CASL: Challenge And Smile Laboratories

This video was created in 2013 when CASL: Challenge and Smile Laboratories was launched. (Updated in 2016)  Koguro Park is a nearby park where I take a walk every morning. It is a small park, but I am moved by the beautiful scenery of the four seasons. I was also moved by the beautiful scenery in the previous video of "My adventure trip to Hokkaido", but even small parks like Koguro Park have beauty. You also need the sensitivity to be able to feel beauty even when looking at the same thing with others.

The equation for emotion can be expressed in three dimensions: Emotion = Space x Time x Sensitivity

 "Freedom is the recognition of necessity" (Hegel)

I learned these words when I was in high school and was very much impressed and cried. These words affected me for my life afterward.

You cannot get freedom by just wishing for freedom or believing in God. I think that freedom can only be obtained by recognizing the necessity of nature and society.

For example, even if you think there is no rock in front of you, if there is a rock, you would hit it when you move forward. However, if you recognize the existence of rock (i.e., necessity) and take measures (mount over it or digging holes underground), then you can get the freedom to move forward.

If you get into trouble, praying in God may be a temporary relief, but you cannot solve the trouble (because there is no God). The trouble can only be solved (or you will get freedom) by finding the root cause of the trouble and taking countermeasures.

1)    IQ test

When I was 5 years old (in kindergarten), I took an IQ test and the result was IQ158. My parents were advised by my teacher to let me take the entrance exam for the elementary school attached to Gakugei University because my IQ score was high at the genius level.

On the day of the exam, the teacher asked us if anyone would like to go to the bathroom before the exam started, but I was shy at the time and couldn't raise my hand. After starting the exam, I wanted to go to the bathroom (I had pee a little). I couldn't concentrate on the exam, and I couldn't write the answer properly.

Later, after the exam was over, I remind that I answered that the giraffe had no horns to the question whether giraffe had horns or not, then I thought I failed the exam. However, my parents told me that not only the test results but also the lottery would decide the pass or fail. (But I thought it was just a relief…)

After I grew up, I boasted that my IQ score was IQ158 at a company drinking party, but one of my staff said that his IQ score was IQ180 and the party was messed up. Then someone adviced him to read a little about the atmosphere. Coincidentally, I'm working with that very genius guy now.

2)    Self-appeal

I was the second son of three brothers, so I had a strong self-appeal personality. According to one theory, eldest son is loved because he is the first child, and youngest son is loved because he is the last child. A second son like me is said to have a strong self-appeal personality because his parents don't care about him too much. 

Even in fights between brothers, I often fight one-on-two with my eldest brother and youngest brother, which may have strengthened me. Curiously I became a conspicuous person who used to be shy.

In the case of three people, it is more advantageous for two people to cooperate, so it can be said that politics starts when three people gather. 

3)    Equality

When I went to junior high school, my body was big and my grades were good, so I was treated as an honor student who attracted everyone's attention. The junior high school I entered had a strong basketball club (the third grader won the championship in Tokyo), so I joined the basketball club. However, the practice was so hard that 30 or so people who joined the club in spring were reduced to a few after the summer vacation. 

The basketball club has a policy of BUNBU-RYODO.(pen & sword policy) No matter how they could endure the hard practice, if the grades get worse, they have to retire from the club. At that time, senior students also have excellent grades, but the atmosphere of the club was feudal, and junior students were treated like slaves and bullied by senior students. From this time on, I began to feel strong opposition to feudal culture. Because of this, I still strive to treat everyone equally.

4)    Goal

When I was in the third year of junior high school, a joint athletic competition was held at the Komazawa Olympic Stadium by 12 junior high schools in Meguro Ward in Tokyo. At that time, I belonged to the basketball club, but one week before the competition was started, a physical education teacher invited me to participate in a high jump competition because I had a very strong jumping ability in the basketball club.

Until then, I had never worn spikes and I decided to participate in high jump competitions by borrowing spikes from my friends in the track and field club. But the players at other schools were all practicing high jump for three years, and they jumped in a high jump special form such as berry rolls and rollovers. 

But for me, since it was my first challenge in a high jump competition, I jumped with a frontal jump like the rubber rope jump I did when I was in elementary school, but I won the competition. The record was just 160 cm, which is not a big deal, but I lost my rivals because no other player could fly that high, so I couldn't fly any higher. 

At that time, I thought I couldn't jump even 160 cm if there was no bar(or goal). Then I realized the importance of the bar(or goal) to maximize my abilities. And also, I thought that I could not maximize my abilities without rivals. Since then, I am always trying to set clear goals and work with good rivals. 

5)    My extra life

When I entered high school, I studied very hard for the university entrance exam and got the best grade in the class, so I became an honor student again. However, when I was 18 years old (3rd-year high school student) in 1969, the student movement became fierce and I couldn't take classes due to the blockade of barricades.

During that time, I read philosophical books, had daily philosophical discussions with friends, and advocated ideals such as criticism of the government and criticism of the exam war.

However, I couldn't sleep every night because of the conflict between whether I should continue to criticize the exam war or take the university entrance exam that I criticize. And I wondered why people have to live even though it's so painful, and maybe it would be easier for me to die.

However, at one point I realized that I was addicted to the exam war that I criticized. In other words, there is always an answer to the exam questions, but I realized that this is a product of the exam war and there are many questions that have no answers in the world. For example, I realized that there may be no answer to the question, "Why do people live when it is painful?"

Then, since I was prepared to die, I was able to restart my life as an extra life, and I was able to face any difficulties. I think people become stronger by thinking "Nothing to lose".

6)    70th happy birthday

I realized that the world couldn't be changed just by advocating the ideal theory like loser’s howling as an outsider, so I decided to take a university entrance exam and get a job to make a change from within the organization and society. I have already lived an extra 52 years since I was 18 years old when I was prepared to die, but my goal is to do what I want to do and it is also good for the world. Confucius said, “I became able not to be contrary to morals even though I follow my desire, at 70.”

This year's Hiroshima Atomic Bombing Memorial Day (August 6th) is my 70th birthday. (Koki: Old Chinese tradition to celebrate happy 70th birthday) When I was a kid, people all over Japan prayed for the victims on my birthday, so I thought I might be a reincarnation of the victims. 

Therefore since I was a kid, I wanted to become stronger like Astro Boy (Atom)  and do my best to improve the world on behalf of victims.

Are you enjoying your life? I am enjoying my life now. I hope to enjoy my life with my family and friends this year. Let’s enjoy our life together.

According to dictionary, challenge is to begin the war or competition and/or to begin difficult or new things.

You need to have courage in order to challenge the war or competition, which you might be defeated, and also in order to challenge the difficult and new things, which you might fail.

Even you have courage; sometime anxiety might be stronger than courage. In that case, I am always telling me "Don't worry, nothing to lose".

There is the idea that effort is more important than talent but there is also another idea that talent is more important than effort.

I think it is not issue of talent vs. effort and I believe that it is important to make effort that could utilize talent.

Many things are changing rapidly. But are you noticing those changes?

Even you are noticing those changes, but are you adjusting to those changes?

Even you are adjusting to those changes now, but are you preparing for the future changes?

Noticing and adjusting to the current changes and then preparing for the future changes is the secret to enjoy our life.

Even you wanted be Lion, you were born as a human by your destiny. You can't change your destiny by your will. You have to accept your destiny. Otherwise you will lose your mind.

You can realize your dream that makes you spend happy life by your will. If you can't realize your dream, the reason might be lack of your effort. If you can't realize your dream even by your maximum efforts, you would better to give up your dream as your destiny.

By believing that “You can’t change your destiny, but you can change your life”, let’s enjoy our life.

Recently, we don't see the people who use public phone in the city. It's very rare to see the people who use telephone in the office too. Because of advancement of Internet, the way of life and work have been dramatically changed but I think it is serious problem that the way of education has not been changed.

Because of the globalization, the opportunities to use English have been increasing, but there are many people who cannot speak English even after 10 years English education in Japan through junior high school, high school and university. Even information is flooding in the Internet but the way of education just to remember the information has been continuing in the entrance examination system in Japan.

Recently, I have heard that many companies request the effect (how it improve company’s business) of employee training to the employee training company. I suppose that employee training has become obsolete similar to the school education.

Necessary English skill has been changed from just reading to hearing, speaking and writing. As far as information, necessary skill has been changed from remembering given information to selecting and utilizing among enormous information.

Necessity has been changing dramatically. In order to improve your skill, it is key that you will execute and experience by the necessity not just learns on the desk without necessity. That is the reason why I say, "The necessity is the mother of improvement".

People often have to decide something. However, people cannot decide easily in many cases. I think that it is because people are afraid that the decisions made are wrong.

But something you do not decide may be a bigger problem. Even if you consider for long time, making a perfect decision is difficult. In order to solve this problem, you can decide early, execute it, and change it if it is wrong.

There is the HO-REN-SO (reporting, contacting, consultation) as common sense of working adults, but there is a risk that no one can decide. It is important to have the courage to decide by yourself while appropriately utilizing or not utilizing the HO-REN-SO.

It became very easy to share the Explicit Knowledge worldwide because of the rapid expansion of digitization and networking but Japanese people or companies are in the difficult situation because they are not good at using global standard language i.e. English.

But some of manufacturing industry companies (such as automobile and materials industry) and service industry are still competitive. I think these companies business consist of a lot of Tacit Knowledge and their competitors cannot easily copy their values.

In order to energize Japan, it is important to become good at using English but at the same time it is also important to increase and utilize Tacit Knowledge, which is Japanese strength.

During the evolution era, a strong leader is required. There will be no one around the strong leader who can against the strong leader, because it is very difficult to against to such a strong leader.

The leader can proceed with the evolution efficiently if the leader's idea is correct but if not there will be chaos.

The leader should always collect different ideas and opinions and verify whether the leader's idea is correct or not. The leader should always check that he is not a naked king by honestly seeing mirror.

Japanese people think it is important to trust their business counterpart from moral point of view. That's why they think it is impolite to suspect them and they tended to make oral agreement or sign the very simple contract. I would say this is moral-base business.

But in the global business practice, it is standard to sign the thick contract and if their business counterpart will not comply with the contract they would ask penalty or sue their business counterpart. I would say this is legal-base business.

We often see business failures in the global business because there are many Japanese peoples who do not understand these culture gap and mentality differences.

I don't say that Japanese people should cheat their counterpart with bad intention but at least I hope they will not be cheated.

Unfortunately, I don't have actual evidence for above mentioned my thought but I think this way from my experiences. I think that might be the value of experiences.

The new president of USA, Mr. Trump is saying that cheap labor cost countries are stealing jobs from USA. And then he is saying that he will charge high tax for imports.

But he is not saying that robots and AI are stealing jobs (as far as I know). Will he say that he will also charge high tax to that technology evolution?

There are social distortion because of high speed of technology evolutions and globalization. In order to fix this problem, I think we should speed up social system evolution because we cannot reverse our history.

There is Japanese government announced sentence, “The Declining Birthrate and Aging Population at the Root of the Obstacles in Economic Growth”, within the document titled “The Japan’s Plan for Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens”. But is this true?

World population is bursting (more than 200,000 people are increased every day).  Why “The Declining Birthrate” is the Root of the Obstacle in Economic Growth? Because economy has already been globalized.

Even less population countries, there are many countries that have high GDP capita. (Japan is 26th place)  According to United Nations report, “2016 World Happiness Report”, Japan is 53rd place. With global perspective, we should create “The Japan’s Plan for Happiness of All Citizens”.

Do human beings have good will from the beginning when they were born? Babies are drinking mother's milk and crying during midnight without thinking about others. Surviving is more important than good will for the babies.

As people grow as a social animal they will learn the importance of good will because if they were selfish, they will be inhibited from the society. Then they become to do good things for others despite of self-sacrifice. With their growth, people will acquire good will i.e. altruism.

It is difficult to sustain good will because human beings are naturally egoistic, sometime good will falls into hypocrisy. Good will is sustainable if egoistic action without self-sacrifice will be the same with altruism action.

I think, Ego/Altruism i.e. Win-Win relationship will be ideal solution for happiness and peace of human beings.

Last time, I wrote that Japanese school teacher teach, "This is a pen." as a first English sentence. But everybody in civilized society knows what pen is and therefore I think there will be no chance to use this sentence.

Recently, and I told as a joke during my speech, titled "English Divide", if there is a pen which looks like Manju (Japanese sweets), let’s say Manju-pen, then there will be a chance to use that sentence, "This is a (Manju)-pen".

I was strongly re-recognized that English became world common language when I knew that Piko Taro's PPAP: Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen has been booming worldwide and I thought, with my cynical smile, that Japanese English education finally works in this way.

I think there are so many Japanese people who are not good at English. Why this happens? I suppose that they learned unnecessary English such as English for just entrance examination too much and they became to hate to learn English.

In Japanese junior high school, one of the first sentence to learn might be "This is a pen". But how many people use this sentence during real life? If there is pen in front of you, you don't have to explain that “This is a pen” because the person in front of you should know the pen if the person is not a primitive man.

When my kids entered elementary school in the US, the first words they learned were Pee & Poo and those words are highly necessary words for their school life.

In business world, English became international standard language, and if you can't use English, you can't execute your business well. I think the efficient way to improve your English ability is to put yourself in the necessary English environment for your life and business. This is the reason why I say, “The necessity is the mother of improvement”.

When the speed of environment change is slow, it is efficient to utilize common sense and rules (or laws). But when the speed of environment change is very rapid, it is not efficient to utilize those common sense and rules. 

Because of the rapid ICT (Information & Communication Technology) and the global economy evolutions, there have been occurring innovations such as "sharing economy" that will transform from “owning” to “sharing” in various areas.

For examples, the current laws of lodging and taxi were created that didn't consider what is happening to share the houses and cars. In order to accelerate the sharing business for houses and cars, it might be needed to renew the current related laws.

In this situation, in order to survive or to make a success, the companies and people should create innovations to adjust to the change of environment.

One of the methods to create the innovation is to find the common sense or rules, which do not fit to the change of the society. And then you could create the innovations by renewing those outdated common sense and rules. Let’s escape from the prison of outdated common sense and rules!!

GDP top five countries are 1 USA, 2 China, 3 Japan, 4 Germany and 5 UK but their happiness ranking are USA 13, China 83, Japan 53, Germany 16 and UK 23.

It might be good to increase GDP by promoting globalization but at the same time there will be the negative impacts such as unemployment issues and immigrant issues. I think that is reason why high GDP ranking countries’ happiness rankings are not similarly high.

UK's exit from EU and American President election nominee Donald Tramp's "America First Policy" are negative movements for the Globalization, but this might be natural because Globalization and Localization trends have been changed repeatedly in the history.

If you can’t use IT and Internet, there will be the “Digital Divide” that means information gap with the people who can use them.

But, even you can access the information, which is written by English, and if you can’t use English, there will be also information gap.

Because English became global standard language at least in the business world, if you can’t use English there will be also the information gap and I named it the “English Divide”.

But, if you have your own native language in addition to English, you have advantage to enjoy reverse information gap with English only people.

In general, honor students take good grade in the school and play an active role in the society after graduate the school. Most of honor students are patient enough not to do what they want to do and do not take risks. Their success experiences make those honor students escape from risky challenges. 

In comparison with honor students, dropouts tend to do what they want to do. Because they take risky challenges, they sometimes failed. This is why they are called dropouts. But there are high possibilities that they learn very important things by those failures that honor students have never taken. 

When the speed of business environment change is drastic and common senses do not work, there is a high possibility that dropouts take an active role in the society. Chin up, dropouts!!

Recently, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan issued interim report on “The vision of new industrial structure”. It says that 7.35 million jobs (12% of total job of year 2015) will be lost because of the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots if there will be no special actions.

This forecast might be reasonable when we review the past history. During last 60 years from 1955 to 2015, the share of agriculture and forestry jobs were decreased from 35% to 3% (decreased 12.78 million jobs).

Jobs were shifted from agriculture and forestry jobs to non-agriculture and forestry jobs in the past, but it is expected that AI and robots will replace human jobs. I think we should rethink future lifestyle.

By benefiting from AI and robots, let’s enjoy our life whether or not we will be job loss or free from labor.

Many decades ago, there were someone who said “Boys, be ambitious” and this means that in order to realize ambitions boys should make efforts and will grow up. But if boys think it will be a little bit difficult to realize their ambitions before showing their ambitions, it is easy to give up their ambitions and stop to make efforts and to grow up.

I think it might be better to say, “Boys, show your ambitions”. By showing ambitions, it will be much difficult to give up their ambitions. For the people who would like to grow up in their life, Nowadays, I think it is necessary to have a brave mind to show their ambitions. For example, to swear eternal love in the wedding party is very important commitment.

In general, the presentation has been interpreted that it can convey something to the other party but I think that it isn't sufficient. It is important that the other party is changed to the direction in which the intent of the speaker by the presentation.

For example, it is useless to make a presentation if customer will not purchase the product or employee will not be motivated and could not create innovation or could not increase productivity by the presentation.

In other words, the presentation without valuable product to sell or strategy that could motivate employee is useless and that is why presentation itself is the corporate management.

The Sharing Economy (such as Uber and Airbnb) that utilizes the low utilization assets such as cars and/or houses by using Internet applications is rapidly expanding worldwide.

Those Sharing Economy businesses are competing or complementing with traditional businesses such as Taxi or Hotel and it is necessary to review the existing regulations.

The effectiveness of the Sharing Economy is proven in the information technology industry by sharing (or virtualizing) networks and/or servers.

Common points to these above are to increase the utilization of low utilization assets by sharing (or virtualizing) and it is considered preferable from the viewpoint of environmental protection.

From now on, I think we should promote sharing human resources as a valuable asset, in addition to sharing physical assets of the above. Rather than locked in excellent human resources in one organization, it is important to let them challenge in various organizations. This will be beneficial for the organization and society as a whole not only for those people.

How many people will we meet during our life? No matter how many people we will meet, it should be much lower possibility than we could win the lotto by comparing with total population of the world. II think the meeting with the new people looks like fate.

At the meeting, the first impression is very important. If the first impression is good, there is a high possibility to create good human relationship. But it is not easy to create good human relationship.

In the Internet Society, it is easy to increase the number of so-called FRIEND but it is difficult to create mutually trust and respect relationship by only the Internet.

I believe that we could create mutually trust and respect relationship, by mutually growing during challenging for the same goal and experiencing tough time. That’s why; I believe that the meeting is my fate and I would like to put my high priority to the meeting with the new people.

Although about 20 years ago, most people did not have a mobile phone, but nowadays most people have a mobile phone, especially a smart phone in recent years.

When I ride the train, most of the people are using smartphones. It became common to see such a scene by now, but it was impossible to imagine it 20 years ago.

By e-mail and/or social networking application of the smartphone, not only close people such as family and colleagues, but also old friends and the friends around the world are all connected 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Not only become convenient by the smartphone, but also the new value is now created, also born anti-social phenomenon in reverse.

Why do human beings seek the connection? Can you abandon the smartphone?

When business environmental changes are little, suppliers of products and services are improving their products and services while listening to the needs of the user. (SCI: Supplier-driven Continuous Improvement)

But, when business environmental changes are drastic and users demands became extreme to destroy supplier’s business model, supplier will try to ignore or interfere those demands.

Those users, who are dissatisfied with supplier’s attitude, will initiate user-driven disruptive innovation. (UDI: User-driven Disruptive Innovation)

In the ICT: Information & Communication Technology field, there are UDI activities, not only software but also network and hardware. For example, OSI: Open Source Initiative, ONF: Open Network Foundation and OCP: Open Compute Project.

The pros and cons of SCI and UDI depend on the speed of business environmental change, but those who love changes should enjoy UDI. 

I am exiting now.

Japanese president of Japanese companies have more opportunities for presentation at the seminar overseas. However, most of them are reading oral document that was made by someone without self-confidence and it will make the audience disappointed.

In the global business, leadership of the president is strongly required, but such a presentation will decrease the evaluation of the companies. Even though the company employees are working very hard to increase company's brand, those company presidents are significantly damaging the brand of the company. Obviously those presidents lowered the value of the company, but no company employees could complain it to them.

The presentation has very important roles as a communication tool for not only audience at the seminar, but also for company's employees, customers, partners and shareholders, therefore president presentation ability will be increasingly important in the future.

Presentation is not just explanation of the company and/or products, but it is no exaggeration to say that management strategy itself of the company. President! Please make a convincing presentation with your own words and confidence. If you cannot do this, please replace your position with others who could do this.

Recently, many business owners say that "Selection and Concentration" is important. But some of them had been aimed at the opposite, i.e. "Diversity", before. That means that "Selection and Concentration" is not eternal truth, but it might be changed to the opposite depending upon the trend of times.

Other than this, there are many opposite poles. For example, it is such as "Heterogeneous" vs. "Homogeneous",  "Centralize" vs. "Decentralize", "Universal" vs. "Specific" and "Mass” vs. "Niche" etc.

The important thing is which side of poles you should now focus and execute your business along with this pole depending upon the trend of times. But, it is also important that you could shift to the opposite pole depending upon the trend of times like a swing.

When I would ask, "Do you want to be healthy?” I think most people would answer, "Yes".  However, there are many people who would unfortunately harm their health.

When I would ask, "Do you oppose the war?” I think most people would answer "Yes".  However, we could not eliminate the war, unfortunately 

There are many other such examples. Even if people would have various hopes, reality will become the opposite, unfortunately. This is hope and reality.

Why? People do not become sick because they want to be sick, and the war is not caused because people want the war. It is a good to have various hopes, but it is also important to investigate the causes that inhibit the realization of hopes and take actions to realize hopes at the same time.

The difficult part is that the cause of inhibiting the realization of hope in often is another hope. After all, reality might be the result to seek another hope.

Now, many large companies have been forced to business transformation. However, doing the business transformation from many years of successful experience is extremely difficult.

In order to execute business transformation, the strength of large companies is the fact that are in place all the management resources of the human, financial and other resources, is that you do not need to raise management resources as venture companies.

But weakness of large companies is that it is difficult to convert the corporate culture. Resistance to new projects and internal politics is the biggest barrier.

You cannot make a perfect decision, even if repeated discussions on the desk because of unpredictable future. Rather than lengthy discussions of the plan, you should decide the direction, and launch a small risk project and do the trial and error.

Than how great plan, it is worth a small success or failure. This is exactly what "Evidence is better than debate."  Just Do It.  If you do it then you can learn a lot, and you can succeed if you change when you fail.

Recently, I took the English exam, TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). I have been felt some guilty such as driving without a license, because I have no score of TOEIC while I have been working for the global business for a long time.

I also had a feeling that it was too late to take TOEIC because of my age, 63 years old. But in order to work for my lifetime, I think I need TOEIC score, and then I finally challenged it. As the result, the score was over 900 points and I felt some comfort. Indeed, it is Challenge And Smile.

There is also a thought that it is good enough if we have abilities and even without the qualifications and test results. But the qualifications and test results must be the reference when we work in a variety of environments. It is just the "paper tiger" if we don't have good abilities even if we have good qualifications and test results.

We should keep in mind that the qualifications and test results are only necessary conditions and are not sufficient condition. I think it is important to continue to make our efforts to increase our abilities.

It was common that the teacher who had information educates the students, when there were no rapid changes in the society and also there were limited access to the information.

Nowadays, the globalization creates a lot of changes in the society and the Internet makes it easy to access to the information. Therefore, it is now more important to select than to access the information.

For example, if you could connect the Internet, you could learn by yourself by accessing to the MOOC: Massive Open Online Course that provides high quality lectures. Will the Internet replace all existing education systems?

I think traditional education system that the teacher teaches the students will be changed to co-leaning which both the teacher and the student or among the students will jointly learn and grow.

For example, even if there is a lot of Hydrogen, Hydrogen is Hydrogen but if Oxygen will be added then there will be chemical reaction and there creates Water (H₂O). Same as in the human society, I think co-learning which will create new things by the chemical reaction (or human reaction) is important.

Three important things regarding business negotiations are, 1st is Toughness, 2nd is Fairness and 3rd is NANIWABUSHI (Concessions).

You should have the awareness and responsibility that you are negotiating for the company and Toughness is important for the negotiation. If you don't have Toughness, the other party will treat you lightly and you will be forced to accept adverse conditions. Even if you could negotiate with Toughness, you will lose your trust if you negotiate in unfair way. By doing the negotiations in the spirit of fair play, you will be able to obtain the trust of the other party.

Even if you could earn favorable terms to your company after tough and fair negotiation, it is not enough. Finally, it is important to cede one step to the other party. Only one side wins are not good in order to make better long-term business relationship after contract established. This is the Win-Win negotiation.

When I was engaged in big deal negotiations as chief negotiator, I was tenaciously negotiated strategically while simulating thoroughly the other party’s information. I was concentrating on finding the real intention of the other party in hardball every negotiation.

At the end of the long-term severe negotiations, I pointed out that the other party's remarks were differing from previous remarks. Then the other party finally gave up and reached self-defeated (Shoot himself in the foot).

After the close of negotiation, there was a phone call from the other party and he said that you were all correct and he was completely defeated with this negotiation but he requested me a little more money because he has wife and children to feed. And then I immediately accepted his request.

In the business meeting, the value of the person is determined by the first three minutes. It may be a bit exaggerated, but if you give a strong impression like punching an opponent heart in one shot by the first three minutes, you will be able to proceed with the subsequent business well.

The first impression in the presentation is extremely important. If you can get good first impression, then you can proceed with the entire presentation well. You can also leave the strong memory even after the presentation is over.

I've done a lot of presentations and meetings in my business life, and many people said that slide was good or that meeting was not forgotten. Since the impression remains long, it is important to give a good impression. In my experience, the evaluation by the first impression was not unlikely changed later.

There are words that "love at first sight" and I guess that the private relationship between the men and women might also be determined by the first three minutes. But please be careful not to disappoint after the marriage.

Cognitive bias came revealed by the development of psychology. In order to expand the performance of companies, cognitive bias has been widely utilized in presentations and in marketing and sales.

Cognitive bias has the risk of being exploited. Cognitive bias itself is not good or evil, but there will be good or evil by the purpose of use. Sometimes the boundary of good or evil is not clear.

For example, it is allowed to sell at discount by intentionally raising the list price  (i.e. anchoring effect), but if you sell as the last product even if there is stock (i.e. the principle of scarcity) that fool the customers.

Where is the boundary of decent sales and fraud? Because of fraudulent marketing and sales, there is a risk that superior technologies and products will be lost. You cannot be careless even you have superior technology.

"Makeup" means "to fool the people" in Japanese. Growth of the huge cosmetics market means that human somehow wishes to be fooled. I would like to spend a pleasant life by discerning the boundaries of good lie and the crime.

When defining the meaning of Presentation in business, as a way to convince people to do what you want them to do, it might not be necessary for Robinson Crusoe. But now, in the world of 7 billion people, the occasions of Presentation have increased rapidly.

Of course you are free to live without doing any kind of Presentation. But if you want to convince people to do what you want them to do, the importance of doing a Presentation make a big difference in your business. But unfortunately, I think it is a problem that there are so many people who are not good at doing Presentation.

As I have confidence in my Presentation skill (e.g. when I did a Presentation in front of several hundred audience, my Presentation rating was 4.7 out of 5, and I was the best among some tens of speakers), so I thought I should support other people on how to do a good Presentation.

However, I had never learned how to do a good Presentation before. Therefore, I recently read some books on how to make a good Presentation. Those books were helpful to understand my Presentation techniques more clear. But on the other hand, all the things written in those books were nothing new to me, because I had been using all those techniques naturally and unconsciously for a long time.

When I searched about the Presentation on Internet, I was surprised to see there are so many training courses and books about it. I thought that there must be a lot of demands and I was curious why there are so many people who are not good at it.

When I think about the people who are not good at doing a Presentation, I think that they might not have a strong ambition to be good at it. If so, I believe that reading those books and/or taking training courses are useless. Therefore, I truly want to support the people who are eager to improve.

For example, there are also so many books about how to be happy, and this might be a little leap, but I believe that people can’t be happy if they don’t have a strong ambition to be happy. Therefore, I hope to create and maintain the relationships with the people who have a strong ambition to be happy.

Every morning I take a walk through the Koguro park. When I used to go to work(round trip of 3 hrs…), I did not have time to take a walk. But now work globally from my SOHO, and I enjoy the ultimate combination of the local living and the global business.

Every day I feel the seasons changes and I find thing in the beautiful scenery and flowers. Koguro park is a small park but it is like a big garden to me. I sense in the air that lots of people’s life-style will change soon.

Please click here to see “Koguro Park” video that I made!

To empower an organization less than several hundred members, it is very efficient to interview all of the members face-to-face. For example, let each of them write down 3 problems and 3 solutions in a piece of paper in advance. And interview them about 30 minutes each, then you will be able to realize the real problems and solutions that the company could deal with.

Normally, hierarchical organization is efficient during the daily operation. But in order to find the real problems and solutions of the organization, it is risky to just believe in what the middle managers reports you.

Through out the face-to-face interviews to all the members, you will be able to create a communication channel and continue to communicate with them even after the interview. And it is also a best opportunity to be able to discuss and share the new direction or new paradigm shift with all the member of the organization as well.

With the “Top Down”(paradigm shift) and the “All face-to-face Interview”(bottom up) approach, we could activate hidden power of all the members and empower the organization. Let’s leap flog with this approach.

It is very valuable and efficient to use the “Nishiki no Mihata”（Imperial Flag of Brocade）in order to change or empower the organization. The organization that stops growing is the organization with the people of the old culture or way of thinking, and it is very difficult to make a revolution and big leap. If you want to change the old way of thinking, you should use the “Nishiki no Mihata” i.e. “Paradigm Shift”.

To present the “Paradigm Shift” for the people is the most important role of the leader. The “Paradigm Shift” needs to be shared with all the people of the organization and should overcome the problems of the organization. And that need to be clear and different from the old way of thinking and should be very convincing to the people.

In my experience, when the global network business was saturated, I created “Paradigm Shift” with qualitative goal, i.e. “Customer Shift”(from Japanese customers to non Japanese customers), “Service Shift” (from legacy services to new services), and “Operation Shift (from Japanese staff to local staff).  And I also set up quantitative goal, which is to increase the revenue 3 times up in 3 year and we were always claiming those goals and we finally accomplished it.

In the primitive days, natural phenomenons such as lightning, storm, earthquake and etc., were thought to be part of god’s doings. But eventually, those natural phenomenons are explained by science. And moreover, with the help of the advanced medicine and science, we are able to live longer and made us capable of going to the space.

However, why is there still a diffusion of the religion? And why is the existence of God is so influential? I have never studied a religion seriously, even though they are thought to give us the mental stability, I still do not understand why they fight or kill each other by the religion.     

Even if the science develop and advance the technology, we might not be able know the every truth or get an answer to everything. But if you challenge and try to know the truth, I believe that we can make a big difference without evading by the religion or god.  

I think that coming up with a solution is based on understanding the truth. And of course, I don't believe that science can solve everything so in that case, instead of believing “God”, I think it is important to choose to “Abandon”.

Not that I am saying that the science is better than religion. The science is not almighty either, I would rather not believe neither of them recklessly. And I think that we should have the courage to admit that our lives or natural causes as it is in their nature, they are not definite.      

“Improvement” is to make something better maintaining the current basic direction or rules. “Innovation” is to create something drastically better denying or opposing to the current basic direction and rules.

Improvement and Innovation seems similar but different. They are similar because they make things better. However, Improvement affirms the current basic direction and rules but Innovation rejects the current basic direction and rules.

Nowadays, there is a strong demand for “Innovation”. Because the change in our social environment is too extreme and just conserving how it was in the past and following the way it used to work, is not enough. So how are we able to foster the innovators? Unfortunately, I think that it is almost impossible to foster them.

On the contrary, the innovators are often attacked from the conservatives who want to protect the basic heritage. But you can not foster an innovator by protecting them. Because, to be a true innovator is to be able to overcome any hazard they might encounter.

In a book called “The ants that doesn’t work are important” (by Eisuke Hasegawa), the author introduces that the “Foolish ants: the ants that do not follow the rules, finds a short cut to the food”. I could imagine that our human society happens to be the same, because I am just wondering that an “Innovator” could be born from the fool (who does not affirm the current situation). Steve Jobs also said, “Stay hungry, stay foolish”.

When I was in the third year of high school in 1969, I had an opportunity to rethink about whether I should study hard for university entrance exams to enter the university or involve in a student movement for a social revolution.

As I was reading through some philosophy books and debated with my friends everyday, eventually the conflict in my heart grew more and more. And then I started to ask myself why we need to suffer so much to live and couldn't even sleep.

When I fell to the bottom and felt deeply depressed, I noticed that “I” myself was already contaminated by the massive competition of the university entrance exams that I really was opposed to. And as I was studying for the entrance exams, I was caught in an illusion that there was an answer to every question.

But finally I realized that there might not be answer to the question “why do we live?” So that day on, I started to feel like I had nothing to loose then I was able to survive and decided to enjoy the rest of my life.

I am sometime called a prophet, because what I predicted tends to come true few years later. And people ask me why I can predict future. The answer is “History, World, and Experiment”.

You can predict future by learning the history with finding rules, or by understanding the world with finding universality. By learning or understanding with expanded view of “Time and Space”, you can predict future.

But in the case things change too rapidly and if the above-mentioned method is not enough, you should do experiments that are the repeats of verification with the hypothesis. 

The biggest obstacle of predicting future is selfish thinking. You can’t predict future if you want see the fact to be what you want it to be.

“You can’t change the fact but you can change yourself ”

I use “Notice, Inspire and Realize” these three words in order to describe the “Spiral Up Method” but those words are not perfect enough to express everything I think.

For example, “Discover” and “Recognize” are words similar to what I want to tell by using the word “Notice”. “Invent” or “Innovate” contains a similar nuance to the word “Inspire”. And there are words like “Accomplish” or “Success” to represent what I think by using the word “Realize”. 

Instead of using “Notice, Inspire and Realize”,  I could choose to use “Discover, Invent and Success”, but in order to express something that is common in an every day life, these words sounds little bit stiff to me. So for that reason, I select the first group of words.

First of all, it is wrong to believe that “words” can express everything perfectly. We should think, “words” only can express “part” of what we think.

Therefore, not just lining up several words, using the story is much more efficient to express the whole things of what you think. And further more by communicating interactively, we will be able to express more accurately what we think.

And in a case that people has different experiences and backgrounds, it is more difficult to let them understand just using “words”. For example, in Japan and among Japanese people, when you hear

“Furuike-ya, Kawazu Tobikomu, Mizu-no-oto”(Haiku by Matsuo Basho)

“The ancient pond, a frog leaps in, the sound of the water”(Translated by Donald Keen)

We can sense the poetry or Haiku from the words and be able to imagine the scenery referring to our own environment and experience. And that facilitate to capture the meaning and then understand.

But for those who live in the desert it is impossible to be able to imagine without knowing the existence of an old pond in a very woody dark forest.

So when working on a global business ground, you really need to be creative to be able to communicate with a person who comes from a different background.

And I think one of the serious problems that field workers face is that they cannot communicate with the corporate executives who do not have any field experiences.

It is a wonderful thing that you notice about something that nobody had noticed and come up with an inspiration that nobody had came up with.

However, if you end up with just noticing or coming up with an inspiration, it is same as not doing anything. The most difficult and important thing is that you truly “Realize” those things that you noticed and inspired.

To “Realize” is not just about executing an inspiration but to reach a result. Between the execution and realization, there is a great big difference.

Because, even though you put a lot of effort on the execution, if you don't reach a result, you will always come up with many excuses. And there will be no new findings during the process to “Realize”.

We humans are so cleaver to make many excuses. But instead of making an excuse, what I think is important is that even the smallest results should matter and being able to explain how you achieved that result worth much more and also beneficial to the others as well.

I believe that with an infinite repetition of “Notice, Inspire and Realize” the organization and people can truly grow in a “Spiral Up”.

Have you ever experience a moment that you can’t come up with any good idea while you sit by the desk facing a blank paper holding a pencil?

I don't know the reason why this is efficient for me because I am not a specialist on neuroscience neither on psychology, but from my experience I tend to come up with a better idea while I am asleep. So I intentionally set up a task before I sleep, and by the time I wake up I come up with a solution.

It seems to me that my brain is working while I am asleep too. The more I am relaxed than that does while I am awake, the brain might be functioning better in a different way.

There is an old saying in China described as “Mikami/San-xiau”.  “Mi” as “three” and “kami” as meaning “top, above”. It is said that there are three location or situation that make you inspire or make you come up with a good idea. That is when you are on top of a horse (riding), when you are on top of a mattress (sleeping) and when you are on top the toilet (…perhaps peacefully discharging the waste?!). The thing is that despite the fact that Chinese and Japanese are pronounced differently, when this saying is written with the Chinese character, it’s exactly the same as how it is written my last name “Mikami/San-xiau - Three UP”.

And therefore, from this pure “Mikami/San-xiau” coincidence I feel destine to be inspired and come up with more good ideas.

Did you notice that a male and a female voice differentiate the train station announcement between uptown and downtown train? Because I already had recognized this differentiation, I had an experience that I did not miss the train. Since then, I have been asking many people who were using the same train station if they noticed about this differentiation, but no one knew about it. 

In a daily life and at work, there are people who could discover the difference or not. And you may claim that those kinds of small details has no importance and can be ignored. But I truly believe that people who could discover those things will make a big difference in a whole life and work.

And then, how can we discover those things? Of course there might already be an individual difference at birth. But what I think most important is that we maintain  “curiosity” like a child, increase “sensitivity” about anything, and also have some “room” in your mind as well.     

Even though people are equally given 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, there are people who could discover various things or not.

Even though threre are people who could discover various things, there are people who could innovate wonderful ideas or not.

Even though people who could innovate wonderful ideas, there are people who could realize those wonderful ideas or not.

In the process of realizing wonderful ideas, people will discover new things and innovate new ideas. People will grow again and again (or grow constantly) by realizing those ideas.

People could spirally grow up by repeating “Discover, Innovate, and Realize”.

I believe that there will be a big difference in a life between those people who could spirally grow up or not.

Long time ago when I was working in the United States, some Americans came to the office early in the morning and they concentrate on work without taking lunch. And then they went home early in the afternoon to coach children’s football and baseball team in the neighborhood. They also were a kind of people who enjoyed yacht, golf or tennis with the neighbors or with their family.

At that time I strongly felt the difference between those Americans and the Japanese businessmen who would only work in the office and leave all the home issue to their wives. Even with medical advancement, it is still impossible to double the human lifetime. However, if you try to work and enjoy a private life for one day i.e. live two days for one day, it possible to double your lifetime. I thought that Americans were more rational, practical and has much more lust for life.

I was also asked by American friend that why Japanese people try to act the same way and at the same time with all the rest. In order to live efficiently and to enhance our life, we need to stop wasting time and save time for the better cause. So far such as traffic congestion, the long queue at lunch hour and traffic jam on the holiday are all time we waste. We also need to stop consuming time on perfunctory behind the negotiation scene and stop losing time on meetings that comes out with no conclusions.

A long time ago when I started my global business career, I told my American friend that Japanese businessmen were working very hard. They were working from early morning to midnight longer than the “7-eleven”(a convenience store). But he pointed out that maybe the way Japanese businessmen were working was inefficient.

So I reviewed my job style, and I changed to wake up early and took 6:00 a.m.　train to arrive at the office at 7 a.m. which is an hour and a half before the office opening. The setup of the day's work was that I finished most of the job in the first five hours and completed the rest of the over flowing job in the afternoon. Then I left the company at 6:00 p.m., to enjoy the dinner with my family at home.

During the rush hour in Tokyo, in the crowded train jam-packed, people are said to be worn out by the time they get to the office. But if you leave early in the morning, it is possible to sit and read the newspaper while you are riding the train. And later going back home in the early evening train was also less crowded then having to take one later, and it was much more comfortable so.

Because of the high population density in Tokyo, people need to live in the suburb and some people say that it is not easy because of the long distance commuting, such as the jam-packed rush-hour train and also a very long queue to eat lunch. But I think there is a way to enjoy a very comfortable life with a little ingenuity.

Ref. “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Benjamin Franklin (1706-90)

When I was in the third year of the junior high school, I competed in the high jump at the sports festival of Meguro-ku (ward). I was in basketball team for tree years but the track and field athletics was not my specialty. One week before the tournament, my teacher suggested me to try the high jump because he knew that I had a jump power.

My friends who belonged to the track and field athletic team showed me the technic of high jump such as rollover and belly roll, but I just jumped from the front like a jump for hurdles because it was the first time for me to try the high jump. I was chosen with a good luck as one of the athlete, to compete as a high jumper in the sports festival among the 12 junior high schools in the ward, which was held at the Komazawa Olympic stadium.

I remember that the day of the competition was a fine weather. I was in the field and felt very good mood seeing the cheerleaders using the color signs in the auditorium of the stadium. The game started and the jumpers of the other schools were clearing the bar with the great forms, and after I cleared the 1m60cm, I was waiting for the other jumpers but no one cleared it and I won.

I might have jumped more higher if other players could have cleared the 1m60cm, but I could not clear the higher bar because I lost my target and the other competitors. I also strongly realized at the practice that I could not jumped higher if there was not a bar. It made me think that we can demonstrate our abilities when we challenge to the target.

After starting my job career, I tried to challenge with a clear target when working. Once in October, I was given a mission to construct the global network within a three months period.

Everybody believed that it was impossible to complete the project within three months, but I set a clear target to be completed on the January 23 (namely 123) and I shared the target with all the team members and partners such as equipment vendors. As a result, I was able to complete the project and start the service on the January 23.

Later I heard this story, that the president of the equipment vendors was hitting the desk with a voice out loud saying “123, 123” to promote the project.

In another occasion, as a part of the global business expansion, I was given a mission to expand the business of the region. I set the target to triple the sales in three years. So I conducted myself the personal interviews with all local staff members and gave more responsibilities to them and we achieved three times sales and profitability in three years.

After successfully completing my mission, at my farewell party before returning to Japan, one of the local staff told me that nobody believed in a such an aggressive target to boost the sales three times in three years but at the end, I was able to achieve the target. So they asked me why I set up such an aggressive target and it was a great fun to explain why. Because of my name “Mikami” written in Japanese character mean “three times i.e. Three Up” if translated directly to English, and that is why I did so. 

When I got on the elevator at the Hotel in Hawaii, a gentle American couple greeted me with a smile, and I also greeted them with a smile and some words. Then they invited me to their suite room and I was treated by a very nice glass of wine.

I was just wondering whether it is common for American people to greet with a smile to the first met person, and asked about this to my American friend afterwards. He told me that a “greeting with a smile” is a kind of sign to show that they are not an “enemy” to the others and to protect them from the possibility of being attacked in a narrowelevator.

Some one told me that, “Greeting is one of the methods to express love to theothers”. As you all might have experienced, even in a family relationship, when there are no greetings such as “good morning” or “good night”, it could be a serious situation.

Because of my job assignment, I often changed my working environment, such as different offices and teams. And always, the first impression in the new office or to the new team member was very important to me. Sometimes, I joined a very dark and gloomy working environment and no one responded to me, even though I greeted them by saying “good morning”. In such a case, I tried to greet them with a smile and they gradually responded to me. But sometimes, there still were people who did not respond to me, so I walked closer to them and gazed into their eyes and greeted them with a smile, and then finally they responded to me.

I didn't know whether they were shy or just lazy to respond to me, but if one of the reasons was that they hated me, it could have been a serious problem so I needed to improve the relationship. When the working environment has changed to an environment that can exchange the “greeting with a smile”, the business performance of the team has increased. It might be too obvious that the business performance of the team will increase when there is a good human relationship between the team members and when they are enjoying their job.

And one might think that a mere greeting does not make that much difference, but please make an effort to greet by all means, if you are especially in an environment without greetings. I truly believe that many good things will surely happen, if you could change your environment by “greeting with a smile”.

August 6th is the atomic bomb anniversary of Hiroshima, and it is also my birthday. Since I was a child I have been challenging to do my best for the society like an atomic powered "Astro Boy" on behalf of those who were victims of atomic bomb.

Development of science and technology brings happiness and misfortune to the human beings. And I think that we cannot interfere with the progress of science and technology. Therefore, I strongly believe that it is very important to do our best efforts to utilize it for the human happiness.

When I was a university student, I had a part time job in the Tennis Club as a tennis coach assistant. One day, I drunk with my friends all through the night until the next morning and went to work at the tennis court with a gloomy face because of the bad health condition.

When the coach saw my face, he scolded me and said to me that I should not show my gloomy face that could make my customer feel bad, because I was earning money from them. He also said that whether you are feeling good or not, that's not issue, but it is worth more to make your customer feel good that's why you should smile even if it is a forced one.

Until that day, I used to be pointed out to be "a person of moods" but I couldn't understand what that meant. I might have being showing an awful gloomy face when I was feeling bad. I didn't know that my gloomy face was giving such big bad influences on the people around me. I didn't realize that “Bad feelings or atmosphere were proliferated by my gloomy face around me”

From that day on, I try to smile (even it is a forced one). Smile makes people healthy, and seeing smiling people make me healthy too. Even there is no one around me I found that I could be healthy by smiling.

The Old saying “Good fortune and happiness will come to the home of those who smile” sounds very obvious, but it is very important to understand that it doesn't mean just that “you are smiling because you are happy”, but rather “you will be happy because you smile”.

And it is easy or obvious to think that you are smiling because you are delighted or happy. However, I believe that it is very important to recognize that “you should smile when you are having a difficulty or a hard time”.

It is said that "Smile" is good for health to reduce too much stress. But it is also said that too little stress could be the trigger for Alzheimer disease. If you feel too little stress then you should set higher target and "Challenge" for it in order to increase good stress. By the combination of "Challenge And Smile", you can enjoy healthy and happy life. 

Let's enjoy our healthy and happy life together!!