Hi everyone! My name is Hiroshi Tojo and I graduated from Asahi Gakuen (Pasadena) in1993. My experience in the US started when I was 2 years old when my family moved for my father’s business. I lived there until the first grade. I returned to the US again and stayed through the 5th grade until graduating from high school. Here I am again for the third time, now in Arizona. After graduating from Yokohama National University (YNU), I joined Fujitsu Limited and currently studying at the Thunderbird School of Global Management focusing in Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship.

Present Status (Life at business school)

I have been studying at business school since the fall of 2007 and expect to graduate in few months. I chose to pursue an MBA at Thunderbird School of Global Management because it is well-known as the No.1 school in global/international business. Arizona is known for its deserts and cactus as well as preserved scenery such as that you would see in Western movies. It is surrounded by variety of nature such as the famous Grand Canyon and other National Parks in the Ground Circle area. The climate is similar to Los Angeles; most of the time it is sunny, warm and dry, however, in the summer time, the temperature rises to over 110F (43C). In our 1st year at business school, we studied the basics of business management through case studies, lectures and guest speakers. In our 2nd year, we are leveraging what we learned in our 1st year in projects and other assignments. I take our 1st year as the “input” period and 2nd year as the “output” period. For example, in the Global Business Plan course, we have to use all the learning from our 1st year in order to create a professional business plan. At the end of the course, we need to present it to investors (securities company, entrepreneur, and venture capitalists) that invited by our professor and have them evaluate whether the business plan is feasible or not. In the Business Consulting Tools course, we will actually be consulting clients as we study about consulting in general. We will use everything we learned so far at business school and try to solve our client’s problems. This consulting project is not just one of our class studies. To make it a professional project, clients actually pay a consulting fee, and therefore have strict demands. We are expected to perform just as experienced professional consultants would.

What I am putting my most effort in right now is a course where I am working with a professor one-on-one. In a small sized school, you have an opportunity to work or research with professors directly. My research theme is about adequate project management (PM) activities during the “True Globalization” of a company.

Other than class work, I undertook the “President’s Campus Greening Challenge”, a business plan competition to reduce the carbon footprint produced by our school facilities. We struggled initially with our diverse team from the US, China, Korea and Japan, but our effective cross-cultural communication and my project management skills led to a unique business plan resulting in winning the 1st place award. We also won a 3rd place award for another business plan, a “wedding peripheral business”, which I have been pondering over for a long time.

Reasons for choosing the university and its focus

I always had an interest in business and that is the reason why I chose to study business administration at YNU. What I especially liked studying was “organizational behavior”, which eventually become my focus, while the “inverse pyramid organization” became the topic for my graduation thesis. I was able to build my business foundation at YNU, but when I recall my undergrad years, I think it would have been much better if I had stronger objectives and goals in mind. I have since gained stronger dedication to my work after joining Fujitsu, but I realized having strong objectives and goals early on will hugely impact your motivation. Generally speaking, Japanese students tend to focus more on preparing to enter good universities, while in the US, students have more clear objectives. I ask all of you preparing for high school or universities to consider about “What do I really want to do?” before applying or entering the school of your choice. This will make a big difference once you start your studies.

Reasons for choosing the company

My job hunting was right in the midst of an employment ice age, but as I recall back then, I believe it was an opportunity for me to understand about different industries and companies. Encouraged by my brother, I started working on my job search much earlier than most other colleagues. I applied to over 100 companies in almost all the industries I could think of, and was busy interviewing with 3 or 4 companies a day. It was not easy but I think it was great in terms of finding a company that was the right fit and shared the same values as me. As a result, I joined Fujitsu Limited in 2000 and worked in international sales/marketing, domestic (Japanese) sales, and currently belong to the group in charge of planning and governing all in-house IT systems of the headquarters and domestic/overseas group companies. I have also conducted several projects as project manager after being certified as Project Management Professional (PMP). I visited the US and the UK every six months to discuss and check the status of our projects and decision making.

My days at Asahi Gakuen

I studied at Asahi Gakuen when I was in the 1st grade and from 5th grade to end of junior high school. I liked seeing my friends every Saturday, however, the studying was not so easy for me since it was only once a week. But I realized long after graduating that it was worth studying at Asahi Gakuen, even if it was only once a week and I am confident that you will all feel the same when that day comes.

I have many memories at Asahi Gakuen: When I performed “radio taiso” at “Undoukai” in front of everyone as a role model, when I gave the address in reply (touji) at the graduation on behalf of the class, when I was frequently yelled at by my teacher, when we all enjoyed eating our bento lunch, and when we were working on our graduation writings (bunshu), etc. I once had a really strict teacher but today, he is one of my greatest mentors and we exchange letters. I recall that all events I have experienced are memorable and meaningful, but I believe building relationships with my friends and mentor were the greatest of all. I still have close connections with all of them, holding class reunion from time to time. To me, Asahi Gakuen meant more than simply studying in Japanese.

Future Goal

I have many goals and thoughts for my future and I probably cannot introduce them all here, but thinking back about my past, I think the idea of being “Global” has been a key foundation for me. In the short term, I will be returning to my company and will contribute as much as I can towards one of my company goals: “pursuing true globalization”. For the long term, I have ambitions to start my own business in the future.

Although the school was only once a week on Saturdays, I think Asahi Gakuen was a great experience and a place for me to meet lifetime friends. The school that you are attending every Saturdays is a great Japanese school recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology – but do not simply go there to study textbooks. There is a lot more you can learn and experience outside the classroom from those around you like your teachers and classmates. In the near future, there will be students returning to Japan for junior high school, high school, or university, and there are others who will continue living in the US. In either case, never lose the sense of your Japanese identity and the correct understanding of the Japanese culture and way of thinking. This will be very important in your near future. Business has already become global and will accelerate at a faster pace. We cannot avoid companies seeking opportunities outside of the Japan in through outsourcing and offshore operations. On the other hand, Japan will also try their best at attracting foreign companies and employees to Japan. In a time where the world is becoming borderless and globalization is accelerating, it is not the “bilingual people” that companies are looking for. Simply becoming bilingual doesn’t help anymore. What’s required in addition to multilingual skills is to be able to understand foreign and Japanese culture, and then having the flexibility and adaptability that you are learning now. You already benefit just by living in Los Angeles. Studying in a local school in a diverse city like LA gives you a daily cross-culture experience. I am sure it is not that easy to balance your studies at both your local school and Asahi Gakuen, but having both cross-culture experiences and understanding Japanese education and culture will expand your future opportunities. I have experienced this myself. I believe living and having many experiences in LA enabled me to think and execute with a global-mindset at my company. I also succeeded in capturing my chance to get an MBA in the US with the sponsorship of my company.

Experience as much as you can!! Always have a challenging “mind” or “spirit”. Failure, defeat and frustration will all be great experiences and you will succeed by taking on challenges and overcoming them. You will have a broader view of the world which will make your life more interesting. You will have more friends and a wider network. You only have one life so seek out whatever opportunities you can experience!!

Thunderbird Global MBA Blog:
http://tojodojo.blogspot.com
Interview article at Yokohama National University
http://www.ynu.ac.jp/press/graduates/gra_6.html (Japanese)