Japan is lagging behind in the global business arena. Unless things change, the country is finished. What we need to deliver is a revolution in the way workers are trained.

In 2005, I founded the Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business. The School is a platform for shared knowledge, a training institution based on everything I have come to believe in after my many years in business. The mission of our school is to grow and develop business leaders who are able to contribute successfully to the international community.

My Background

During my twenty-three year career with an international consultancy firm McKinsey, I learned much about problem solving and global management techniques. It slowly became apparent to me that, if everything I had learned could somehow be communicated to other Japanese - in the community, in corporations and even in schools - it would be of real practical value. Thus, shortly after leaving McKinsey, I began to focus on promoting a more international mindset throughout Japan. The culmination of those early efforts is the Kenichi Ohmae School of Business.

Experience the Difference

In order to make an impact on today's international business world, it is essential that one has a solid grasp of global management strategies. It is also vital to be well equipped with analytic and critical modes of thinking. In Japanese business practices, such things are all too often lacking; I would like this to change. My time with McKinsey allowed me to witness firsthand the changes wrought in business by, for example, the launch of Windows in 1985. As well as engaging with such a major paradigm shift, I have worked with business leaders and politicians the world over, absorbing and analyzing their techniques. All this experience has combined to provide me with a sound understanding of what is needed to succeed in the coming age of business. Through the Kenichi Ohmae School of Business I want to package this knowledge in the form of a shareable educational platform to help companies and individual reach their global potential.

Nowadays, more often than not, business opportunities lie in the destruction of old ways of doing things. The truly successful business leaders of the past twenty years have been mold-breaking mavericks. The real success stories have been very person specific - Amazon, Google and Dell Computer sprang from unconventional business models created by real innovators.

People who have nothing but old models and modes of thinking find themselves at a loss in the face of a new business reality. What these people need is the opportunity to improve their basic problem-solving, conceptualization, and creative and logical thinking skills. The Kenichi Ohmae School of Business responds to this need by presenting real-world management case studies and interpretations by today's global business experts.

I am visited regularly by well-known executives and politicians from all around the world and our discussions are taped for distribution worldwide. Some recent discussions have been with Phil Knight, founder of Nike; John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems; Michael Spence, a Nobel Prize Winner in economics and former head of Stanford's Graduate School of Business; Dr. Matathir Mohammed, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia; and Alvin Toffler of the Futurist. I want to distribute this material for the benefit of business people all over the world.

The Kenichi Ohmae School of Business offers the very best in business training. Most significantly, it offers as much training as you want, when you want it and for as long as you like. Our competitive strength lies in our desire to increase our students' positioning in the global business world. Our eyes are firmly on the future. As Dean, I pledge to use our extensive experience to evolve a generation of truly global business leaders.