General Management and Business Strategy AIBA, Koji

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1 General Management and Business Strategy AIBA, Koji This seminar (namely Zemi) has a number of peculiar characteristics. Aiba holds Zemi in three modes. One in English only (English Zemi) and another is in Japanese only (Japanese Zemi). The third is Joint Zemi, meaning all discussions are translated into both English and Japanese. English speaking students have to attend English Zemi and Joint Zemi. Those who want to learn Japanese are welcome to Japanese zemi as well. All Zemi members are expected to have interest in becoming a manager with a global perspective. The sessions in Project Research is expected to cover a wide area of issues using cases. It includes strategy issues, organizational issues, and marketing issues in order to develop general management capabilities. Advice on degree thesis will be done through thesis discussions in Zemi. It is advised that the thesis will deal with a company and the output to be pragmatic recommendations to the company, based on market/organizational research and application of management concepts. Generalizable implications will be extracted after the recommendation. Management Strategy and Industry Evolution ASABA, Shigeru The purpose of this seminar is to understand various economic and business phenomena by studying incumbent academic researches and analyzing cases and data of industries and firms, individually or by group. Level of analysis is either industry or firm because they are considered to co-evolve: A firm responds to the environment, interacts with other firms, and consequently, changes the environment. We analyze various phenomena which occur during this co-evolutionary process such as strategy (competitive and corporate) and organization of the firm, inter-firm competition and cooperation, structure and evolution of the industry (entry, growth, and exit of firms), competitive dynamics, technological innovation, and industry life cycle. Seminar participants can choose the topic of their research and degree thesis depending on their own interests and problems. As a degree thesis, neither proposal of business models and action plans without a theoretical base nor review of existing theories without an awareness of practical issues is favorable. Participants are expected to understand the business phenomena referring to the theories and frameworks learned in the other classes or to reconsider existing theories by analyzing cases and data. Organization and Information HIRANO, Masaaki The primary objective of this seminar is to equip the participants with the capability and insights to observe the organization, be it business, government, or non-profit, as the network of information flows and succession of decisions. Along with the understanding about organizational pitfalls in communication and decision-making, by the end of the program students are to be able to design (or improve) the organization in a fashion that its strategy is implemented effectively and operations are carried out efficiently. The term information management should be interpreted in the broadest sense to include not only IT, but also all the media of communication and decision-making.

2 Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Leadership HIGASHIDE,Hironori Currently, we are surrounded by highly unpredictable uncertainty and ambiguity and eventually entrepreneurial phenomena can be observed all around the world. If you are willing to become a highly successful and respected leader in the swiftly changing world, it is necessary for you to be able to think and act like an entrepreneur / entrepreneurial manager. One of the most important purposes of entrepreneurial behavior is to create something new from scratch. For this purpose, you must start making decisions, even from your early career path, so as to capture and realize opportunities. This process is quite different from the traditional manager s tasks including budgeting and administration, through which the institution aims at attaining the performance indicators set. The domain of Entrepreneurship is of the most multi-disciplinal in the management studies. Thus, during the seminar works, the participant is expected to find, within the domain, the topic you are most interested in, accumulate the latest academic and practical insights into the topic, and eventually generate findings beneficial for yourself, your colleagues and the society in the scientifically sound manner. Through this experience, you will become able to behave as the entrepreneurial leader creating new culture in the global field and become proud of yourself as a world-class Master s Please be confident of your entrepreneurial future together with your colleagues and me. Globalization and Business Leadership OHTAKI, Reiji Our Themes: We choose the following kind of practical business themes in our study: Globalization and Leadership of Top Management Development of Global Business Leaders Talent Management Strategy of Global Corporations Organization Strategy of Global Corporations Globalization Strategy for Service Business Our Policy: 1. English and Japanese are our common languages 2. Always look at the future and seek for solutions for the next generations 3. Value everyone s pro-activeness 4. Action first. We collect data and information with our own feet 5. Actively present our recommendations to our society Our Goal: To become a successful global business leader who plays an important and impactful role in the global corporations.

3 Organization Behavior TAKEUCHI, Norihiko This seminar aims to conduct both theoretical and empirical research on the management of organizations and human resources in firms based on the theoretical and conceptual understandings of Organizational Behavior, the area that is rapidly being developed in management studies across the globe. Originating from multi-disciplinary academic fields like psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc., organizational behavior has accumulated a considerable body of so-called evidence-based knowledge and theories that are greatly applicable to management practices in the real business world. This has been achieved by rigorous empirical examinations of theoretical models and hypotheses using objective data on personalities, values, attitudes, and behaviors that vary across individual, group, and organizational levels. Following this perspective, I expect prospective students of this seminar to pursue an evidence-based management in which business practitioners should rely more on scientific knowledge rather than on their own intuitive feelings or a sixth sense in making organizational decisions. Possible topics this seminar will deal with may include: 1. Employee motivation and the management/leadership that promotes its functions 2. Leader-member exchange relationships and their implications for group and organization management 3. Team building in work organizations and project teams 4. Employee socialization within organizations and retention management 5. Organizational culture and change: Creating/sustaining learning organizations 6. Matching human resource strategies with organizational structure and strategies Finally, members of this seminar are expected to conduct a quality empirical research in their master thesis projects. With such experiences, students should be able to develop KSAs that can solve organizational problems in a systematic/scientific manner. Global Marketing Innovation GROSSBERG,Kenneth Alan This project research aims to develop in participants: A core base of knowledge concerning global marketing innovation in a variety of industries and various regions A facility to apply and critique existing models and templates of global marketing and product innovation An ability to find and integrate a variety of sources of information (field study, library research, internet, and experiment) in order to create and substantiate a thesis which focuses on global marketing innovation in a specific industry or company.

4 Marketing Strategy NAGAI, Takeshi Competition rules have changed and a major paradigm shift is taking place not only in the marketing field, but also in the various fields. We are at a turning point of a strategic paradigm, and innovation in management process to improve customer satisfaction is required. Marketing is no longer a process for specific sections but must be considered as a larger business process which is a combination of corporate strategy, information strategy and management strategy. Research in marketing is first and foremost research of human that makes up the market (and firm), even though it is research of new product, new business development, brand, advertisement, distribution system, sales, information system, and such. In this seminar, students firstly examine corporate marketing then try to dig further into alternative plans for marketing strategy based on awareness of issues among large and mid-sized firms as well as venture firms, manufacturers and various service industries. Strategic Marketing and Management KIMURA, Tatsuya Students will not only learn basic theories of marketing through lectures and literature but also have the opportunity to take part in and conduct discussions among the peers, trying to find their own research topics for their individual thesis. Expected research areas of the project would be one of those such as marketing strategy, brand management, new product introduction strategy, service marketing, marketing organizations, customer relationship marketing, marketing communications, and internet marketing. Students will develop ideas and receive guidance in order to present a research plan in the first six months. I recommend students to pursue their research on the basis of fieldwork such as interviews and/or observations, or conduct quantitative surveys in addition to the theoretical review of the areas concerned. On the other hand, as a group project, students have been working on creating some of the business cases, which will be filed in the library in the institute if the cases are assessed to be qualified. Students start their projects with a thorough analysis of the specific products/services from marketing perspectives. Specifically, you will conduct analyses of competitive situations and customer environments based on interviews and/or intensive data analysis in order to find out the critical marketing issues facing the companies and develop marketing strategies to address them accordingly. After that, students will compile reports as casebooks.

5 Global Business Management HOHGI, Hideo Today, few businesses are not related to international economic activities directly or indirectly. This project research seminar is intended to study the essentials of managing manufacturing and distribution businesses in the rapidly changing global business environment. The students are expected to learn what have contributed to the success and failure of the actual corporate projects in the global business settings. The first half of this course puts focus on learning the basic knowledge and theories of global business management. The second half is mostly dedicated to enhance the quality of the individual student s project study through the field research, my seminar members discussion and my counseling. The wide range of project research thesis topics can be accepted, not necessarily limited to manufacturing and distribution, if they are dealt with from a global perspective. Each student is expected to contribute to the discussions on the other students thesis topics that are not necessarily connected to his or her own research theme. At least once a month, a joint seminar session will be held participated by foreign and Japanese students of my seminar to enhance the understanding of different cultures and to broaden the scope of thinking. Management Science FUJITA, Seiichi This seminar will focus on the qualitative and quantitative analyses to lead conclusions. In many cases, a research person sets up an assumption (or hypothesis), and examines the assumption by utilizing statistics data and/or business data such as sales data and financial statements. The seminar has an objective of cultivating the problem solving capability of students. As for the quantitative analyses, Principles of Profitability Analysis, revenue and const concept, evaluation of investment proposals, processing of statistical and/or business data, survey data analysis, and evaluation of management indices, etc are considered. For the qualitative analysis, essence of KAIZEN, logistics and SCM, business simulation, operational management, etc are considered. In the seminar activities, some of the topics will be selected based on background of seminar applicant, and the seminar will be conducted by group discussion. Dr. FUJITA has an Industrial & Systems Engineering background. He is now working on the spread of KAIZEN in the world. He also serves as a director of Logistic/SCM research group in WASEDA. The references of these activities are given below: KAIZEN: Logisitics: Managerial Economics MANO, Yoshiki Research on managerial activities in the sight of economics. Analytical points are 1) Micro and macro viewpoint, 2) Long and short term 3) National and international viewpoint. Additionally quantitative and qualitative analysis is important. The aim is a resolution of managerial problems by means of analytical methods in economics. In the first half, we study fundamental terms and quantitative analysis. In the second half, we study the specialized problems for individuals.

6 Corporate Value NISHIYAMA, Shigeru The main purpose of this seminar is for students to become MBA holders with a global perspective and strength in finance and accounting. There are various meanings behind the title "Corporate Value," and in order for firms to boost corporate value it is important that they build up competitive advantage from different perspectives. This seminar seeks to research the evaluation of corporate value and improvement methods from finance and accounting perspectives, and at the same time we will consider the link to different areas such as business strategy, marketing and human resource management so as to cultivate the ability to perceive management issues broadly. Anyone who is interested in research in finance and/or accounting is eligible for this seminar and no relevant business experience in those fields is required. Students are allowed to choose their research themes but topics related to finance and/or accounting is recommended. There will be great emphasis placed on communication between Japanese students and international students as a training to achieve global perspective. Nearly 50% of students who had completed this seminar did not have business experience in finance or accounting, and 30% chose thesis topics unrelated to finance and accounting. Financial Strategies and Capital Markets HIBARA, Nobuhiko This research seminar course provides an opportunity to understand stylized facts and related theories on financial strategies and capital markets and to empirically examine these issues, particularly in the contexts of the Japanese and Asian business and financial system. We will pay attention to related research fields such as strategies, HR, organization, etc. that investigate the Japanese and Asian management system, because financial strategies within a firm and towards financial institutions are somehow constrained by the other managerial issues. We are also interested in more recent hot issues occurring in global financial markets. Facebook s IPO has revealed many issues related to IPO markets. The current European financial crisis has influenced managerial decision-makings all over the world. There are now a strong global links between management and financial markets. Covered topics will vary. They may include internal capital markets, venture capital financing, IPO, M&A, corporate control and governance, global financial crises, and even more organizational issues. Participants will be required to have original research questions based on relevant theories and to empirically test them.

7 Managing Technology and Innovation in Japanese Firms OSANAI, Atsushi The theme for this seminar is "Research on how technology creates value and makes profit for firms based on theories of strategy and organization." In the seminar, students study basic prior research related to management of technology and innovation, while each student receives research guidance for every research topic they choose for their Master's thesis. This seminar is a methodology-oriented seminar in which students are required to do MOT research as business administration studies based on mutual problem recognition and strategic and organizational theory, but students are free to choose research topics for their Master's thesis that suit their personal and business interests (i.e. IT, automobile, industrial goods, food, apparel, publishing, service, etc) To explain further about problem recognition in the seminar, the assumption is that technological achievement doesn't necessarily lead to business performance. New technology gives competitive advantage to firms, but in order for firms to achieve business success they would need to transfer that technology into products and service that are of value to customers (value creation) and firms in turn would need to create profit that corresponds to the value that they provide (value capture). Take, for example, the situation of a rental video store that has replaced VHS tapes with DVDs because more consumers place higher value on DVDs. But the price of DVD players has dropped to one tenth of what it was when it first entered the market about 10 years ago, and many Japanese electric manufacturers who were leaders in the developmental stages are struggling among the heated value competition. Therefore conclusively we cannot say that capability for value creation equals capability for value capture. Also, if the value of a new product is one that can be measured in terms of efficiency such as a high speed-processing PC or low fuel consumption car, chances of technological achievement leading to a boost in customer value would be higher. But in cases where product originality such as design and operability plays a role in determining customer satisfaction, customer value would not necessarily increase. The reason that Walkman, which is said to have better sound quality than ipod as well as longer playing time, cannot beat ipod is due to these same factors. The research theme of this seminar is how to define value and what role technology plays in the value chain. Finally, this seminar will be held separately in Japanese and English but if possible I hope to get feedback from students and conduct a joint session once a month. **Topics and contents of seminars are subject to change