By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge


Japan is like a supertanker laden with oil.

It's very valuable but its contribution is often underappreciated or even unappreciated.

It's slow to turn, hard to maneuver but it's buoyant and true.

And once it gets moving and its course is set you better get out of its way. :)

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge


That Japan like any country, be it developing or developed, has her share of problems is not in the least bit surprising or at least it shouldn't be.

However, what has surprised me over the years is how many foreign "Japan watchers" and "Japan pundits" always seem to miss the crux of what's really going on on the ground in Japan and more importantly what's going on in the mind of the Japanese.

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With that said,  there is another popular myth and meme that comes up regarding the lack of Japanese startups and that is the idea that the Japanese have an almost in-born fear of failure.

I'm not here to argue that Japanese don't have a fear of failure because they do. We all do. Just as most other peoples around the world do, including those in the US and even including those working in Silicon Valley.

People fear failure. 

But to hear the pundits tell it, "Japanese need to get over failure and embrace it". These pundits act like the fear of failure in Japan is simple a psychological construct* like it is in parts of the West like in the US.

The Sun Also Rises (陽はまた昇る), starring Ken Watanabe (Westerner's will know him from The Last Samurai and Inception) is a great movie showing Japanese Leadership & Innovation at its finest -- in this case concerning the development of the VHS tape standard and VHS Video Tape Recorder by Victor Japan (JVC).

In case you missed it, TBS ran a very good drama called Leaders which covered Toyota's founding as an automotive design and manufacturing company and their revolutionary transition from weaving looms to becoming an international automobile giant.

The DVD is coming out August, 8th.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge


In recent years, much has been written about entrepreneurship and the "Silicon Valley" startup or new venture philosophy and framework.

In turn, many companies and countries have attempted to mimic or emulate this successful Valley model (although previously I've questioned the true success of the Valley model as it's a "Stacked Model" focusing on "Brute Force Human Wave Attacks" reminiscent of the Korean War). 

Regardless of the efficacy of the Valley model, it would still greatly behoove us to ask and investigate if there are perhaps any other viable or proven models, methodologies or frameworks available that we could borrow from and draw upon And if so,exactly what are they and how do they work?

One of the other highly vibrant and extremely dynamic startup centers, both in terms of raw numbers of startups and subsequent success stories, is not only in Israel, it is Israel -- which in turn has lead to Israel being dubbed the "Startup Nation".

What is most fascinating about the "Israeli model" is that it often takes a much different approach and has a very different flavor than the Valley model and yet it has produced dozens upon dozens of very successful startups in the high-tech space.

To tap into this wealth of knowledge and alternative startup methodology, Professor Kenneth Grossberg, Professor & Director of the Waseda Marketing Forum at Waseda University, has developed and lead the very innovative Startup Nation, Israel Study Tour which is now in its third year.

This study tour offers a unique and unparalleled opportunity to learn more about Israel’s extraordinary and arguably world-beating startup-nurturing environment.
 
Inspired by the NY Times bestseller Startup Nation, this trip open doors and pulls back the curtain to places not generally open to the general public as it teaches how a small country in a challenging environment has grown more companies listed on NASDAQ than any other nation in the world except the US. 

Through this unique opportunity to learn about Israel’s remarkable R&D and venture capital infrastructure you'll find ways that can then be applied back in one's own organization.

For more information, click on the button below:

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge


If it seems that we're under a constant barrage of the Western Media Myth (WMM) that (a) Japan is "failing" and that (b) this "failure" is primarily due to Japan's "talent problem" don't fret because we are.

Further, we are told that Japan's supposed "lack of talent" has manifested itself in such as way as to be responsible for Japan's supposed "lack of creativity" and "lack of innovation"".

But not to worry according to the WMM as we're then told that these "problems" that Japan faces can simply solved by (a) increasing the number of English-speaking Japanese and (b) internationalizing "backwards" Japanese-only speaking Japanese and (c)  increasing the number of immigrants in Japan, preferably by engaging in a sort of US-Open Bordersfashion.
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The Western Media's argument or framing of the issues, especially in terms of Japan's supposed lack of  "English-speaking" talent becomes even more silly when we consider that it ignores what I have deemed the "tip of the spear" or "tip of the sword" strategy.
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Japanese Start-Ups Channel Samurai Spirit: The Samurai Startup Island, in a low-rent office district built on a landfill on Tokyo Bay, is at the vanguard of what many hope is a new generation of innovators.

By Martin Fackler, New York Times
Published: December 25, 2013

TOKYO — The 20-somethings in jeans sipping espresso and tapping on laptops at this Tokyo business incubator would look more at home in Silicon Valley than in Japan, where for years the surest signs of success were the gray suits of its corporate salarymen. But for those hoping the nation’s latest economic plan will drag Japan from its long malaise, the young men and women here at Samurai Startup Island represent a crucial component: a revival of entrepreneurship.

The signs of that comeback are still new, and tentative enough that the statistics on start-ups and initial public offerings have not caught up. But analysts and investors report that hundreds of new Internet and technology-related companies have sprung up in the last two to three years, creating an ecosystem of incubators like Samurai Startup Island and so-called accelerator new venture investment funds, which invest in early-state start-ups in hopes of cashing in.

Some top universities — the same ones that have long defined success as a job in an established company or elite government ministry — have begun not only to create their own incubators and venture funds, but also to develop curriculums on birthing start-ups. And while some young entrepreneurs say real progress will come only if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acts as promised to shake up Japan’s hidebound corporate culture, they say the stock market rally and broader optimism created by the economic plan known as Abenomics are already making it easier to find investors and customers.

“This is the beginning of something that could rejuvenate Japan,” said Mitsuru Izumo, the founder of Euglena Corporation, a biotechnology start-up valued at $1 billion, and one of the country’s most prominent new entrepreneurs. “If we don’t unleash our youth, then Japan will become too weak to survive another blow like Fukushima. Entrepreneurship is Japan’s last chance.”

For years, sagging entrepreneurial spirit has been cited as a major reason for Japan’s inability to save itself from a devastating deflationary spiral. The nation that produced Sony, Toyota and Honda has created few successors.

By Mario Gamper, VentureVillage
Published December 24, 2013 4:00 PM 

It may be time to say goodbye to a well-trodden cliche. Young entrepreneurs are proving that Korea can do more than copy. The number of tech startups has surged by 80 per cent since 2011. The number of accelerators went from one to more than 50. Here marketing consultant Mario Gamper, who has worked for Platoon Kunsthalle in Berlin and Seoul, gives us a glimpse of  how Korea is building a new culture of business creativity – that apparently rivals Silicon Valley.

There’s no need to look for suburban garages — the next generation of Korean businesses is born downtown. Many startups are home in the now-famous Gangnam district, a landscape of 400 ft glass towers, expensive suits, and women with fashionable noses. Some of the startups, like online deal siteCoupang, have already succeeded in sticking their own logo on an office tower. But even young hopefuls who are still demoing enjoy prime real estate. In brand new coworking space Dreamcamp, teams polishing PowerPoints look out over a beautifully landscaped park.

“This is the best time ever to start your company in Korea,” said Dreamcamp Manager Ryu Hahn. The coworking space and incubator is funded with more than $450m by 20 Korean banks who have formed the “Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs”. Offering a wide range of support, from pitch clinics to funding, Dreamcamp is just one example of the structures for new business ideas that popped up in the last couple of years.

After taking office in 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye swiftly announced a more “creative economy” and launched the new Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and endowed it with a bunch of cash. For 2014, the ministry’s budget increased to more than $12bn, with over two billion going directly into beefing up the startup ecosystem.

“Korea is now the biggest startup in the world,” smiles Richard Min, cofounder of the SeoulSpace incubator and brand new Fashion Tech (FT) Accelerator. “60 per cent of all venture capital here is government-backed. In the US it’s one per cent,” said Min.

This creates a unique startup ecosystem: “Korea has always been a top-down economy. The government has now decided to merge it with bottom-up creativity. We’re creating a completely new business culture, one that’s not even seen in Silicon Valley, or anywhere else,” added Min.