No Box Thinking™ (Volume 3)

How Struggling Japanese Companies Can Beat Silicon Valley's Fast-moving Startups At Their Own Game

Specifically focused on the unique culture & needs of Japanese companies.

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No Box Thinking™ (Volume 3)
Over the last 20 years, and accelerating in the last 7 years, not only Japan but the entire world has begun to question Japan's ability to innovate, and create as companies such as Apple and Samsung have taken over Japan's former stomping grounds, and gleefully gorge themselves on Japanese companies' bento boxes.

Meanwhile, once mighty and innovative Japanese firms like Sony and Panasonic bleed red and constantly try to slough off workers while peddling a staid if uninspiring set of "me-too" and "also-ran" product lines.

How far has Sony fallen? Well, it's gotten to be so bad that if Sony founder, Akio Morita, were to magically re-appear today and venture over to the front entrance of Sony Japan, he wouldn't  recognize the place.  Worse, if he then decided to apply for a position, not only wouldn't they hire him, they'd most likely call security and have him escorted off the premises.

But all is not lost. 
  • Is necessity really the mother of all invention?
  • And if so, why?
  • Are innovation and creativity really the keys to success? 
  • Does Apple under Steve Jobs prove this?
  • And if so, what lessons do the failure of Xerox PARC's storied inventions tell us?
  • Were Apple products under Steve Jobs truly "revolutionary" or can they be shown to be simple derivative or "step forward" products (e.g, iPod = solid-state Sony Walkman)?
  • If this is the case, how was Steve Jobs able to enjoy such massive success while other incumbents like Sony stumbled and faltered? 
  • How could an industry pioneer like Yahoo have its lunch eaten by Google?
  • How could Google develop failed product after failed product (Google Video, Google Wave, Orkut among others) and only seem to have success with acquired products (Youtube, Android, Double Click, Google Earth among others)?
  • How was Google able to dominate search and in what ways could Yahoo have thwarted or even crushed Google?
  • Finally and most importantly, can an industry incumbent ever compete let alone snuff out a nimble-footed startup? 
The answers to all of these questions may shock you because the arguments we make and evidence we present are often in direct opposition to what the media pundits and industry insiders have been telling us, and worse, selling to us.
The fact is, there are a number of proven ways that large incumbents (even large, ossified incumbents) can outplay and out game fast moving startups from Silicon Valley or elsewhere.

To this end, we'll explore creativity and innovation and what it takes to unlock and unleash it. And you'll find that in many cases you don't even have to hire new talent as all the creativity and innovation you could ever want or need is already on your payroll and sitting at their desks in your office.

The key then is to learn how to organize this talent, tune it up, skill it up and then effectively deploy it for maximum impact.