Vision and the Next Center City

Vision &the Next Center City

TAKA KONDOFounder&CEO

(Last update: June/08/2011Created: May/02/2011)

A part of the Next Center City

Contents

Prologue Next Center City My Vision Appendix

Case Study I~III

1. Prologue

Share of Global Cell-Phone Market USA market

50% (1998) 12% (2015) Asia market

19% (1998) 50% (2015)(*Softbank)

Global Shift: Market

Share of Global GDP USA

31%(2000) 18%(2015)(*IMF)

BRICS 8%(2000) 23%(2015) 31%(2020)

(*BRICS Summit)

**BRICS:Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

E7 will beyond G7 in 2020 in termsof GDP.

(*PricewaterhouseCoopers)

*E7: China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and Turkey*G7: USA, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy

President Obama promised to double USexports within five years in 2010.

Even in Japan, expanding business overseasbecame one of the highest priority issues.

* USA's export dependency is the lowest in the developed nations and Japan’s is second.

Increasing exports is already very highpriority issue not only in US or Japan butalso in many nations.

China will be the largest producer ofscientific knowledge by 2020.

(*Financial Times)

Global Shift: Talents

Adobe acquired a Romanian companybecause of its technological advantage.

Intel Research has hired local researchersin India, Ireland, Belgium, France,Mexico, Germany, UK, Spain, China,Russia and Poland.

I know a Silicon Valley high-tech companywhich has R&D facility in Serbia andenjoys its excellent performance.

These shifts can bring lots of newopportunities for many people/companies.

However, to take advantage of such globalshifts is not so easy because…

Can we take advantage?

"Who our potential customers are?", "What they want?", "What's potential needs?", "What life style in your place?","Recent trend?", "Recent change?", "Business process?", "Bottleneck?", "Uniqueness?", "Ineffectiveness?", "Where doyou use it?", "When?", "Why they don't use it?", "How to use it?", "How to get it?", "What kind of advantage ourcompetitor has in your place?", "What's the disadvantage of competitor product?", ”Are they our competitor?","Competitor's brand recognition in your place?", "How did our competitor gained their market share?", "Why they havesuch good brand image in your place?", "Why customers prefer our competitor's product?", "What kind of barriers existto enter this market?", "How to eliminate the barrier?", "How is our brand image in your place?", "Who is our potentialpartner?", "Where is our potential partner?", "Credibility?", "How to use this product?, usage scenario, usage scene?","Market positioning?", "User experiences?", "Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness?", "competitor's product,workablereplacement?", "Product spec, definition?", "Supply chain, product linkage?", "Missing function, over spec, meaninglessfunction?", "Installing problem?", "Setting problem?", ”alternatives work?", "Upgrade related issues?", "Connectivity?","Design?", "Size, weight, etc?", "Legal, regulation issues?", "Health related issues?", “Cultural taboos?”, "Production?","QA related issues?", "Customer support, CRM?", "Product life cycle management?", "New market for existingproducts?", "New products for existing market?", "Logistics, storage strategy, tactics?", "Tax, Duty?", "Clearance?","Local rule?", "Branch office setup?", "Facility related issues?", "Partnership development?", "M&A?", "Local businesslaunching strategy, tactics?", "Market recognition?", "Promotion agent?", "Promotion strategy, tactics?", "Branding?","Alliance partner?", "Average living cost, expense structure?", "Life style, business system, payment style?", "Paymentprogram?", "pricing?", "pricing example of similar products?", "tax, tax wavier?", "Customers' problem?", "Potentialproblem?", "existing problem?", "New solution ideas?", “How to avoid it?”, "Recent change or trend of society?", "Whatdoes the new law/regulation change social system?", "Different market, different life style, different business process?","potential problem, opportunity?", "social needs?", "Focus group like study?", "New trend, emergent problem?", "Newinfrastructure?", "Different field?", "Foreign government new policy?", "Technology initiative?", "New national project?","Who is the key person in academia?", "Potential needs in different field?", "Questions about new research results?","Detail feature of emerging technology/products?", "Specifications of a particular product such as Interface, electricproperty, operating environment, customization, etc?", "Rapid prototyping?", "Advice, second opinion?", “Local influentialpersons?”, “Quality-Cost balance?”, "certification approval process, cost, collaborators, etc?", "Who is potentialcollaborator?", “How to hire him?”, "Ask potential users about features of a particular product, functionality, installation,maintenance cost, durability, customer support, etc?", "Intercultural adjustment?", "Pricing, customers' expense model,payment?", "Distribution?", "Customer support?", "Supply chain management?", "branch office, facility?", "Manufacturingpartner?", "Quality Assurance management, process?", "Cost management, control?", "foundry negotiation strategy?","Intellectual property purchasing, selling, conflict, alliance, etc?", "Green tech, sustainable?", "Hiring local manager?","Corporate development, investment, restructuring?", "Due diligence?", "Local HRM?”, "GHRM?", "Employment law?","Personnel affairs related problem?", "Public Relations?", "Investor Relations?", "Financing?", "Accounting?", …

to obtain knowledge and experiences inoverseas is not so easy, so far.

A Gap of knowledge exists.But, ‘Gap’ often indicates Opportunities.

2. Next Center City

Needless to say, good works, gooddeals and/or good innovations requiregood network of contacts.

Each era in history, the world had/has a"Center City" where talented peoplegathered from all over the world(*).

Lots of valuable things for human beingswere always created from the Center City.

(*) Jacques Attali, “A Brief History of the Future”

Genova, Antwerp, Amsterdam, …, Paris,London, New York, Boston, and now, it isSilicon Valley.

Frederick Terman,~ the Father of Silicon Valley ~

When we set out to create a community oftechnical scholars in Silicon Valley, therewasn't much here and the rest of the worldlooked awfully big.Now a lot of the rest of the world is here.

The Center City always movesfrom East to West.

–Jacques Attali

But I don't think that the Next Center Citywill be beyond the Pacific Ocean.

I also don't think it will move back to East.

I'm confident that the Next Center Citywill be on the web, on the Internet.

3. My Vision

My vision is to create a part ofthe Next Center City.

In the City, people obtain variety ofknowledge, draw inspirations and createconcrete ideas which lead them to startnew projects or resolve new problems.

It's more practical place than social place.It's NOT just networking site ordiscussion site about non-business topics.

It is the place where people get valuableinsights/inspirations and create actionableideas, and sometimes, obtain partners.

To realize this vision, we design and providea new knowledge distribution service, ornew Knowledge Ecosystem.

* Information Ecosystem: Mike Brzozowski, http://is.gd/XgMBdL

There are two types of citizens:

ProducersPeople who have knowledge/experience

ConsumersPeople who want to use the knowledge/experience

Producers ConsumersInteraction

In general, there are some potentialbarriers which prevent interactionsbetween producers and consumers.

Producers ConsumersInteraction

Barriers

So, what we do is to set up ladder againstthe barriers and make this KnowledgeEcosystem keep working.

ProducersInteraction

Barriers

Motivation /Reward

Benefit / Assistance

Consumers

Basically, our Service/Ecosystem isBusiness-to-Business, and: Cross-Border Cross-Culture Cross-Language

Communication Style: Time differences

Our users are living in different time zone. Different nations

English is not a first language for many users.

We provide a unique communication styleto overcome the matters.

It’s simple, quick and effectivecommunication style.

…

That’s all I can disclose here.

I’m now looking for collaborators who approve

this vision. If you are interested in this vision,

please contact through LinkedIn’s Inbox.

Comments and/or suggestions are also welcome.

for knowledge consumersfor knowledge producers

TAKA KONDO

Thank You!

Appendix

Case Study I

~ felt-tip ~

A Japanese company(let’s call it “Acorp”) is in theprocess of trying to rescue its business. Thecompany’s product is the tip of felt-tippen(highlighter).

I couldn’t find any reason why it should be producedin Japan. Actually, Chinese companies are increasingtheir share in this market.

a tip of felt pen

The quality of Acorp’s products are excellent, butobviously too much for felt pen. Acorp is beatenbecause of its costly manufacturing process. Theirshare in felt-tip pen market has been shrinking.

So, the reconstruction team started to explore newbusiness opportunities.

?

Finally, they found it in the United States. The customer is not a felt-tip pen company, it is a

cosmetic company. Acorp’s “felt-tip” was the onlyproduct which met the requirement of thecosmetic company.

Cosmetic item

Case Study II

~ Partial Slimming Diet ~

Another Japanese company, let’s call it Bcorp,invented a very innovative device which enables partialslimming diet. The technology was medicinally provenby a lot of medical schools’ research. And the companysuccessfully launched the business in both Japan andFrance. Actually, several ten thousands devices weresold despite its very expensive pricing.

Next, Bcorp tried to extend their business into USA.They had a good network in the French market, but theydidn’t have it in the USA. So, the company asked a“Shosha”, a peculiarly Japanese business firm. Ingeneral, “Shosha” is a huge enterprise and they havebranch offices across the world.

In Japan, many foreign products are imported via“Shoshas”. As long as import products from outsideJapan, they are very capable.

However, the strength of “Shoshas” is on import, not onexport from Japan(*). They didn’t have a network forneither fitness nor beauty market in the USA. What theShosa could do for Bcorp was just a simple and smallsurvey such as FDA condition and so on. Bcorp gotstuck, finally.

(*) Except national projects such as ODA(Official Development Assistance).

Case Study III

~ the Birth of Sushi Market ~

California Roll was invented by asushi chef in Los Angels, in 1970s.

Because many Americans couldn’teat raw-fish, the chef substitutedavocado for tuna. He believed thatthe oily texture of avocado was aperfect substitute for tuna. Inaddition, he also invented newsushi roll style called “inside-out”because Americans didn’t like toseeing and chewing the nori(*) onthe outside of the roll.

California Roll, “inside-out”Photo by: John Patrick Robichaud

Traditional Tuna RollPhoto by: Tobosha(*) Dried laver seaweed

California Roll became popular all across theUnited States by the 1980s. Then a variety ofsushi rolls were created by many sushi chefs.Through the process, many Americans werebecoming used to eat law-fish and graduallygetting interested in authentic sushi.

(*) References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_roll

Behind today’s worldwide sushi boom, CaliforniaRoll’s contribution was really significant. It mustbe one of the most significant innovation in theworld sushi history.

~ About 48,000 Japanese restaurants existoutside Japan. These days, Korean and Thairestaurants also have Sushi menu.(Washington Post, Nov/11/’06)