Why only Nintendo?--Challenges Facing the Japanese Software Industry
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Every day you drive your Toyota Prius to work; when you return home you watch a Sony television, and your DVD player has a laser semiconductor produced by Mitsubishi. On weekends you take pictures with a Canon digital camera.
Everyone knows that the market is filled with Japanese high-tech products. You might, however, not realize that with the exception of the one running on your game console, you probably have never seen a Japanese software product.
In this seminar, Dr. Fushimi will present his analysis on why the Japanese have been so weak in the global software market. He will first discuss the intrinsic differences between software and hardware, and use these differences as a framework to identify the critical mistakes Japanese software companies have made.
Shinya Fushimi has spent twenty years in the Japanese IT industry, serving various R&D and management positions. Most recently, he was Head of Data Centric Solution Business Unit of Mitsubishi Electric. He received the BS, MS, and PhD in computer science from The University of Tokyo and has received a number of academic awards like the Moto-oka Memorial Prize and Best Paper Award for a Young Researcher. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he was with the Sloan Master's Program of Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and received the Master of Science in Management.
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Shinya Fushimi
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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
Shinya Fushimi is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2007-2008. A 20-year IT industry veteran, Fushimi started his career as a researcher of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and developed various innovative products. One of his products, a hardware sorting engine, made a new world record of data sorting performance in 2000. He then served various management positions in R&D, sales, marketing, and engineering. Most recently, he was Head of Data Centric Solution Business Unit of Mitsubishi Electric. The unit has developed more than 1,000 new customers.
He received BS, MS, and Ph.D in computer science from The University of Tokyo. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he was with the Sloan Master's Program of Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and received a master's degree in business management.
He received a Moto-oka Memorial Prize, a Best Paper Award for Young Researcher of Information Processing Society of Japan, Mitsubishi Electric's President Award, and Best Patent Award. He holds 52 patents in Japan, US, Germany, France, UK, China, Taiwan, and Korea, and lectured on database technologies and IT business at various universities such as The University of Tokyo in Tokyo and Ewha Women's University in Seoul. He is the recipient of an IBM Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in 1983.
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2008 Year Ahead Part II: Politics and Diplomacy in Japan
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What issues await Japanese politicians and diplomats in 2008? At home, Japan's new Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda must rebuild confidence in his party while working with an upper house controlled by the opposing Democratic Party of Japan. Abroad, Japanese politicians and diplomats grapple with Japan's role in the U.S.-led "War on Terror," a nuclear North Korea, and sovereignty disputes with South Korea and China. Our two panelists will share their views on Japanese political, diplomatic and security challenges in the year ahead.
Andrew Oros is an assistant professor of political science and international studies at Washington College. Selected as one of five "emerging leaders" in US-Japan relations by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007, Oros specializes in international and comparative politics of East Asia. His work has appeared in Japan Forum, Intelligence and National Security, and the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, among others. His forthcoming book, Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity, and the Evolution of Security Practice, will be released in May 2008.
Yuki Tatsumi is research fellow of the East Asia Program at the Henry L. Stimson Center. Prior to her current position, she worked as a research associate at the CSIS, as well as, at the Henry L. Stimson Center. Her analyses on Japanese security policy, Japanese defense policy, US-Japan alliance, and Japanese domestic politics frequently appear in the PacNet Newsletter. In September 2006, Tatsumi testified before the House Committee on International Relations regarding Japan's relationship with its Asian neighbors.
Robert Weiner is an assistant professor of political science at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA). His research and teaching focus on Japanese and East Asian politics, political parties and elections, democratic institutions, and research methods. He earned his Ph.D. in political science at the University of California at Berkeley. Weiner spent the 2006-2007 academic year at Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a Shorenstein Fellow. He was an assistant professor in the Government Department of Cornell University for three years before joining NPS in 2007.
Please visit www.usajapan.org or call 415-986-4383 for reservation.
2008 Year Ahead is made possible by the generous support of Union Bank of California
Union Bank of California
400 California Street, 11th Floor Assembly Hall
San Francisco, CA 94104
Andrew Oros
Professor of Political Science and International Studies
Speaker
Washington College
Yuki Tatsumi
Research Fellow of the East Asia Program
Speaker
Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, D.C.
Robert Weiner
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Speaker
Naval Postgraduate School
Conferences
2008 Year Ahead Part I: Japanese Society and Culture
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Where is Japanese society and culture headed in the New Year? What social trends may shape Japan's future? From the latest pop culture developments to the changing Japanese attitude toward women and families, our panelists will provide an up-to-date view of Japanese society today and beyond.
Mariko Fujiwara is research director of Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living (HILL). She is also a partner in the consultancy Business Futures Network (London), executive director of Mobile Marketing Inc., and serves on ministerial councils including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Finance, and the Supreme Court. She has published reports on Japanese consumers, Japan's post-war baby boom generation, second baby boom generation, changing roles of women and families, Japan's aging population and emerging trends among senior citizens.
Roland Kelts is the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., published in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He is a lecturer at the University of Tokyo, a columnist for The Daily Yomiyuri and an editor of the New York-based literary journal, A Public Space. His first novel, Access, will be published next year. His articles, essays, and stories have been published in Zoetrope; Playboy; Salon; DoubleTake; The Village Voice; Newsday; Cosmopolitan; Vogue; The Japan Times; among others.
Please visit events at www.usajapan.org or call 415-986-4383 for reservation.
2008 Year Ahead is made possible by the generous support of Union Bank of California
Delancey Screening Room
600 Embarcadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Mariko Fujiwara
Research Director
Speaker
Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living
Roland Kelts
author and journalist
Speaker
Conferences
Early-Stage Valuation in the Biotechnology Industry
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Biotechnology (or biotech) has impacted almost every aspect of human life. It has reorganized industries, drastically changed healthcare, helped to improve the environment, and led to important changes in laws and ethical norms.
Among the various biotech fields, medical biotech has been by far the most influential, beneficial, and controversial. It has generated not only superlative discoveries to improve the lifespan and quality of human life, but also the greatest amount of wealth for all the players involved, and the greatest volume of public debate.
Several important trends are shaping the future of the pharmaceutical (or pharma) and biotech industries. The biotech industry is characterized by the presence of strong clusters in all countries. The pharma and biotech industries are experiencing an outsourcing phenomenon, mainly due to a lack of in-house expertise and efficiencies. Diagnostics and therapeutics are increasingly converging, a trend that will lead to predictive and precise diagnostics and personalized and preventive medicine. The first few years of the twenty-first century have witnessed significant changes in the pharma/biotech alliance landscape. Today we are seeing the “omic”-ization of the biotech industry: most of the emerging technologies are genomics, proteomics, cellomics, and pharmacogenomics. In addition, the biotech industry faces uphill ethical issues, including excessive marketing, third-world drug availability, genetic engineering, stem cells, and cloning.
The medical biotech industry faces several challenges. First, science, the human body, and disease are, essentially, complex. Second, unlike other high-technology industries, the biotech product development cycle is very long, even after proof of concept. Biotech projects take between ten and twenty years to become successful and cost over $200–300 million before a product reaches the market. Third, delivery of most biotech products and therapies is complex and can be painful, often involving intravenous delivery. Fourth, the preceding three factors pose significant challenges for research and development (R&D) financing. In addition, there are certain outside determinants that influence the biotech industry, including regulation, demography, reimbursement climate, and big pharma companies.
Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating areas of biology, but it raises questions as rapidly as it generates new discoveries. The greatest potential application of this research is the generation of cells and tissues that can be used for cell-based therapies. A stem cell is a special kind of cell that has a unique capacity to renew itself and to give rise to specialized cell types. Through the process of differentiation, stem cells form various tissues and organs, and the combination of these differentiated materials develops into the whole human body. This class of human stem cell holds the promise of being able to repair or replace cells or tissues that are damaged or destroyed by many of our most devastating diseases.
Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. Diabetes mellitus is a type I diabetes—also called juvenile-onset diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes—and develops when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the insulin that regulates blood glucose. Type II diabetes, also called adult-onset diabetes or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, may account for 90–95 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. There are more than 194 million diabetics worldwide, with this number expected to exceed 333 million by 2025.
Insulin is currently the most effective drug for controlling hyperglycemia and is widely accepted as the gold standard for treating type I diabetes and even late-stage type II diabetes. However, physicians and patients are reluctant to use insulin until other less effective drugs have been attempted. This is mainly because insulin therapy is invasive and painful: patients must take insulin intravenously.
One of the most promising ways to cure diabetes is to restore the function of islet cells biologically, either through islet cell transplantation or by engineering cells to restore the insulin secreting function. Islet transplantation, a procedure that can restore insulin production in patients, is a highly promising area of research.
Based on analysis of stem cell research, diabetes market opportunities, and the development of stem cell therapies, it is possible to place a value on a company in the early (preclinical) development stage of a stem cell therapy for diabetes. Such an exercise involves valuing a company based on three different approaches—(1) the discounted cashflow model, (2) the royalty or licensing model, and (3) the comparables valuation model. Sensitivity analysis based on market, pricing, costing, R&D, and development stage can further lead to precise valuation range for a given company.
For biotechnology companies, various drivers play a critical role in company valuation, including people (management team), alliances and partnerships, intellectual property rights, R&D and technology, funding and financing, market opportunity, and therapeutic area.
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Beyond Borders: Global Entrepreneurship
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Up-and-coming Stanford entrepreneurs must think and act globally. Critical resources, markets and opportunities are around the world. Come meet three global entrepreneurs and hear how they got started, challenges they are wrestling with right now, and their best advice on going global.
SPRIE Co-Director Dr. William F. Miller will moderate a panel discussion featuring William A. Chen, Dr. Robert P. Lee, and Gadi Maier.
After the panel discussion there will be a question and answer period, followed by Chinese appetizers and networking.
This event, co-sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES), is open to students, the Stanford community and the general public and is part of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University.
You can see the entire Entrepreneurship Week agenda at eweek.stanford.edu, including information about the Innovation Tournament for student teams.
About the panelists
William Chen: A General Partner with DT Capital Partners, Chen has been involved in technology companies and startups in Silicon Valley and China, most recently as Founder and CEO of Accelergy Corporation, a R&D technology company with operations in the US and Shanghai. Prior to Accelergy, Chen was Founder and CEO of OnePage, Inc., an enterprise software company that developed a suite of portal products and management tools for the corporate market (acquired by Sybase, Inc.). Before starting OnePage, he was one of the Founders of Billpoint, Inc., which pioneered the concept of online person to person payments. Chen has a BS from the University of Florida and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Dr. Robert P. Lee: Lee, a 30-year veteran of the computer industry, is Chairman and CEO of Achievo Corporation, which he co-founded in 2002 while he served as president and CEO of Accela, Inc., a leading government automation software company. He was president and CEO of Inxight Software, Inc. before joining Achievo. Prior to that, he was Chairman, President and CEO of Insignia Solutions plc, a software company he took public in 1995. Dr. Lee has served as Executive VP at Symantec Corporation, and was Senior VP at Shared Medical Systems Corporation (now merged with Siemens). He received a BS from the University of California, Berkeley, and MS and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, all in computer science.
Gadi Maier: Most recently, Maier was CEO and President of Israel-based FraudSciences Corporation, (recently purchased by eBay), and prior to that he spent a year as Venture Partner at Pinnacle Ventures and Benchmark Capital. He was a co-founder and CEO of Scalent Systems (advanced datacenter virtualization software) and he co-founded Currenex, (a marketplace for buyers and sellers of foreign currency, sold to State Street Bank). Preceding Currenex, Maier was CEO, President and Chairman of GetThere, (on-line travel technology to corporations and airlines), leading GetThere's IPO as well as its sale in 2000 to Sabre Corporation. He has served as CEO for Memco Software, Inc., VP & General Manager for Cisco Systems' Internet Business Unit and held senior-level management positions at Oracle. Gadi holds a BS and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Bechtel Conference Center
William F. Miller
Moderator
William Chen
General Partner
Panelist
DT Capital Partners
Dr. Robert P. Lee
Chairman and CEO
Panelist
Achievo Corporation
Gadi Maier
CEO and President
Panelist
FraudSciences Corporation
Conferences
Understanding Japan's Changing National Security Strategy
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For the past sixty years, most analysts have assumed that Japan's security policies would reinforce American interests in Asia. The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however. Korea's nuclear program, China's rise, and the relative decline of US power have commanded strategic review in Tokyo just as they have in Washington. What is the next step for Japan's security policy? Will confluence with U.S. interests--and the alliance--survive intact? Will it be transformed? Will Japan become more autonomous?
Richard J. Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for International Studies. He is also the founding director of the MIT Japan Program. In 2001 he became chairman of the Japan-US Friendship Commission, an independent federal grant-making agency that supports Japanese studies and policy-oriented research in the United States. In 2005 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Samuels served as head of the MIT Department of Political Science between 1992-1997 and as vice-chairman of the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council until 1996. Grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Abe Fellowship Fund, the National Science Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation have supported nine years of field research in Japan.
Dr. Samuels' recent book, Securing Japan, was published in 2007 by Cornell University Press.
His previous books include Machiavelli's Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan, a comparative political and economic history of political leadership in Italy and Japan, "Rich Nation, Strong Army": National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan, The Business of the Japanese State: Energy Markets in Comparative and Historical Perspective, and Politics of Regional Policy in Japan.
His articles have appeared in International Organization, Foreign Affairs, International Security, The Journal of Modern Italian Studies, The Journal of Japanese Studies, Daedalus, The Washington Quarterly, and other scholarly journals.
Dr. Samuels received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.
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Richard Samuels
Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies
Speaker
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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The Shape of Things to Come: New Patterns and Paradigms in Global Innovation Networks
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Patterns and paradigms for innovation are fundamentally changing--they are becoming more global, multidisciplinary, collaborative and complex. At the same time, innovation is extending far beyond disruptive technologies which lead to new products. Increasingly, innovation is being found in services, processes, business models and policies. At the center of these changes are global innovation networks.
The Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) is bringing together thinkers, investigators and practitioners from the U.S., Asia and Europe for a two-day international, cross-disciplinary discussion and debate on the understanding of innovation networks.
You are invited to attend the first day of this conference, a forum entitled, "The Shape of Things to Come: New Patterns and Paradigms in Global Innovation Networks." It will take place at the Arrillaga Alumni Center at Stanford University on Thursday, January 17.
The event will feature two keynote speakers:
John Hagel, Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Strategy and Technology, co-author of The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization (with John Seely Brown)
Dr. Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director of the Center for Open Innovation, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley and author of Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology.
Planned forum sessions include:
"Shifting Innovation Networks in China" with a focus on Internet services;
"Venture Capital as Network Builder," how venture capital enables innovation networks;
"Perspectives on Rapidly Moving Technologies," like cleantech and flat panels.
A continental breakfast and lunch will be served, and the day will conclude with a networking reception.
Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center
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Third Annual Globalization of Services Conference Summary Report
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On December 7 and 8, 2007, the Third Annual Globalization of Services Conference organized by Rafiq Dossani and Martin Kenney was held at Stanford University. The conference explored the following questions:
- The changing geography of system integrators: The incumbent system integrators (SIs) are building up their developing nation service provision capability through acquisitions and internal expansion. The thrust of their expansion is to add capacity quickly. Can they manage it effectively? At a slower pace, the Indian SIs are doing the same in developed and developing nations: adding low cost workforces in developing countries, buying relationships in developed countries. Can they manage it effectively. Will growth rates and margins converge; if not, why not? What are some of the interesting differences between firm strategies?
- The changing business models of system integrators: The Indian system integrators appear to be driving a new, metric-based quality model that is driving price compression. Is this strong enough to provide a permanent advantage? IBM and others are responding with a combination of superior technology, client relationships and domain expertise, drawing upon their established strengths while also expanding in India and other low-cost developing countries. Are we witnessing a convergence to a common business model? Is there a European perspective? Is it different and does it make a difference?
- Product firms' globalization strategies (separate sessions on established and new firms): The IT product firms have to balance several additional factors that service firms like the SIs do not face when they globalize; among them, intellectual property protection, business development, managing innovation, research team coordination and marketing. How is this working, and what business models are they experimenting with? What are the differences between an established firm versus a startup?
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China's Harmonious Society: Political Cross Currents in China's Corporate Restructuring
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China's Harmonious Society colloquium series is co-sponsored by the Stanford China Program and the Center for East Asian Studies
Since 2006, the official doctrine of China's Communist Party calls for the creation of a "harmonious society" (HeXieSheHui). This policy, identified with the Hu Jintao leadership, acknowledges the new problems that have emerged as China continues its amazing economic growth. The economy is booming but so are tensions from rising inequality, environmental damage, health problems, diverse ethnicities, and attempts to break the "iron rice bowl." In this series of colloquia, leading authorities will discuss the causes of these tensions, their seriousness, and China's ability to solve these challenges.
Depending on where one stands, China's state-owned enterprises have reformed too slowly or too fast. Some lament the incompleteness of China's efforts to break the "iron rice bowl," to free firms from inefficient industrial practices, to rid firms of non-production expenses. Yet, as incomplete and slow as the reforms seem to some, New Left critics charge that China's reforms have gone too far, that SOEs have been subject to asset stripping, that firms have been "given away," and that the privileged few, particularly factory managers, have become rich capitalists overnight, through corruption and collusion with local officials. The losers in this view are the workers, who have been left unemployed, subject to layoffs, without health care, and sometimes without even their promised pensions-the very problems that prompted Hu Jintao's call for fixes to create a new "harmonious society." These two views of SOE reform, while seeming to convey different realities, reflect the political cross currents that have shaped China's corporate restructuring. Based on recent research in China, Jean Oi will discuss how those charged with reforming SOEs have tried to walk the tightrope between too slow and too fast reform, and the consequences.
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Jean C. Oi
Department of Political Science
Stanford University
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-26044
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joi@stanford.edu
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William Haas Professor in Chinese Politics
Jean C. Oi is the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics in the department of political science and a Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She is the founding director of the Stanford China Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Professor Oi is also the founding Lee Shau Kee Director of the Stanford Center at Peking University.
A PhD in political science from the University of Michigan, Oi first taught at Lehigh University and later in the Department of Government at Harvard University before joining the Stanford faculty in 1997.
Her work focuses on comparative politics, with special expertise on political economy and the process of reform in transitional systems. Oi has written extensively on China's rural politics and political economy. Her State and Peasant in Contemporary China (University of California Press, 1989) examined the core of rural politics in the Mao period—the struggle over the distribution of the grain harvest—and the clientelistic politics that ensued. Her Rural China Takes Off (University of California Press, 1999 and Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 1999) examines the property rights necessary for growth and coined the term “local state corporatism" to describe local-state-led growth that has been the cornerstone of China’s development model.
She has edited a number of conference volumes on key issues in China’s reforms. The first was Growing Pains: Tensions and Opportunity in China's Transformation (Brookings Institution Press, 2010), co-edited with Scott Rozelle and Xueguang Zhou, which examined the earlier phases of reform. Most recently, she co-edited with Thomas Fingar, Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China’s Future (Stanford University Press, 2020). The volume examines the difficult choices and tradeoffs that China leaders face after forty years of reform, when the economy has slowed and the population is aging, and with increasing demand for and costs of education, healthcare, elder care, and other social benefits.
Oi also works on the politics of corporate restructuring, with a focus on the incentives and institutional constraints of state actors. She has published three edited volumes related to this topic: one on China, Going Private in China: The Politics of Corporate Restructuring and System Reform (Shorenstein APARC, 2011); one on Korea, co-edited with Byung-Kook Kim and Eun Mee Kim, Adapt, Fragment, Transform: Corporate Restructuring and System Reform in Korea (Shorenstein APARC, 2012); and a third on Japan, Syncretism: The Politics of Economic Restructuring and System Reform in Japan, co-edited with Kenji E. Kushida and Kay Shimizu (Brookings Institution, 2013). Other more recent articles include “Creating Corporate Groups to Strengthen China’s State-Owned Enterprises,” with Zhang Xiaowen, in Kjeld Erik Brodsgard, ed., Globalization and Public Sector Reform in China (Routledge, 2014) and "Unpacking the Patterns of Corporate Restructuring during China's SOE Reform," co-authored with Xiaojun Li, Economic and Political Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2018.
Oi continues her research on rural finance and local governance in China. She has done collaborative work with scholars in China, including conducting fieldwork on the organization of rural communities, the provision of public goods, and the fiscal pressures of rapid urbanization. This research is brought together in a co-edited volume, Challenges in the Process of China’s Urbanization (Brookings Institution Shorenstein APARC Series, 2017), with Karen Eggleston and Wang Yiming. Included in this volume is her “Institutional Challenges in Providing Affordable Housing in the People’s Republic of China,” with Niny Khor.
As a member of the research team who began studying in the late 1980s one county in China, Oi with Steven Goldstein provides a window on China’s dramatic change over the decades in Zouping Revisited: Adaptive Governance in a Chinese County (Stanford University Press, 2018). This volume assesses the later phases of reform and asks how this rural county has been able to manage governance with seemingly unchanged political institutions when the economy and society have transformed beyond recognition. The findings reveal a process of adaptive governance and institutional agility in the way that institutions actually operate, even as their outward appearances remain seemingly unchanged.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Learn moreFiscal Politics and Central-Local Relations in China
Learn moreStructural Change in China
Learn moreDirector, China Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Lee Shau Kee Director of the Stanford Center at Peking University
Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
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