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A CRASH COURSE IN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION MEANS LEADERSHIP SKILLS, FUN
The Daily Yomiuri(Tokyo)
November 13, 2012 Tuesday
Kimiyasu Ishizuka, Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer, Yomiuri
This is a translation from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Education Renaissance
series. The article focuses on educational programs designed to
produce personnel--mainly businesspeople--who have what it takes to
play a leadership role in international environments.
"Laugh!" shouted a foreign instructor, instructing fixed pairs of
participants in a leadership development course to lift their hands
to meet those of their partners, moving their upper bodies up and
down or in a circle.
This was an exercise to practice making friends through face-to-face
communication, and a scene from the training program that teaches
employees how to train junior staff.
The Global Leadership Studies program was held from July 9 to July
28 at the International Christian University (ICU) in Mitaka, western
Tokyo, to develop internationally minded company executives. Nineteen
people in their 20s to 40s took this year's course, the second
iteration of the program that was launched last year. The participants
of the 2012 class were employees from 17 major companies, including
an auto maker and an insurance firm.
During the intensive three-week course, the pupils took classes
conducted entirely in English--including lectures given by
world-renowned business managers and classes in cultural issues,
chemical experiments and other liberal arts. They stayed in a dormitory
on the university's campus.
Even at night at the dormitory, they gathered in groups of four or
five, busy discussing their ideas for new business plans that could
be carried out by a fictional company as a course project. On the last
day of the course, each group delivered a presentation on its plan.
One of the groups was led by Takako Sato, a departmental sales manager
of financial and global business services at IBM. Her group's plan
was to run nursery schools in Japan in alliance with nonprofit
organizations based in developing countries.
After the presentation, Sato said, "We didn't win [the business
planning contest], but we worked together by leveraging each other's
strengths in the activities.
"When we didn't have a meeting to prepare for the presentation,
we had casual drinking sessions and lively conversations about our
own workplaces."
GLS founder is Prof. Grant Pogosyan of ICU. The 59-year-old Armenian
mathematician says that employees' perspectives often become narrow
after working at the same company for a long time. Pogosyan says
his program will help them to think more flexibly by giving them
the opportunity to interact with those working for other companies
in different fields. This is important for them to gain leadership
skills, he said.
The course fee is 1.23 million yen, but it is popular among companies
as they find it cheaper than the cost of dispatching an employee
overseas for an educational program.
In 2008 the University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, launched a
similar program called the Executive Management Program to cultivate
the next generation of leaders.
In the six-month course, lectures are given every Friday and Saturday
by Todai professors and lecturers from external institutions.
Participants acquire business management know-how, but the course
also puts a strong emphasis on the liberal arts--as does ICU's program.
About 70 percent of the curriculum of the Executive Management
Program focuses on such liberal arts as philosophy, space science
and brain science.
As the course fee is 6 million yen, many of the course participants are
sent by companies. On Sept. 15, 21 people completed its 7th iteration,
bringing the total number of program graduates to 173.
Keio University offers three-month courses in which working adults and
students, including those from other universities, study and discuss
topics in liberal arts and business. The programs are part of a program
run under the name of Fukuzawa Yukichi Kinen Bunmeijuku--or literally,
"The Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Cram School of Civilization."
About 50 people enroll in each course, and about 40 percent of them
are working adults. Course participants are required to pay a 35,000
yen fee to cover operating costs, but the courses themselves are free.
The current, 8th iteration of the program started Sept. 22.
It is expected that going back to university will foster human
resources who will become internationally competitive in their
respective business fields.
The Daily Yomiuri(Tokyo)
November 13, 2012 Tuesday
Kimiyasu Ishizuka, Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer, Yomiuri
This is a translation from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Education Renaissance
series. The article focuses on educational programs designed to
produce personnel--mainly businesspeople--who have what it takes to
play a leadership role in international environments.
"Laugh!" shouted a foreign instructor, instructing fixed pairs of
participants in a leadership development course to lift their hands
to meet those of their partners, moving their upper bodies up and
down or in a circle.
This was an exercise to practice making friends through face-to-face
communication, and a scene from the training program that teaches
employees how to train junior staff.
The Global Leadership Studies program was held from July 9 to July
28 at the International Christian University (ICU) in Mitaka, western
Tokyo, to develop internationally minded company executives. Nineteen
people in their 20s to 40s took this year's course, the second
iteration of the program that was launched last year. The participants
of the 2012 class were employees from 17 major companies, including
an auto maker and an insurance firm.
During the intensive three-week course, the pupils took classes
conducted entirely in English--including lectures given by
world-renowned business managers and classes in cultural issues,
chemical experiments and other liberal arts. They stayed in a dormitory
on the university's campus.
Even at night at the dormitory, they gathered in groups of four or
five, busy discussing their ideas for new business plans that could
be carried out by a fictional company as a course project. On the last
day of the course, each group delivered a presentation on its plan.
One of the groups was led by Takako Sato, a departmental sales manager
of financial and global business services at IBM. Her group's plan
was to run nursery schools in Japan in alliance with nonprofit
organizations based in developing countries.
After the presentation, Sato said, "We didn't win [the business
planning contest], but we worked together by leveraging each other's
strengths in the activities.
"When we didn't have a meeting to prepare for the presentation,
we had casual drinking sessions and lively conversations about our
own workplaces."
GLS founder is Prof. Grant Pogosyan of ICU. The 59-year-old Armenian
mathematician says that employees' perspectives often become narrow
after working at the same company for a long time. Pogosyan says
his program will help them to think more flexibly by giving them
the opportunity to interact with those working for other companies
in different fields. This is important for them to gain leadership
skills, he said.
The course fee is 1.23 million yen, but it is popular among companies
as they find it cheaper than the cost of dispatching an employee
overseas for an educational program.
In 2008 the University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, launched a
similar program called the Executive Management Program to cultivate
the next generation of leaders.
In the six-month course, lectures are given every Friday and Saturday
by Todai professors and lecturers from external institutions.
Participants acquire business management know-how, but the course
also puts a strong emphasis on the liberal arts--as does ICU's program.
About 70 percent of the curriculum of the Executive Management
Program focuses on such liberal arts as philosophy, space science
and brain science.
As the course fee is 6 million yen, many of the course participants are
sent by companies. On Sept. 15, 21 people completed its 7th iteration,
bringing the total number of program graduates to 173.
Keio University offers three-month courses in which working adults and
students, including those from other universities, study and discuss
topics in liberal arts and business. The programs are part of a program
run under the name of Fukuzawa Yukichi Kinen Bunmeijuku--or literally,
"The Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Cram School of Civilization."
About 50 people enroll in each course, and about 40 percent of them
are working adults. Course participants are required to pay a 35,000
yen fee to cover operating costs, but the courses themselves are free.
The current, 8th iteration of the program started Sept. 22.
It is expected that going back to university will foster human
resources who will become internationally competitive in their
respective business fields.