Professor Takashi Nawa came to ICS in June 2010, after two decades of experience at McKinsey & Co., most recently as a director. He is currently also an advisor and consultant to global firms, and the founder and CEO of a company specializing in fundamental transformation and global growth.
In addition to his consulting career, Professor Nawa has been active as an author of well-received business books. His most recent publication, Familiarity Advantage, introduces a new growth strategy of organizational capability building, which combines western and Japanese methodology, called the “Smart-Lean” model, and a dynamic organization model called the “Möbius” cycle. Through these models, Professor Nawa shows companies how to strategically reposition existing capabilities and resources.
According to Professor Nawa, most Japanese companies have used a vertical model of management. Since this makes it difficult for them to move quickly enough in today’s global business environment, they are moving towards a more horizontal model. However, Professor Nawa tells us that this is not necessarily the best solution, and that these companies should instead move towards a more “virtual vertical” model. He uses Apple as an example. Apple doesn’t have control over the parts and applications, but it has control over the integrity of the product. He sees a lot of potential for Japanese companies to use this new model for growth.
Professor Nawa says that he is not concerned that “Japan is over” because there is so much untapped potential here. The key is to move in a new direction through adding new assets to current assets, but not abandoning their existing assets and resources. This is against the typical western approach, which advises companies to get rid of all unproductive assets, to focus and size down to core competencies. According to Professor Nawa, focusing on the core only will hurt a company in the long run. It will free up some capital short term, making for a quick fix. While in some cases this is necessary to build up the company, this approach is shortsighted.
Professor Nawa joined McKinsey shortly graduating from the Harvard Business School, and was sent immediately to open up a new McKinsey office in Seoul. LG was then a very important client, and his responsibilities included coming up with a plan for how Korean companies could catch up with the Japanese giants, which, at that time, was unimaginable. His team coined the expression “volume game to value game,” a term which Samsung in particular has really picked on.
The early 2000s was a time of alliances and acquisitions in the high-tech sector in Asia. Professor Nawa was the project leader in charge of building an alliance between TMSC in Taiwan and Fujitsu, which turned out to be an example of “virtual verticality.” He shares an interesting background story to this project: “The head of TSMC had told me that he planned to abandon the Japanese market. Japan, he said, was too much like the Galapagos Islands - interesting, but isolated from the rest of the world. I suggested that he look forward to get scale out of the Japanese type of production, and that the intellectual property of the small Galapagos of Japan could be scaled through the Taiwanese foundry and delivered to the world. This led to the alliance between TMSC and Fujitsu, which enabled Fujitsu to gain virtual verticality by eliminating the need for a foundry but still retaining some control.”
Professor Nawa has worked closely with Lenovo, helping them identify candidates for acquisition, and helping Lenovo and Japanese companies to find a “win-win.” He has also done similar work for Korean companies, helping them to ally with Japanese companies, and to learn from Japan. He believes that creating “win-win” situations between companies in the region is the best way to contribute to the development of a regional ecosystem in Asia. While Europe has created regional integration through finance, he believes that the regional integration in Asia is through manufacturing.
Professor Nawa continues to work towards this goal as a professor at Hitotsubashi ICS, teaching the Asia Business and Business Architecture courses.
