Hiroshi Mikitani Talks Englishnization at Harvard Business School

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.

There are few MBA case studies performed at Japanese companies.

They usually cover process reforms, 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 changes, such as Rakuten's Englishization.

The internet is a global business.

Uh and uh you cannot just be domestic.

And now, you know, we are in a living in a very dynamic industry.

We are seeing massive change of of the society because of the smart intelligence.