The Harvard Business School Japan Research Center (JRC) opened in January 2002. Located in Tokyo, its primary purpose is to support HBS faculty research and case-writing activities in Japan. JRC plays an important role in helping HBS advance its activities. Through its work in Japan, facilitated by the JRC, HBS strives to deepen faculty's understanding of and exposure to Japanese management issues, trends, and practices, as well as developing locally relevant case studies and course materials for use in MBA and Executive Education programs around the world. The School is heavily involved in strengthening ties with important constituencies in Japan (including companies, universities, government, and HBS alumni) - these relationships are critical to ensuring that the School's efforts have an impact. The work of the JRC has enabled the School's faculty to identify and study important management advancements in Japan, or develop and test their ideas within a Japanese framework.
Japanese Version
Newsletter No. 14 October 2009
Summary of activities during the first half of 2009
In
August, Nobuo Sato became a new Executive Director of Harvard Business School's Japan Research Center. He joins the JRC from Egon Zehnder International, a leading retained executive search firm where he oversaw all executive searches in the financial sector as Partner. Prior to Egon Zehnder, Sato had a 15-year career in banking at Industrial Bank of Japan (currently Mizuho Corporate Bank). At IBJ, he worked in London for six years as a fund manager. Sato is a graduate of Keio University (BA in Economics 1978) and Harvard Business School (MBA 1982).
Cases
Nippon
Steel Corporation Srikant Datar (Accounting and Management)
Japan's largest steel producer faces challenges in pursuing strategy to become a true global player. Nippon Steel had long been a leading Japanese company, however the emergence of a global player, Arcelor-Mittal, prompted globalization of the steel industry. The company feels an urgent need to also globalize its operations by not just increasing overseas production but also making necessary changes to the company structure.
Kinyuseisaku:
Monetary Policy in Japan (B) Laura Alfaro (BGIE)
The
case was prepared to supplement the case Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan, prepared in 2008. At the start of 2009, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, faced a dire situation. The prospect of the Japanese economy looked grim as the global recession triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown had negatively impacted the country. The deterioration of exporting companies had led to increasing unemployment and further economic slowdown. The BOJ needed to consider implementing unconventional monetary measures, such as outright purchases of commercial papers and government bonds, in addition to further rate cuts.
Consumer
Lending in Japan: Citi CFJ (A) & (B) Gunnar Trumbull (BGIE)
Despite
a tradition of high household savings, Japan has supported a dynamic and technically sophisticated consumer lending sector. The high profitability of the sector has periodically attracted interest from domestic banks as well as international investors. Most recently, in 1998 and 2000 respectively, GE Capital and Citi Financial both acquired Japanese consumer lending companies. In 2006, when the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that one of the leading Japanese consumer lenders must repay a borrower for "excess interest payments," this led to a surge in interest repayment claims against consumer loan companies. Citi CFJ (Citi Financial's Japanese subsidiary) must decide how to respond.
Yataro
Iwasaki: Founding Mitsubishi Geoffrey Jones (Entrepreneurial Management)
This
case illustrates the entrepreneurial carrier of the founder of Mitsubishi, Yataro Iwasaki, who built a large shipping company against the opposition of powerful Western incumbents and launched various businesses which later became a foundation of Mitsubishi Group. The case provides a vehicle for examining the entrepreneurial factors behind Japan's remarkable transition from a feudal to a modern society in the second half of the nineteenth century. The following (B) case describes how NYK (a shipping business, separate to the Mitsubishi Group) and Mitsubishi Group were developed after the Yataro's death. The case is used in the course titled "Building Modern Capitalism."
Consumer
Payment Systems - Japan
Benjamin
Edelman (Negotiation, Organizations & Markets) and Andrei Hagiu (Strategy)
In 2008, the Japanese consumer payments landscape was characterized by widespread use of cash, limited use of credit cards, and rapid rise of e-money systems based on contactless technology embedded in cards and mobile phones. Another case, "Consumer Payment Systems - US" has been developed and the two cases are used in the course "Managing Networked Businesses."
TOTO:
The Bottom Line Mary Tripsas (Entrepreneurial Management)
TOTO,
the leading manufacturer of toilets in Japan, is struggling to penetrate the US market with its premier bidet-toilets, which are present in 63% of homes in Japan. The case examines the behavioral, cultural, and institutional barriers that TOTO faces in gaining adoption of an innovation. It also explores the role of product categorization in driving consumer behavior - in contrast to the US, toilets in Japan are considered a high-tech consumer electronic device. Finally, the role of organizational identity and culture is examined. The creation of the bidet-toilet category in Japan was a defining accomplishment for TOTO, and this history has created a strong commitment to promoting it in the US. But given that TOTO has been highly successful selling regular high-end toilets in the US, is
this commitment to the bidet-toilet appropriate?
HOYA Carl
Kester (Finance)
In
2007, HOYA of Japan must decide whether to change its friendly offer for Pentax into a hostile cash tender offer. A surprising sequence of events had caused a friendly merger agreement to fall apart, resulting in a boardroom coup at Pentax and the intervention of the Sparx Group, an indigenous activist Japanese hedge fund. The case raises issues about corporate valuation, corporate governance, shareholder activism, takeover deal tactics, and the Japanese market for corporate control.
Aderans
Rakesh Khurana (Organizational Behavior) and Robin Greenwood (Finance)
Steel
Partners is a U.S.-based hedge fund that has made a large investment in Japan-based wigmaker Aderans. The case is set at the close of the annual meeting in May 2008, when shareholders have voted against all incumbent board members. Steel Partners must act quickly. The case serves as an overview of corporate governance issues in Japan, as well as describing the costs and benefits of the "stakeholder" view of corporate governance.
Visitors from Boston
During
the first half of 2009, the following professors visited Tokyo to engage in research and case development.
| [Faculty] |
[Project] |
|
・Robert
Eccles (Organizational Behavior) |
Corporate
environmental management (case) |
|
・Zeynep
Ton (Technology and Operations Management) |
Japanese
convenience store goes global (case)
Store
operations in the retail industry (research)
|
|
・Fritz
Foley (Finance) |
M&A
in the financial industry (case) |
|
・Jordan
Siegel (Strategy) |
Pharmaceutical
firm's hiring policy (case) |
Linda Hill (Organizational Behavior) gave a presentation under the title of "Where Will We Find Tomorrow's Leaders?" at the Speaker Program of HBS Club of Japan on April 7.
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