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Join the essay class

I joined the seminar to learn essay in English. Mr. Chutatsu Aono, the professor of Business Breakthrough University taught us. It was very useful for these reasons.

First, professor showed the clear goal. We learn English to express ourselves. When we convince someone, we gather our thoughts and explain the viewpoints logically. After I acquire this skills, I can express myself more effectively.

Secondly, I could learn the frames to write the essay. Basically, essay consists of 3 parts, introduction, body, and conclusion. The simplest essay is gathered into one piece of A4 paper and about 300 words. The most orthodox body has 3 key points. The composition is like a BLT sand. This frame is crucial not only for writing but also speaking.

Thirdly, There is an opportunity to create new network. Classmates have each backgrounds. It is helpful to broaden my viewpoints.

Overall, I am happy to join this class. I will enjoy 3 more lessons.

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Elevator pitch comes suddenly

Elevator pitch comes suddenly. However, is there any experience that the inside of the head became white and chance could not be taken? In this way, from the fact that I had a bitter experience, I always want to state what I need to keep in mind.

  • Prepare and practice
    Daily effort bears fruit. Keep up your motivation. These following questions will help us when we image the contents of pitch.

    1. What was the question we tried to answer?
    2. Does our final message answer the question?
    3. Is our final message clear?
    4. Is it well supported by our analysis?
    5. Is our story easy to follow?
    6. Are there any new, innovative ideas?
  • Imagine the several situations

    • Can you pitch anytime? Before the meeting, after the meeting, in a hallway or in a cafe you imagine whenever the chance will come around.

  • Enjoy improvisation

    • Like jazz musicians you open your mind, accept the situation and enjoy.

Reference: Ishikura, Y. (2017). Global Agenda Seminar 2017. Retrieved to Novemver 2017

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Logical thinking helps to generate creative ideas

In the Session 4 Project Management Course, I learned these four significant points, come up with new idea that client has not thought about that, think much more creatively,  think much more practical and specific, and tell what you have found. It was so interesting because I saw creative ideas was not far from logical thinking. Furthermore, logical thinking helps to generate creative ideas because it is able to boarden the choice.

  • Come up with new idea that client has not thought about that

If we have a consulting project, talking to the client is the first step. However we do not list the information that we listened to the client. We need to come up with new idea that client has not thought about that. Client has issues and he/she wants you to beyond and breakthrough that.

  • Think much more creatively

It seems like kind of ideas as far as hear. It was very general things. Holding different events, inviting different speakers and so on is anybody can think about that. We need to think about much more creatively. Creativity is not breakthrough idea. It much more about how do we combine those things. Connecting ideas can lead to creativity.

  • Think much more practical and specific

Practical and general is different meaning. The antonym of practical is abstract and general is specific. Test or give it try and see what you get from the experiences is important.

  • Tell what you have found

It is not easy way but we need to progress. What we said seems general and abstract kind of thing. We need to proposal what is new and what is different for today.

Reference: Ishikura, Y. (2017). Global Agenda Seminar 2017. Retrieved to September 2017

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Defining Main Issue

Project Management in 21th century

I joined the seminar leaning Project Management second session.

Project Management key success factor is “Value” and “Productivity”. The value means right issue definition and good, effective, efficient solution.

Even though we came up with a perfect solution, but in the 21th century we need to be able to identify the problem, identify the cause, and come up with a solution as quickly as possible because the things are moving so quickly.

Effective
It gets to heart of the problem and not peripheral causes and reasons

Efficient
It identifies the best soluteon with minimum time and energy or resources

What is the Main Issue?

At the second session, each team shared the understanding of the main issue of the project, hypothesis, their project plan etc. Defining main issue is the most significant thing and teacher emphasized again and again. We prefer to start big picture and then break down.

Main issue

    • Defining main issue is the most important
    • Start big picture

Sub issues

    • List main issue broken down into smaller issues
    • Sub issues are described in the form of question with Yes or No answer

Useful Concept / Tools for Structuring Problem

    • MECE (Mutually Exclusive / Collective Exhaustive): 3Cs, 4Ps, 7S
    • Logic Tree
    • Issue Analysis
    • Pyramid Structure

To set the main issue is important but considerably difficult. Is the main issue which we set getting a point? Does it describe big picture? Is it really an issue? Based on professor’s advice, we redefined the main issue. I think that I cannot master the point of how to identify the main issue with a short period of training. However I desire to improve the ability to identify the main issue, identify the cause and come up with a solution as quickly as possible.

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My next adventure has started

I participated in the seminar that has started from June 22 to November 26. It provided the chance to think globally, to discuss in English and to create strategic proposals with group members.

The theme of this seminar is Project Management. Why does Project Management important? Because of the progress of technology, jobs are undergoing transformation and we have required teamwork to engage tasks with people of diverse background. Through this seminar, we will develop Project Management skills by doing.

The participants followed three organizations as their project clients and will work in teams about 5-6 people. I selected Finnish organization. Now the 6 months project has been started. The participants will research and prepare the hypothesis issue until next session.

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6 impacts Cloud services brought to the world

What company/business is having the greatest impact in the world today, either positive or negative?

Cloud services brought the greatest impact to the world. According to IBM homepage (2017), Cloud computing means computing as a service over the internet. Cloud computing often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources – everything from applications to data centers – over the internet on a pay-for-use basis.

I consider there are six drastic impacts which Cloud services brought; Social network, E-commerce, Crowdsourcing, Crowd-funding, Working style and Education. Gratton (2011) described the Cloud becomes ubiquitous; rapidly developing technology will create a global infrastructure upon which are available services, applications and resources. Cloud allows anyone with a computer or handheld devices to use these services from every corner of the world.

As a positive opinion, developing Cloud services promote globalization and diversification. Additionally, it will be easy to receive services that could not be accepted due to constraints such as location and time. Works become speedy and efficiently. On the other hand, discretion or evaluation is left to individual from the organizational. Therefore, as a negative opinion, there is a fear the disparity due to individual ability will expand further. Moreover, Employment and wages will be culled, as labor will flow to AI and low-cost wages.  The opportunities for face to face are reduced and people may feel more lonely.

 

6 impacts Cloud services brought to the world

1. Social network

Social networking sites (SNS) have become the major personal networking platform. Statista (2017) showed As of the first quarter of 2017, Facebook had 1.94 billion monthly active users.

Ex. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Google+, WhatsApp, WeChat, Pinterest, LINE

2. E-commerce

According to eMarketer (2016), total retail sales across the globe will reach $22.049 trillion in 2016, up 6.0% from the previous year and it also estimates sales will top $27 trillion in 2020.

E-commerce: Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten

Online payment: PayPal

3. Crowdsourcing

Daily Crowdsource (2017) indicates Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people. The word is a combination of the words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. As crowdsourcing can outsource talent from around the world, not only to workers in their own country, it will change the form of employment and payment in the world.

Ex: oDesk, Eklnce, witmart.com, Freelancer.com, 99designs, ImageBrief, ZOOPPA, Local Motors, talenthouse, Million You, Design Crowd, crowdsRING, eYeka, Chaordix, InnoCentive, Amazon Mechanical Truk, Clickworker, CrowdFlower, collective bias, agentarything,

4. Crowd-funding

Crowd-funding platform offers entrepreneurs opportunity to generate funds for their new venture.

Ex. Indigogo, RocketHub, Peerbackers, Kickstarter,

5. Working style

Cloud computing brings the innovative tools. These permits to telecommute or work from anywhere in the world.

Sharing knowledge: Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote

Teleconference: Skype, Google Hangout, Apper.in

6. Education

According to the Business Insider (2015), there are 37 best websites for learning a new skill. We can learn interactively at our own pace and at any place through the websites and apps. Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan with a goal of creating an accessible place for people to be educated. It provides short lectures by using YouTube videos (Khan Academy web site, 2017). edX, a massive open online course (MOOC), provides online courses from the world’s best universities. The MIT and Harvard University created edX in 2012. In 2016, edX has around 10 million students taking more than 1.270 courses online (edX web site, 2016). Coursera also provides world’s best courses, online, for free. It founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. In 2017, it had more than 24 million registered users and more than 2,000 courses (CardRates.com web site, 2017).

 

References

Business Insider. (2015). The 37 best websites for learning a new skill. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-37-best-websites-for-learning-a-new-skill-2015-8

CardRates.com. (2017). Education for the Modern Era: Transform Your Financial Life with Online Classes from Coursera and 149 of the World’s Best Universities. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://www.cardrates.com/news/learn-finance-online-from-worlds-best-universities-with-coursera/

Daily Crowdsource. (2017). What is crowdsourcing. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing

edX. (2017). Year in Review: edX in 2016. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://blog.edx.org/year-review-edx-2016?track=blog

eMarketer. (2016). Worldwide Retail Ecommerce Sales Will Reach $1.915 Trillion This Year. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Will-Reach-1915-Trillion-This-Year/1014369

IBM Homepage. (2017). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/learn-more/what-is-cloud-computing/

Khan academy. (2017). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.khanacademy.org/about

Lynda Gratton. (2011). The Shift: The future of work is already here. [Kindle version]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com. Location No. 384-396.

Statista. (2017). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 1st quarter 2017 (in millions). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

#BerkeleyX: ColWri2.2x Academic and Business Writing #Assignment Week1 #Pop-up Assignments

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Think about the type of writing I do in my daily life

What type of writing I typically do?

Since 2013 I have written various papers at the business school. For example, as a journal, I picked up some workplace problems and how to improve reflecting what I have learned. As the other type of writing, based on case studies, I gathered data, graphed, analyzed and summarized the considerations. Finally, I wrote the business plan proposal with my co-founders. These were hard works and took a lot of time, however this experience was awoken my desire to learning academic writing return to the foundation. I strongly feel the necessity to cultivate my own writing skills so that I can send out an attractive and creative journal in addition to logical and easy-to-understand sentences.

 

What I think about writing? Enjoy? Dread?

I love to write and the dream from elementary school was to be a journalist. In fact, I am working at a broadcasting company in Japan. Because my department is an engineering bureau, I am not mainly writing articles or writing manuscripts for broadcasting. However, there are many opportunities to explain what kind of updating or new broadcasting facilities are necessary in the future.

Writing is one of the means of communication. I feel very rewarding when I can convey to people properly and share information through my writing. It is laborious to write when I define the appropriate theme, target and the genre of writing style but I enjoy it.

 

What area of writing I need to improve most

First of all English is my second language, so I must make sure to use variety of vocabularies and not to mistake words or grammar.

Secondly, in order to communicate clearly to people, it is necessary to keep in mind the logical writing. Specifically, it is to describe consistent story and structures.

Thirdly, this is what I need to improve most, but to draw attractive and creative journals and articles. I believe that technology and journalism are inseparable even in recent years, such as data journalism. Now I am learning the method of data analysis additionally I try to improve my writing skill so that I would like to write useful blogs that people in the world can access. In future I want to create a new journalism platform using data visualization and write the article what I want to appeal clearly.

#BerkeleyX: ColWri2.2x Academic and Business Writing #Assignment Week1 #Journal1