adopt products at different stages. Check out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited to find out how a product you use every day is part of this cycle.

Logic Tree

Logical thinking is the most valuable asset any business professional can have. That's why logic trees are such a valuable tool—they can help you identify a problem, break it down, and build it back up to a solution.

MECE Principle

Using the MECE principle can help ensure you categorize without gaps or overlaps. Check out this course from GLOBIS Unlimited for a practical demonstration of how it works!

Yoshito Hori, president of GLOBIS University, managing partner of GLOBIS Capital Partners, shares his views from an entrepreneur’s perspective.

On the morning of the second day of the Davos meeting, I woke up around 6 a.m. and began replying to the numerous emails from Japan that had piled up while I was asleep. I then got dressed, and headed to a private breakfast meeting organized by Edelman. It was still dark out.

When I arrived at the hotel where it was being held, there was a long queue of people waiting to get in because of the extensive security checks at the hotel. I ended up waiting for 15 minutes in the cold. This year, security checks in Davos are particularly tight due to the terrorist attack in Paris.

Because many people were kept waiting at security checkpoints, the breakfast meeting was hugely delayed. Once it started, Edelman President Richard Edelman began reporting on the results of his company’s annual survey on trust.

The main points of President Edelman’s speech are as follows:

WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab pointed out the “four prerequisites of the company’s survival; profitability, growth, risk protection and earning public trust.” The fourth one – to gain public trust – is the most important.

Edelman suggested several ideas for gaining public trust.
–It’s good to join hands with governments. It was a good call that Uber had a partnership with the city of Boston.
–It’s important to pay taxes. Apple’s avoidance of taxes using loopholes in Ireland, the Netherlands and other countries will result in a loss of public trust. Efforts to reduce taxes will cause a sense of unfairness and lead to distrust. That is not good.
–First and foremost, there should be good communication with employees. Employees are the most important stakeholders. Without their trust, companies will create a bad reputation among outsiders.
–To gain trust, give thorough and “radical” disclosure
–And to solve social issues, it’s important to show that an organization is benefiting society and individuals. Trust is obtained when words are matched by actions. The latter is more important than the former.

After President Edelman’s introductory remarks, the panel discussion began. The past two times that I participated in the Edelman session, I had been given a role of a panelist. But this time, I participated for the first time as a member of the audience. It was interesting. I got to really concentrate on the discussion.

The biggest change at the Davos meeting this year compared with last year is that participants are openly criticizing the technology sector. People criticized Uber, and accused Apple of tax evasion. There was also a lot of talk about the presence of the Dark Web and their encrypted communication, as well as the dangers of cyber attacks that Sony just experienced. In addition, participants expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of transparency and fairness caused by ineffective government controls.

Fadi Chehade, the Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which determines Internet domains and protocols, began speaking with a sense of strong concern about the Internet and society, which will be one of the main agenda at the U.N. General Assembly in September. He said that as the world has become increasingly critical of the Internet, governments around the world are bound to start imposing regulations unless the industry takes the initiative in establishing self-regulations rules.

In the past, the finance industry had been criticized for using new financial engineering on its derivatives and hedge funds which are difficult for lay persons to understand, charging outrageous fees and engaging in the dark practices of shadow banking. Ultimately, the financial bubble collapsed, public trust plummeted, and the industry came under heavy regulation. Will the technology sector follow the same path? The IT industry also writes codes that are difficult for lay persons to understand, uses artificial intelligence engineering to charge outrageous fees, and is increasingly under the shadow of the Dark Web. Will the IT bubble eventually collapse and further ruin public trust?

The interesting thing about the Edelman Trust Barometer was that all sectors saw their trust levels decline. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was sitting next to me, offered the following opinion.

The trust that people initially had in governments was lost due to numerous political scandals. Then the public began to trust the markets, and their expectations for business ballooned. The income gap widened, and people began criticizing profit-driven markets, and shifted their expectations to NGOs. But NGOs failed to expand, and lacked transparency regarding disclosure. Ultimately, people began to build expectations on technology. But now, the technology sector is also experiencing a decline in trust. In other words, people have constantly changed who they trust, but now, all these sectors are suffering drops in their trust levels, which spreads a sense of hopelessness. Now that it has come full circle, maybe people will trust governments again.

After Rudd’s comment, ICANN CEO Chehade immediately retorted. He said that trust will not return to government but will ultimately shift toward platforms where diverse, cross-sectoral stakeholders get together.

This is an interesting thought, and it is very true. The WEF has the power to move the world, and the G1 Summit in Japan has started to move Japan toward the right direction. We’d like to continue our endeavor so as to maintain public trust.

Either way, this year will probably be remembered as the year when people’s perception of technology changed.

After leaving the venue at the hotel, I headed toward the main event venue. Inside, I was able to see many familiar faces – a former foreign minister of Singapore, Victor Chu from Hong Kong, the BBC’s Nik Gowing, the head of Lippo Group in Indonesia, the Dean of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and others. Participants from Japan included Mitsubishi Corporation Chairman Yorihiko Kojima, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Chairman Yasuchika Hasegawa, Recruit Holdings Co. President Masumi Minegishi, Suntory Holdings Ltd. President Takeshi Niinami, and others.

Every time I bumped into an acquaintance, I would stop, chat and start walking again, only to stop and chat with someone else. Interesting conversations started everywhere I went. While I thoroughly enjoyed these chats, I tried to participate in as many sessions as possible.

First, I attended a 30-minute talk by Financial Times writer Martin Wolf, the world’s most influential economics commentator. I took a seat in the very front row.

The other sessions I attended were all related to technology. For the past eight Davos meeting, I participated in various sessions on politics, economics, finance, management and leadership. But this year, I decided to concentrate on technology sessions in order to understand the latest trends.

The session mainly dealt with topics such as robots and artificial intelligence, the visions of digital creativity, and DNA and AI chips. Because warnings by Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the threat of artificial intelligence made headlines, many leaders were interested in these topics.

Slightly past 5pm, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was giving a speech. But the audience showed little interest. Ian Bremmer later tweeted that Li’s speech sounded like propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party.

What left an impression on me today was that even if the leaders of governments, businesses and the non-profit sector participating in the WEF come to agree on something, there are numerous issues that are left unresolved. Rather than particular states or governments posing a threat, the greater threat is now from organizations and networks transcending nations. Some examples include the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), terrorists, and hacker groups such as Anonymous.

From tomorrow onwards, I hope to attend even more sessions and exchange opinions to broaden my horizons. Tomorrow, there will be a breakfast meeting with Japanese Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura. At night, we will have the Japan Night and the GLOBIS Night. The GLOBIS staff who will be working on GLOBIS Night seem to have arrived in Zurich today.

I’ll be going to bed early to prepare for tomorrow. Good night!

Yoshito Hori
In Davos
January 21, 2015

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