Hirotaka Takeuchi

Hirotaka Takeuchi

Senior Fellow

Senior Fellow

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.
Strategy
+1 (617) 495-5486
Send Email
 
Hirotaka Takeuchi
Unit
Contact Information
(617) 495-5486
Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors

Journal Articles
Journal Articles

Book Chapters
Book Chapters

  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Creating the Dynamics of Hard-to-Imitate Innovation." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Interorganizational Knowledge Creation at Shimano." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "The New Dynamism of the Knowledge-Creating Company." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "The Competitiveness of Japanese Industries and Firms." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Maintaining Competitiveness." In Global Future: The Next Challenge for Asian Business, edited by Arnoud de Meyer. Asia: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Knowledge Creation and Dialectics ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Knowledge Creation within a Dialectic Organization ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials
Cases and Teaching Materials

Book
Book

All Publications

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 17 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, 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 "Sound Executive Book Summaries in 2008), and The Wise Company co-authored with Ikujiro Nonaka (2018). His recent co-authored articles include The Wise Leader (May 2011 HBR), Embracing Agile (May 2016 HBR), Humanizing Strategy (forthcoming Long Range Planning), and Strategy as a Way of Life (forthcoming MIT Sloan Management Review).

Professor Takeuchi serves as a member of the board of directors of Daiwa Securities, three start-up companies, all based in Japan. He is also a director/trustee of several non-profit organizations, including International Christian University (where he serves as Chair, Board of Trustees), Japan Society of Boston, Nonaka Institute of Knowledge, Ark Hills Club, Global Treehouse, and HLAB. He is or has been an adviser to ORIX, 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.

Journal Articles
Book Chapters
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Creating the Dynamics of Hard-to-Imitate Innovation." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Interorganizational Knowledge Creation at Shimano." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "The New Dynamism of the Knowledge-Creating Company." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "The Competitiveness of Japanese Industries and Firms." In Japan Moving Toward a More Advanced Knowledge Economy: Advanced Knowledge—Creating Companies, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Tsutomu Shibata. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Institute (WBI), 2006. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Maintaining Competitiveness." In Global Future: The Next Challenge for Asian Business, edited by Arnoud de Meyer. Asia: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Knowledge Creation and Dialectics ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. View Details
  • Takeuchi, Hirotaka. "Knowledge Creation within a Dialectic Organization ." In Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
  • 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. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
Book
Research Summary
Fast Retailing

I am conducting research on Fast Retailing, which is  a holding company in Japan best know for its UNIQLO and THEORY brands.  The company is going global in a big way and wants to be the No. 1 apparel company in the world, surpassing H&M, Zara, and GAP by 2020.  Right now, only 10% of its sales come from outside of Japan but the plan is to have 80% of its sales come from outside of Japan, with the U.S. and China being the largest growth market for UNIQLO. It created FRMIC (FR Management and Innovaiton Center) to develop 200 global managers from around the world.

Toyota

I have started a research project with Toyota on "What went wrong with Toyota and how should Toyota change?" It is a sequel to the six-year research we conducted in writing a book I co-authored two years ago - "Extreme Toyota: The Contradictions That Drive the World's Best Manufacturer." This time, we have the go-ahead from President Akio Toyoda himself.

Practical Wisdom

I am writing a book with Ikujiro Nonaka that will build on "The Wise Leader" article we published in the May 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.  It will be a sequel to "The Knowledge - Creating Company" book we wrote in 1995.  We will put more emphasis in our new book on practical wisdom, or what Aristotle called phronesis: experiential knowledge that enables people to make ethically sound judgment.

Awards & Honors
Selected as an AIB (Academy of International Business) Fellow in 2013 in recognition of contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business.
Winner of the 2012 Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching for his role in developing the Harvard Business School IXP (Immersion Experience Program) Course in Japan.
Additional Information
Additional Information