incantation

Anthony Robins, a famous coach, encourage what he calls ‘daily incantations’

In his seminar, he demonstrates the incantation, and repeats the phrases below loudly with body movement.

1. Now, I am the voice.

2. I will lead, not follow.

3. I will believe, not doubt.

4. I will create, not destroy.

5. I am a Force for Good.

6. I am a Leader.

7. DEFY THE ODDS.

8. SET A NEW STANDARD.

9. STEP UP, STEP UP.

These phrases are well designed considering the structure of our belief system.

I think you can arrange the phrases to install your desired belief into your unconsciousness.

Blastbeat

Currently, I'm paying attention to the NPO called "Blastbeat"

It is an educatioal non-profit social enterprise originated in Ireland, now operating in 4 countries

such as South Africa, England, and US.

Its' mission is to support and grow an International framework for youth community building, social

entrepreneurship, creativity and learning.

In the Blastbeat Program, high school students form their teams and establish virtual music companies.

Then, each student in the team is required to take a role such as CEO, PR, Sales and so on.

In three months, each team recruits musical artists (bands) and organizes the concert event.

Finally, each team is required to donate 25% of profits from the concert to charity.

Through these activities, young people can learn the basics of teamwork, creative, and business skills.

The keywords "Music" "Business" and "Education" really stimulated me when I heard about it.

So, I immediately contacted its founder/CEO, Mr.Robert Stephenson, then found that he would come to Japan soon.

Thus, I met him yesterday in Tokyo and discussed what I could do to help Blastbeat expand in Japan.

It will be really fun and exciting.

http://www.blastbeat.org

Enjoyed a gig

I've been playing the drums in the band for more than 20 years.
My band had a gig last week in Roppoingi, Tokyo.

Since I learned NLP, I began to pay more attention to the "State" when I play.
I tended to think about techniques of drumming before.
But currently, I'm more aware of my internal State during the performance on the stage.
My friend told me that my drums has become more stable, accurate and emotional.

Now, I'm thinking how to apply that mental state to myself when making a presentation in business.

Shanghai

I visitted a Japanese manufacturing company in Shanghai, China last week.

When I arrived at the Shanghai airport, all passangers were not allowed to get out of the plane.

We were required to stay in the plane for more than an hour until the influenza test is done for all passengers. It was a kind of scaring experience. Japanese goverment would not take that action.



My client kindly took me to the Mount Huangshan which is located in the west of Shanghai.
I was so impressed with its uncanny beauty of scenery just before the sunrise.

Ashura exhibition

We have Golden Week holidays in the begining of May in Japan.
Today was the last day of the holiday for most of us.

I went to the Ashura exhibition in Tokyo National Museum.
The sculpture of Ashura is one of the most treasured sculptures made during the beginning to mid-7th century.
Ashura and other statues are the masterpieces from Kohfukuji in Nara, (near to Kyoto) and are exhibited outside the temple together for the first time.

Photos of the sculptures can been seen here:
http://www.kohfukuji.com/property/photo/index.html

I can not believe that such complicated sculptures were made in such a long time ago.
It is said that even with current technology, it's impossible to make same ones.
The craftsmen at that time had incredible skills and might have some powers.

L.Michael Hall, Ph.D

I joined the seminar of the Meta-Coaching provided by Mr. Michael Hall.

He is the world authority of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming).

Coaching has been growing very fast and become a revolution in business

as a managerial tool in Japan. While coaching business became big, there are many

unqualified coaches out there which is undermining the value of coaching.

Therefore, coaching needs to have a systemic framework based on the best knowledge

in cognitive-behavioral science. Then, then skillful and effective coaches can

understand what to do and why so.

Meta-Coaching could be answer for it.

The difference between the current "Coaching" and "Meta-Coaching" is that

"Coaching" pays attention to "skill" and "behavior"level, on the other hand,

"Meta-Coaching" does to "Frame", "State (psychosomatic)" Emotion" and "belief".

Especially, Meta-Coaching emphasizes "Frame". It focuses on understanding the

structure of the frame of clients, in other word, understanding the "belief system".

I cannot say that I did understand the all about "Meta-Coaching" today.

But, it provided me with hint and useful knowledge to enhance the quality of my consulting.

After the seminar, I attended party and took a picture with him.

cherry blossom appreciation

The Japanese really love eating and drinking under the trees in full bloom.
And now is the time in Tokyo, Japan.

I go viewing cherry blossom every Spring.
Every time, I think that I could enjoy it much more if the drunk people are not so noisy. ..

Venti

I usually order a small or tall size of Caffè Latte in Starbucks. But yesterday, I was bold enough to purchase the largest size, Venti, of one.

Actually, I bought it with a coupon ticket of shareholder special benefit. Yesterday was the expiration date, so I was in a hurry to use it.

However, I wasn't used to such a large size of Latte so it was too much for me. I did realize the law of diminishing marginal utility.I felt uncomfortable after drinking it up. I shouldn't have been so greedy. Small size is the best for me..

Biz Plan Contest

I was invited to the business plan contest hosted by MBA Solution Inc. as a judge last night.

Each participant presented a great business idea and plan.
All business plans showed high social contribution to the issue in Japan related to education, aging, employment, and so on.
No one planed a dot-com business pursuing IPO as people used to do.
I don't' really like the term "Social venture" but it seems booming in recent years.

I was very impressed with the first-prize winner. He provided really good presentation.
I liked his business vision and felt that I personally want to support this business to transform the educational system in Japan. I really would like him to make the business happen.

Label + Experience = Insight

There are two types of process to get deep insight.

One is that label (word) is first, and experience follows it.
The other one is that experience first and is labelled later.

For example, business theory without any related experiences is just like rumor.
Only substantial experience can make the theory to be deeply understood and insight.

On the other hand, a lot of experiences can be generalized by theory then
those can result in deep insight.

I often read Peter F. Drucker's books ten years ago when I was studying in a business school.
But, I think I did not understand them at all, because I did not have enough experience of management. Now, I understand Drucker much better, but I'm sure, ten year later, I will look back and think that my current understanding is not enough at all.

Experience is really crown jewel.

recovery..

I have been sick in bed due to hepatic dysfunction for a month.
Today, I went back to work.

It was the first time for me to lie off for such a long time.
During the time, I was bored so read a lot of books.
Usually, I read books related to business, management, and so on.
But this time, I was not interested in such topics so read the books about psychology, brain science, and mythology. It was actually really good opportunity to broaden my view of such areas.

Since I had good rest and got enough energy back, I'm now fully motivated to work on new projects. I thank everyone who helped me.

The Solutions Focus

Today I joined the workshop related to the solution focus.

One of the ways to apply the NLP to consulting service is the solution focus approach for me.

Before I learned NLP, I could understand why the Solution Focus Approach (SFA) works. But now I sometimes use this SFA in my consulting and always utilize it when I manage my team members.

SFA can be contrasted with Problem Focus Approach (PFA).
Traditional consulting approach to solving problems is PFA, where you analyze the problems, identify the root causes, and discuss how to solve them.
On the other hand, SFA looks for what you want to have happen (=solution) and find what has already taking you towards the solution, amplifying the useful things that are going on.

Especially for the problems related to human being, analyzing the problems does not always work. It tends to be discussion who is to blame. Cause of problem is not always linked to solution.

So, depends on the situation, using SFA as well as PFA is very important to my consulting service. I will pursue this multiple approaches to enhance my consulting service.

TEMOMIN

I had been working on translation last couple of months and just finished it this morning.
The book is about creativity written by British authors ten years ago. I hope it will be published by this Spring and many business persons will read it.

Due to the hard work, I felt very tired today,
so went to TEMOMIN, a nationally known chain store of relaxation salon.
Global Sport INC. runs the stores and has been aggressively expanding its business last ten years. Basically massage service used to be given by old acupressure therapists in Japan, but this company changed the custom, and started to use young people for it with lower cost.

Its competitors also started to hire young staffs. Moreover, some of them have opened the career colleges for therapy. This creates a virtuous cycle because the companies can get tuition money from the prospective staffs then easily hire young low cost staffs after their graduation.

Considering this, securing staff resources is the key factor for success, and the risk would be the maintenance of staff quality in this business. How can we apply this system for other business ?

Daruma

I visited the Kawasaki Daishi, a big temple near to Tokyo, to pray for happiness for the year.
Every year, I buy the Daruma doll which is round Japanese wish doll from Zen (maybe..)

There are a lot of Daruma shops around the temple. I bought a red one (red is typical color, but there are yellow, green, while, even gold currently). It's a little bigger than last year to achieve the bigger goal.

Dalma's eyes color is alway white. One eye is filled in with Block colore while thinking of a wish. Then, when the wish comes true, the other eye is filled in. Traditionally, the left eye should be filled in first and the right eye is left blank until the wish come true. So, I went home and enjoyed filling in the left eyes wishing my dream.

Mochitsuki

The music event that my band organized took place yesterday and was very successful.

4 bands including my band joined the event. Interesting thing is that besides music we did "Mochitsuki"
It is the event of pounding sticky rice to make a kind of rice cake, which is traditional new year event in Japan.

People pound the sticky rice stored in a kind of wood bucket with a wood hammer by turns.


The Japanese traditional event was took place in a club with live music and many foregners joins too. For Japanese, it looked really unusual, but all of us enjoyed it a lot.

Temporary Workers

Due to the current worldwide recession, the manufactures such as Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi and so on have started to cut temporary workers. It is called "Haken-Giri" meaning temporary worker cutback in Japan. Government says 85K temp workers will lose their jobs over next six months, and it has become a big social issue in Japan.

I've watched the discussion between politicians and activists in TV programs.
They were saying that Japanese companies used to guarantee lifetime job security and
use the retained earnings in the economic slump instead of laying off. But the recent American type of management values ROE (Return On Equity) too much for shareholders so Japanese companies are no longer allowed to do so. Most of them were criticizing Japanese companies cutting temporary workers.

Of course, we should avoid that thousands of people become homeless after job cuts.
But it is more safety net issue that the politicians should care.
I'm not sure if the companies should be criticized on this matter, because the companies hired temporary staffs for flexible cost control. Most of the temporary workers could get the jobs because it's temporary employment contract. If not, the companies might have obtained labor forces from other countries. So the temporary employment is one of good opportunities for labors. Of course, the management is morally responsible for employment.

I do not support the system of lifetime job security, because it's too risky for companies.
On the other hand, the government should organize the social safety net immediately to avoid this social collapse.

FAIRLADY Z

Led by Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan revitalized.
FAIRLADY Z symbolized the company's reconstruction.

The first model of Z was released in 1967.
But its production was stopped due to Nissan's slumping business.
Then, it's back in 2002 as a 5th model.
Since Nissan's employees were very proud of Z, its revitalization motivated them a lot.

The unit sales of 5th model were 245,000 in global and 37,000 in Japan.
Then, now, the 6th model was just released.

There is a Nissan's exhibit space in Ginza, a center of Tokyo, and I visited there today.
Z looks so cool ! I wish I could buy one..

self-introduction

My name is Takashi Izumoto.

I am a business consultant in Tokyo, Japan.

My main fields are Strategy and Operation consultation, and business development support.


My career started with a music company where I was in overseas division and involved in importing musical instruments.

Then, I went to a business school, Thunderbird in Arizona, US, and studied International business in very multinational environment for 2 years.

With MBA in International Management, I joined a consulting firm, Deloitte Consulting, where I joined a lot of projects

such as strategy formulation, global market research, business process re-engineering, system implementation, and so on.

After that, I worked for Dell Inc. as a manager of Customer Experience (CE), where my role was to enhance CE

so I led many cross-functional teams for BPI (business process improvement) projects in Sales and Operation activities areas.

As an in-house consultant in Dell, I worked as a business trainer and mentor of BPI projects

conducted in each department of the company.

After Dell, I joined a venture firm and support its establishment of businesses and created their business systems.

Now, I’m a president of a consulting firm, Outbrain Inc. supporting the companies, especially foreign companies

to start and expand their business in Japan market as well as establish management system to support their growth.

In the weekend, I am a musician J I love music and have been playing the drums for more than 20 years in my band.

My band’s name is Bermudapants and you can check our sound by visiting at http://www.bermudapants.com/.

We have a gig once a month so please come and see us.

I’m interested in human “Brain” as you can guess by my company name, outBRAIN.

Currently my special interest is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). After obtained its license,

I’ve been pursuing to understand the mechanism of human brain deeply.

My career has been basically business consulting so I’ve been involved in very logical thinking approach.

But as you know, you can not manage people by logic only . Understanding the mechanism how people feel, think and act is

very beneficial to be successful in business and life.

My exciting challenge is to create a fusion of my logical consulting approach and NLP emotional/mental field

to find new way or methodology to help people doing business and life more smoothly.

My purpose of this Blog is just to share what I think and feel in Japan with worldwide people.

As you can see, my English is not perfect at all but I will try my best to make my English understandable

and would like to connect with people throughout the world.