Date: August 4th in the 28th year of Heisei (in 2016)
It has been three days since training at Kyoto University started. The lecture today was about globalization and international cooperation in business. The lecture was given by Mr. Furuichi is a professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Management. The students asked mnay questions about globalization after the lecture. They heard about the actual conditions of globalization and were given many examples by Mr. Furuichi. In addition, when Mr. Furuichi introduced a successful illustration of international cooperation in business, he talked a little about how to create a business model. This lecture was very useful because some groups are making business models similar to the example cases he used.
At the end of the lecture, a video was shown. It showed a famous speech which Steve Jobs, one of the founders Apple, made at the graduation ceremony for Stanford University. The English speech was so fast that the students couldn’t catch the words without subtitles. However, they were able to understand the importance of learning many kinds of things with interest, challenging things many times even if we fail, and doing our best to live like today is the last day in our lives.
Two former students who graduated from Himeji Nishi High School but now study at Kyoto University, came to visit our group: Mr. Hashimoto, who now studies engineering, and Mr. Fukuda, who now studies agriculture. We listened to them talk about deciding between taking a liberal arts course or science course and about school life at Kyoto University. This lecture was not only good for future reference for the students, but was also interesting.
During the group work part of the day, each group’s main theme became more concrete. Many groups still have some problems and other groups need to think more about the contents of their business plans.
Main Theme for Each Group:
Group A1: Segway tours
Group A2: Tours to increase the number of house guests in Himeji
Group B1: Vending machines made by Glory
Group B2: Suggestions for private brand products for Nishimatsuya
Group C1: Finding solutions to energy problems using Euglena
Group C2: Solutions for food problems
Group C3: Food support in Southeast Asia
Group C4: Using cogeneration systems
Group C5: Educational support for developing countries
Group D: The Revitalization of sightseeing in Himeji through the sale of local products
