Resolute Japan

Discover how Japan’s new leadership model has transformed its top companies and created a new paradigm for business success

In Resolute Japan, Waseda University’s Jusuke J. J. Ikegami and the Wharton School’s Harbir Singh and Michael Useem reveal a new leadership model that has led Japan’s corporations to make a stunning comeback. In the process, they share what they have learned from interviews with more than 100 CEOs and top executives of Japan’s largest and most influential companies, including Hitachi, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, NTT, and Panasonic.

In this book, you will discover:
+ How Japan’s new leadership model has led to superior performance in the stock market and beyond;
+ The core principles and practices that characterize Japan’s new leadership model and how they differ from the old models;
+ How Japan’s new leadership model enables companies to balance multiple and often conflicting objectives, such as shareholder value and social responsibility, short-term results and long-term growth, and agility and stability;
+ How Japan’s new leadership model fosters innovation, resilience, and competitiveness in a rapidly changing global environment;
+ Why, even in an environment of macroeconomic stagnation due to economic policies at the national level, individual companies can achieve sustainable development through this new leadership model; and
+ How Japan’s new leadership model can inspire and inform business leaders in the West and elsewhere who are facing similar challenges and opportunities.

Resolute Japan offers a rare and insightful perspective on the new corporate fabric of Japan, one that is sure to both challenge and enlighten leaders around the world.

Jusuke J. J. Ikegami is a Professor and Associate Dean of Waseda Business School. He is also Director of Waseda Blue Ocean Shift Institute and Deputy Director of Global Strategic Leadership Institute. He received his MA in International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK; an MBA from the Judge Business School, Cambridge University; and a Doctor of Business Administration from Hitotsubashi University, Japan. His working experience includes Boston Consulting Group, Mars Japan, Director of New Business Development for Softbank EC Holdings, Chief Venture Capitalist at Nissay Capital, one of the largest institutional investors in Japan, and independent director at Toyo Inc. SC Holdings. Ikegami has chaired and served on various committees of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. He is the author of Situational Strategy and editor and co-author of Inbound Business Strategy, Inbound Renaissance, and Blue Ocean Strategy in Japan.

Harbir Singh is the Mack Professor of Management, co-director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, and faculty director of the Huntsman Program for International Studies and Business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He served as vice dean for Global Initiatives at the school. He focuses on the development of capabilities and of sustainable competitive advantage, and his interests in research and teaching lie in strategic leadership, growth and innovation via alliances and acquisitions, and the evolution of competitive strategy. Singh is the author of books on strategy and leadership in a global setting, including The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap, The India Way: How India’s Top Business Leaders Are Revolutionizing Management,and Fortune Makers: The Leaders Creating China’s Great Global Companies. He teaches and directs customized programs for companies and associations around the world. He has been a visiting faculty member at London Business School, Bocconi University in Milan, and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is a founding faculty member of the Indian School of Business.

Michael Useem is Faculty Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management and McNulty Leadership Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He works on leadership development, general management, and corporate governance with companies and organizations in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He is the author of The Leader’s Checklist, The Edge: How Ten CEOs Learned to Lead, The Leadership Moment, Executive Defense, Investor Capitalism, Leading Up, and The Go Point. Useem is also co-author and co-editor of Learning from Catastrophes and co-author of The India Way: How India’s Top Business Leaders Are Revolutionizing Management; Leadership Dispatches: Chile’s Extraordinary Comeback from Disaster; Boards That Lead; The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap; Fortune Makers: The Leaders Creating China’s Great Global Companies;and Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies Are Coping with Disruption.