Hirotaka Takeuchi is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where he currently teaches three second-year elective courses: Knowledge-based Strategy, Japan IXP, and Microeconomics of Competitiveness (which he co-teaches with University Professor Michael Porter). He received a BA from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and an MBA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Takeuchi's first faculty position at Harvard was in the Marketing Unit from 1976 to 1983 as an Assistant Professor and his second as a Visiting Professor teaching the Advanced Management Program in 1995-1996. Starting in 1983, he taught at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and served as the Founding Dean of its business school, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, from 1998 to 2010. Prior to his academic career, he worked at McCann-Erickson in Tokyo and San Francisco and at McKinsey & Company in Tokyo.
Hirotaka Takeuchi is a Professor of Management Practice in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where he currently teaches courses in the MBA and Executive Education programs. He received a BA from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and an MBA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Takeuchi's first faculty position at Harvard was in the Marketing Unit from 1976 to 1983. Starting in 1983, he taught at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and served as the Founding Dean of its business school from 1998 to 2010. He returned to Harvard Business School in 2010 and serves as the Faculty Chair for Japan. Prior to his academic career, he worked at McCann-Erickson in Tokyo and San Francisco and at McKinsey & Company in Tokyo.
Professor Takeuchi's research has focused on the knowledge creation process within organizations, the competitiveness of Japanese firms in global industries, and the link between strategy and innovation. He is the author or editor of 16 books, including The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation co-authored with Ikujiro Nonaka (which won the 1995 Best New Book of the Year Award in the business and management category from the Association of American Publishers), Can Japan Compete? co-authored with Michael Porter, and Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World's Best Manufacturer co-authored with Hitotsubashi professors Emi Osono and Norihiko Shimizu (which won the Best 30 Business Books by Soundview Executive Book Summaries in 2008). His recent Harvard Business Review articles are The Wise Leader (May 2011) and Embracing Agile (May 2016).
Professor Takeuchi serves as a member of the board of directors of Mitsui & Co, Daiwa Securities, and three start-up companies, all based in Japan. He is also a director/trustee of several non-profit organizations, including Japan Society of Boston, Nonaka Institute of Knowledge, Ark Hills Club, International Christian University, and HLAB. He is or has been an adviser to Fast Retailing, All Nippon Airways, NTT DoCoMo, World Economic Forum, Japan Association of Corporate Directors, Japan Football Association, among others. He has been a member of a number of committees and councils formed by government agencies in Japan, including the Cabinet Office; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and also a member of the editorial board of Japan Marketing Journal, Journal of Knowledge Management, and Hitotsubashi Business Review.
Hiro and his wife Nobu have two children and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Strategy is about future creation. Firms differ not just because they have different value chains and activity systems or different resources and competencies, but because they envision different futures. They differ because people in charge of formulating and implementing strategy have their own visions of the firm's future, which are different from those of other firms. This paper provides a preview of the current thinking on the knowledge-based view of strategy. This view recognizes that an essential feature of strategy is to interpret the particular situation at hand and continuously create the future within the social context. The knowledge-based view of strategy differs from other schools of thought in strategy in its singular focus on knowledge as the driver of strategy. This paper analyses how the knowledge-based view of strategy complements the traditional schools of strategy by injecting new thinking along these three dimensions: putting humans at the center of strategy, treating strategy as a dynamic process, and having a social agenda.
In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global organizations that operate effortlessly across borders. And they find it tough to ensure that their people adhere to values and ethics. The world needs leaders who pursue the common good by striving to create social as well as economic value and who pair micromanagement with big-picture aspirations about the future. The authors, who have studied, taught, and interviewed executives in some of the world's leading companies, assert that such leaders must acquire practical wisdom, or what Aristotle called phronesis: experiential knowledge that enables people to make ethically sound judgments. Wise leaders demonstrate six abilities. They make decisions on the basis of what is good for the organization and for society. They quickly grasp the essence of a situation and fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events. They provide contexts in which executives and employees can interact to create new meaning. Phronetic leaders use metaphors and stories to convert their experience into tacit knowledge that others can use. They exert political power to bring people together and spur them to act. And wise leaders use apprenticeship and mentoring to cultivate practical wisdom in others.
Paul S. Adler, Mary Benner, David James Brunner, John Paul MacDuffie, Emi Osono, Bradley R. Staats, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Michael Tushman and Sidney G. Winter
For more than a century, operations researchers have recognized that organizations can increase efficiency by adhering strictly to proven process templates, thereby rendering operations more stable and predictable. For several decades, researchers have also recognized that these efficiency gains can impose heavy costs. The capabilities that enable consistent execution can also hinder learning and innovation, leaving organizations rigid and inflexible. By optimizing their processes for efficiency in the short term, organizations become brittle. In the “Productivity Dilemma”, Abernathy conjectured that short-term efficiency and long-term adaptability are inherently incompatible. Organization theorists have conceptualized Abernathy's dilemma as the challenge of balancing exploitation and exploration. Exploitation leverages existing knowledge and capabilities, resulting in stable and efficient performance. Exploration creates new knowledge, enabling organizations to innovate and adapt to changing conditions. Enduring organizational performance requires ambidexterity, the ability to sustain both exploration and exploitation. Various techniques have been proposed for achieving ambidexterity, such as differentiated exploratory subunits and meta-routines that modify underlying processes. Ambidexterity requires operational processes that combine high levels of efficiency with the flexibility to evolve and improve over time. Thus, the perspectives of operations management are essential to understanding the mechanics of ambidexterity. Moreover, theories of ambidexterity raise important questions for operations management. This article synthesizes several recent perspectives on the dynamics of ambidexterity and the productivity dilemma.
Adler, Paul S., Mary Benner, David James Brunner, John Paul MacDuffie, Emi Osono, Bradley R. Staats, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Michael Tushman, and Sidney G. Winter. "Perspectives on the Productivity Dilemma." Journal of Operations Management 27, no. 2 (April 2009): 99–113.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Henkaku no Jidai ni okeru Back-to-Basics (Back-to-Basics in an Era of Change)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 100 (2006).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Michael E. Porter. "Freeing Oneself from Non-Differentiated Across-the-Board Competition." Japan Center for Economic Research Journal (2001).
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Conventional wisdom claims that Japan’s “economic miracle” stemmed from its unique model of government guidance and its revolutionary corporate management techniques. An in-depth study proves this seriously wrong. Rampant government intervention has caused more business failures than successes, and a fundamental cautiousness has led Japanese companies to ignore strategic thinking and shun risk. To pull out of its current slump, Japan must embrace competition, innovation, and bold leadership.
Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Kyousou no Rule wo Kaeru Shuhou to shite no Marketing (Marketing as a Tool to Change the Rules of Competition)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 67 (1998).
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Fujikawa, Yoshinori, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. "Shinseihin no Yosougai no Seikou ga motarasu Kyousou Yuui (Competitive Advantage Arising from the Unexpected Success of New Products)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 54 (1994).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Emi Osono. "Re-engineering: Seikou no Kagi wa Marketing ni ari (Re-engineering: The Key to Success Lies in Marketing)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 51 (1993).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Yoshinori Fujikawa. "Shouhin Shiborikomi Genshou ni Miru Nihon Kigyou no Senryaku Kadai (Strategic Issues of Japanese Firms as Evidenced in the Pruning-of-the-Product Phenomena)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 46 (1992).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "2000-nen no Global Marketing: Motomerareru Paradox no Taigen (Global Marketing in the Year 2000: the Need to Embody Paradox)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 43 (1992).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Kei-haku-tan-shou Shouhin no Kaihatsu: Global Shijou deno Nihon Kigyou no Kyousou Yuuisei (Development of Light-Thin-Short-Small Products: Competitive Advantage of Japanese Firms in the Global Market)." Māketingu jānaru [Japan Marketing Journal], no. 40 (1991).
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Global Seihin Kaihatsu ni okeru Kyousou Yuii no Senryaku (Strategy for Gaining Competitive Advantage in Global Product Development)." Hitotsubashi University Annual Research Journal: Commerce and Management (April 1987).
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Takeuchi, H., and J. Quelch. "Quality Is More than Making a Good Product."Harvard Business Review 61, no. 4 (July–August 1983): l39–l45. (Reprinted in Thomas V. Bonoma, ed., Implementing Marketing Strategies: Part II, Harvard Business Review no. l4072, pp. 77-86.)
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Hirotaka Takeuchi, Georg von Krogh, Kimio Kase and Cesar Gonzalez Canton
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, Georg von Krogh, Kimio Kase, and Cesar Gonzalez Canton. "Scholarship with Wisdom: An Introduction." Introduction to Towards Organizational Knowledge: The Pioneering Work of Ikujiro Nonaka, edited by Georg von Krogh, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Kimio Kase, and Cesar Gonzalez Canton, 1–14. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Global Shinjidai no Kachi Souzou (Value Creation during a Global Era)." In Keiei no Ryugi (The Management Ritual), edited by Mitsuaki Shimaguchi and Hirotaka Takeuchi. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbun Publishing, 2010, Japanese ed.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Maintaining Competitiveness." In Global Future: The Next Challenge for Asian Business, edited by Arnoud de Meyer. Asia: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "The Globalization of Markets' Revisited: Japan After Twenty Years." In The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders, edited by John A. Quelch and Rohit Deshpandé. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Knowledge Creation within a Dialectic Organization ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. "Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. "Rugby Houshiki ni yoru Shin-Seihin Kaihatsu Kyousou (New Product Development Competition Using the Rugby Method)." In Marketing Kakushin no Jidai 2: Seihin Kaihatsu Kakushin (The Age of Marketing Innovation 2: Product Development Innovation), by Mitsuaki Shimaguchi, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Hotaka Katahira, and Junzou Ishii. Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1999, Japanese ed.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Nihon Kigyou no Shin-Seihin Kaihatsu ni okeru Gojuu-nen no Hensen (50-Year History of How New Product Development Changed within Japanese Companies)." In Marketing Kakushin no Jidai 2: Seihin Kaihatsu Kakushin (The Age of Marketing Innovation 2: Product Development Innovation), by Mitsuaki Shimaguchi, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Hotaka Katahira, and Junzou Ishii. Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1999, Japanese ed.
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Akutsu, Satoshi, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. "Sengo Sewing Machine Gyoukai no Hatten to Seifu no Yakuwari (The Development of the Post-War Sewing Machine Industry and the Role of Government)." In Marketing Kakushin no Jidai 2: Seihin Kaihatsu Kakushin (The Age of Marketing Innovation 2: Product Development Innovation), by Mitsuaki Shimaguchi, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Hotaka Katahira, and Junzou Ishii. Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1999, Japanese ed.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Shouhin Kaihatsu ni okeru Miniaturization Senryaku (Miniaturization Strategy for Product Development)." In Marketing Kakushin no Jidai 2: Seihin Kaihatsu Kakushin (The Age of Marketing Innovation 2: Product Development Innovation), by Mitsuaki Shimaguchi, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Hotaka Katahira, and Junzou Ishii. Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1999, Japanese ed.
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Nonaka, Ikujiro, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. "A Theory of the Firm's Knowledge-Creation Dynamics." In The Dynamic Firm, edited by Alfred D. Chandler Jr., Peter Hagstrom, and Orjan Solvell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. "Seihin Kaihatsu Process no Management (Management of the Product Development Process)." In Nihon no Kigyou System 2: Shoshiki to Senryaku (Japanese Corporate System 2: Organization and Strategy). Yuuhikaku, 1993, Japanese ed.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Michael E. Porter. "Kokusai Marketing to Kyousou Senryaku (International Marketing and Competitive Strategy)." In Nihon no Kigyou System 2: Soshiki to Senryaku (Japanese Corporate System 2: Organization and Strategy), edited by Hiroyuki Itami, Tadao Kagono, and Motoshige Ito. Bungei Shunjau, 1993, Japanese ed.
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Tichy, Noel M., Michael I. Brimm, Ram Charan, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. "Leadership Development as a Lever for Global Transformation." In Globalizing Management: Creating and Leading the Competitive Organization. John Wiley & Sons, 1992.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Michael E. Porter. "Three Roles of International Marketing in Global Strategy." In Competition in Global Industries, edited by M. E. Porter. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. "Seihin Kaihatsu ni okeru Senryaku to Soshiki (Strategy and Organization for Product Development)." In Innovation to Soshiki (Innovation and Organization). Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha, 1986, Japanese ed.
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Imai, Ken-ichi, Ikujiro Nonaka, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. "Managing the New Product Development Process: How Japanese Companies Learn and Unlearn." In The Uneasy Alliance: Managing the Productivity-Technology Dilemma, edited by R. Hayes, K. Clark, and C. Lorenz. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1985.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "America de Naze 'Gorin no Sho' go Yomarete iruka (Why 'The Book of Five Rings' Is Read in America)." In Gorin no Sho no Yomikata (Interpreting The Book of Five Rings). Goma Shobō, 1982, Japanese ed.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Productivity Measurement at the Level of the Firm: An Application within the Service Industry." In Productivity Analysis at the Firm Level, edited by Ali Dogramaci and Nabil R. Adam. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1981.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, Bunsho Kure, Andrew Levine, Andrew Park, Bria Selhorst, and Adelyn Zhou. "The Great East Japan Earthquake (K): Oh!Guts!'s Recovery Efforts." Harvard Business School Supplement 716-479, June 2016.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, Akio Yonekura, Jonathan Bassani, Chris Harreld, Alan Zong, and Victor Stone. "The Great East Japan Earthquake (J): You Home Clinic's Recovery Efforts." Harvard Business School Supplement 716-478, June 2016.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Victor Stone. "The Miracle of Japan Airlines." Harvard Business School Case 713-521, April 2013. (Revised April 2014.)
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Hirotaka Takeuchi, Leonard Kosinski, Christina Royce, Anna Stetsovskaya and Evgeny Vasilyev
CEO Kikawa of Yamato Transport gave orders to his managers right after the triple disaster hit the Tohoku region of Japan to do whatever it takes to save lives and not to worry about costs. He also felt that he had to confront the government to make donations to the affected district tax-free. He also wanted to donate 10 yen per Takkyubin package the company was delivering as relief money for Tohoku but was wondering how the shareholders would react to this proposal.
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Victor Stone, Samer Abughannam, Sebastien D'Incau, Jonathan Driscoll, Katharine Hill and Jeffrey Reynolds
CEO Niinami Takeshi (HBS '91) stared out his corner office window as the Tokyo skyscrapers swayed and the concrete trembled. He was in the midst of the largest seismic event to hit Japan in recorded history. Lawson's managers understood earthquake response. They had prior experience from the earthquakes in Kobe (1995), and Chuetsu (2007).
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Yukiko Sakai, Rebecca Agonafir, Peter Cholewinski, Allison Kean and Emily Kloeblen
On the evening of March 11, 2011, Mayama Fumihiro, the Managing Director of Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital knew that it would be a long, cold night. The 103 staff members and 162 patients and families were huddled on the top two floors of the four-story hospital, where they had gone to escape three tsunami waves that had destroyed the first floor and part of the second floor.
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Kenichi Nonomura, Dena Neuenschwander, Meghan Ricci, David Roth, Kate Schoch and Sergey Vartanov
A few hours after the earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, CEO Tadashi Yanai of Fast Retailing was eating sushi at a restaurant near his office. He was confident that his store managers would be able to decide for themselves the best action to take in the midst of this crisis. Some of the pending decisions were whether or not to reopen the UNIQLO stores that were wiped out by the tsunami, to follow government orders to turn off the store lights, and to distribute warm clothing in the devastated areas.
At 2:46pm on March 11th, 2011, a 9.0M earthquake shook the Tohoku (Northeastern) region of Japan. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the coastal waters of Tohoku and reverberations from the quake triggered a tsunami that ravaged the coastal shores of Eastern Japan. The tsunami was the greatest recorded wave in history, with its highest peak at 38.9m and waves higher than 10m hitting 530km of coastal Japan.
Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Victor Stone. "Steve Jobs as a Wise Leader." Harvard Business School Compilation 712-479, April 2012. (Revised April 2015.)
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On January 1, 2011, Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Fast Retailing Group (FR), sent his annual New Year's message to everyone in the company. The message, entitled "Change or Die," declared that FR - which included UNIQLO, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam and others within the group - would become the No. 1 apparel company in the world.
ASAHI Net developed a cloud-based platform for higher education institutions to use in Japan and was wondering if that platform could be accepted in the U.S. as well.
Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Yoshinori Fujikawa. "Kumon India in 2007." Harvard Business School Case 711-459, April 2011. (Revised January 2012.)
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Yoshinori Fujikawa. "BOOKOFF Corporation in 2006." Harvard Business School Case 711-454, March 2011. (Revised April 2011.)
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Shimano: The Intel of the Bicycle Business." Harvard Business School Case 711-460, April 2011.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Seven-Eleven Japan: The Tanpin Kanri Retail Practice." Harvard Business School Case 711-501, March 2011.
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Takeuchi, Hirotaka, Ikujiro Nonaka, and Dai Senoo. "Seven-Eleven Japan: Knowledge Creation and Sharing." Harvard Business School Supplement 711-465, March 2011.
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Focuses on the problem of the means by which a manufacturer controls its channel of distribution. U.S. Pioneer's retail outlets have turned "dissident" and management has to decide what tactics to employ to stop further erosion (short-run) and what long-run distribution channel to pursue. Software for this case is available (9-588-546).
L.L. Bean, Inc., a Maine-based manufacturer and mail-order retailer of sporting goods and apparel, has grown from $3 million in sales (1967) to over $120 million (1980). Current projections predict an annual compounded growth of 25% through 1985. Management must decide how to achieve this growth: through mail order, by opening more retail stores, by increasing manufacturing operations, or by going international. In managing growth, the company president is determined to maintain the highly personal service, excellent product quality, and friendly, informal working environment which he considers key to the company's popularity with customers and employees.
Provides students with an in-depth understanding of the channel decision from the manufacturer's point of view. The two issues addressed in the note are selection of channel design and channel management.
Dunkin' Donuts franchises and operates retail donut shops for take-home and in-shop consumption. Looks at three growth alternatives: 1) More shops (owned or franchised); 2) A broader product line; and 3) More advertising. Raises important issues related to franchise relations. A merger of Dunkin' Donuts (A) and (B).
