DJ Selects: A Japanese MBA Does Not Mean What You Think It Means

Education is very hard to disrupt.

That’s both good and bad. Education is so important to both individuals and society, it should not be changed on a whim, but over time it seems that our institutions of higher education have drifted away from meeting students real needs.

Yoshito Hori, founder and CEO of Globis, is making radical changes. He turned a small training school into Japan's first independent and fully accredited business school with an MBA. Less than ten years later, Globis became Japan’s most popular MBA program.

We talk about the need for change in education and about the successful, real-world pilot program Globis is running to modernize Japanese higher education. Yoshito also shares insights on how to teach innovative thinking and explains why such a high percentage of Globis MBAs go on to found starts or join them.

It's a fascinating discussion and I think you'll really enjoy it.


Show Notes

Why most Japanese do not want to attend full-time MBA programs
How to make an advanced degree both exclusive and inexpensive
How to groom MBA students to start startups
How Sumitomo missed out on a multi-billion dollar business
Why Japanese higher education is so resistant to change
This difference between SPOCs and MOOCs, and why it's important
How drinking in front of your computer might save higher education




Links from the Founder

Check out Globis
Yoshito's blog on entrepreneurship in Japan
Follow Yoshito on Twitter@YoshiHoriGLOBIS
Connect with him on LinkedIn
Yoshito's article on 100 Actions to revive Japan
The G1 Global Conference


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Transcript
Disrupting Japan. Straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.
I’ve got another great select show for you today.

I really like this particular episode because it highlights that disruptive innovation does not have to be about the technology, If fact, even when disruption seems to be about technology, it’s really not. It’s about changing systems, changing the way people and businesses interact with each other. Of course, that often does involve technology, but when it does, the technology is only the conduit.

Nowhere is that more clear than in my conversation with Yoshito Hori, the CEO, and founder of Globis. In fact, I would say that at least so far,  Globis has brought far more genuine change to Japan’s education market than all Japan's edTech startups combined.

So please enjoy the episode and I’ve got some important updates to our story for you after the show.
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You know, education is hard to disrupt. And as long-time fans know very well, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because education is so important and foundational not only to how well a given child will do later in life but also because in the large developed nations, the educational system forms the basis of society itself. It provides us all with a shared set of experiences.

So the fact that we don’t change the rules every few years is a good thing. On the other hand, this lack of disruption leads to educational systems that don’t really meet the needs of today’s students and today’s societies for that matter. So clearly, there must be a better way of doing things than what we’re doing now.

Well, today, I’d like to introduce you to someone who’s found a better way. Yoshito Hori founded Globis as a small business training school and grew it into Japan’s first independent and fully accredited business school offering MBAs. And then, Globis became Japan’s most popular MBA program.

Yoshito’s strategy for innovation is fascinating. Unlike similar schools in the US, Globis does not compete on cost. In fact, the Globis MBA is more expensive than similar degree programs at Todai or Hitotsubashi. No. Globis is doing something unique and something that is making a lot of people rethink how un...