Harvard Business School , a world - renowned graduate school located in Boston , Massachusetts , in the US , began conducting a case study on Rakuten's Englishization policy in 2011 .
5 years later , hundreds of MBA programs , including MIT , now teach about Englishization .
This year , Mickey was invited by a Harvard professor to speak to first - year MBA students about Rakuten and share his motivations The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. .
There are few MBA case studies performed at Japanese companies .
They usually cover process reforms Improvements made to something , such as lean manufacturing and Kaizen .
It is very rare for a Japanese company to be raised as an example of how to manage large , sweeping Including or affecting many people or things changes , such as Rakuten's Englishization .
The internet is a global business .
Uh and uh you cannot just be domestic Relating to one's own country rather than foreign countries. .
And now , you know , we are in a living in a very dynamic Characterized by constant change industry .
We are seeing massive Very large in size change of of the society because of the smart intelligence .
Therefore , Rakuten needs to evolve To develop gradually over time .
And we need to hire the uh best and brightest Most intelligent or talented (used as a superlative). from all over the world .
Because of Englishization , we can hire engineers from Facebook , Google , and we can invest To use money to buy shares or property with the expectation of making a profit. in the depth in the Pinterest .
Uh now , we have our dev center in Kadavy .
Uh all these out - of - box ideas are coming because we are very diversified Made up of a variety of different types of people uh organization .
The Harvard students had many questions for Mickey .
There were voices that said , although they thought the idea was good , the rollout The process of introducing a new product could have been better .
They asked Mickey if he would have done anything different .
I admit I made a many , many uh immature Not fully developed or grown decisions , and uh we could have done better .
Uh but sometimes just stepping forward without too much thinking is very , very important .
I I'm I'm harvest confident Feeling sure about your own abilities or qualities. every single one of them can achieve this .
This is we are Japanese company .
We are highly proud Feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of one's own achievements or qualities. of Japanese culture .
Particularly uh the sense of high hospitality , humanness , hard working , teamwork .
That has been uh the uh the strength of the many Japanese uh manufacturing company as well as service company .
We are not going to change our culture .
Hence , we are going to globalize To make something global in scope or nature. good part of our culture through transformation of language .
So , I I'm telling uh the Prime Minister , we have a chance to become the Silicon Valley of Asia .
