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Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific

Marking Ten-Year Connection with Japanese Earthquake Region

 
Pictured: Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi hosted a virtual gathering in March to mark the 10th anniversary of the Immersive Field Course in Japan.
A decade ago, a group of 22 MBA students from Japan asked Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi to lead a service-oriented learning trip to Tōhoku, a region devastated by the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear explosion. It launched what would become an annual Immersive Field Course (IFC) in Japan. When the course couldn’t be offered in 2021 due to the pandemic, Takeuchi and the Japan Research Center (JRC) hosted a virtual reunion in March to mark the 10th anniversary of the course.
Pictured: Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi hosted a virtual gathering in March to mark the 10th anniversary of the Immersive Field Course in Japan.

The gathering drew about 130 attendees, including 60 alumni who participated in the course as students and Tōhoku-based project partners. The Tōhoku region had just experienced yet another major earthquake in February that caused injuries, landslides, power and transportation outages, and $1.3 billion in damages.

Takeuchi says, “our plans for a joyful celebration of Tōhoku’s rise from the 2011 disaster” shifted to a show of gratitude and continued support for local civic and business partners and others who have worked with the HBS course over the years. “We wanted them to know we have not forgotten them.”

“The disaster took away so many things from us, but our ties to HBS students—future leaders of the world—have planted seeds of recovery. I hope we can stay connected to them as we work to open up the future together.”
Yoshiaki Suda
Mayor, Onagawa Town
“The disaster took away so many things from us, but our ties to HBS students—future leaders of the world—have planted seeds of recovery. I hope we can stay connected to them as we work to open up the future together.”
Yoshiaki Suda
Mayor, Onagawa Town

Hands-On Learning

Immersive Field Courses, offered for the first time in 2012, give second-year MBA students the opportunity to apply their learning hands-on with project partners across the globe for two weeks each January. Takeuchi’s decision to embark on the inaugural Japan trip involved a realistic assessment of both the logistical challenges and educational opportunities of the experience. But taking students to a disaster area entailed unprecedented planning.

“It was an amazing chance for students to test their management skills and pitch in on disaster cleanup—to both learn and grow as human beings,” he recalls. “But my first concern was how to keep everyone safe from radiation poisoning.”

With help from MIT Media Lab researchers, who devised a car-mounted Geiger counter to chart a safe zone where the group could travel and work, plans quickly progressed. “The JRC found businesses to partner with, and I reached out to CEOs I knew at companies such as Uniqlo (Fast Retailing), Lawson, Yamato Transport, and a hospital chain,” Takeuchi notes. “No one could believe Harvard students would travel 7,000 miles to help.”

Unforgettable Lessons
Since the Japan IFC started, more than 300 students have conducted volunteer work in the area (with small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local towns), garnering unforgettable lessons in crisis leadership, entrepreneurship, and economic revival. Some of their projects are documented in HBS cases written by Takeuchi in collaboration with students—such as Google Japan’s response and recovery efforts and a regional fishing cooperative’s plan to rebuild its decimated workforce.

Kenichi Nonomura (MBA 2012), who was on the first Tōhoku trip and attended the virtual reunion, contributed to the case study “The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response.” Reflecting on the experience, Nonomura, now managing director of IDEO Tokyo, notes, “The best cases capture decisions made by courageous people in times of trial. I believe Tōhoku’s continuing journey offers lessons leaders around the world can learn from and take to heart for years to come.”

Pictured: Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi hosted a virtual gathering in March to mark the 10th anniversary of the Immersive Field Course in Japan

Understanding Post-Pandemic Global Supply Chains

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As Professor Willy Shih discusses in a Harvard Business Review webinar, because of the central role many Chinese companies play in global supply chains, pandemic-imposed disruptions are being felt around the world. Shih addresses the challenges companies now face in making their global supply chains more resilient without weakening their competitiveness. He also advises that they look beyond just relocating supply toward harnessing process innovations and revisiting some of the trade-offs between product variety and flexibility.
→Harvard Business Review Webinar

Student Perspective on Entrepreneurial Journey

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Having worked in consulting and fintech, Peter Gumulia (MBA 2021) of Jakarta, Indonesia, chose to attend HBS to hone his leadership skills and explore new career possibilities. The School taught him to think innovatively about the one problem he wanted to help solve in the next decade—access to education. With support from the Harvard i-lab and Rock Center, Gumulia and cofounder Sean Widjaja created Edukita, an online English learning platform in his home country. “My goal is to upskill and empower young Indonesians, so that they are ready to participate in this increasingly global economy,” Gumulia says.
→MBA Perspectives Profile
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