Just like a windsurfer going for " Jaws", the biggest and most dangerous swell near Maui Island, I desire to go for e-business "Jaws" as an e-business explore. For me, a Wake Forest MBA can give me world class business techniques to challenge my 2 e-business " Jaws".

After finishing business school, I will grow into an e-business manager in JCB.

I will launch a new e-commerce strategy, a JCB B2B portal site for corporations, using Oracle, Ariba, Sap and other major suppliers .We will provide a settlement system without credit cards, perhaps naming it “JCB Ghost Card System”. Using an alliance strategy, I will grab major consulting groups, like Accenture or PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to consult my clients. Then, I will throw my dream into the untouched $1trillion B2B market in Japan, then, Korea, China, and into the over $1.5 trillion market in US, beating out Amex and Visa. To prove my success I will catch Sony as my first client. Then my first e-business “Jaws” ride will have been conquered.        

After succeeding in B2B market world wide, I will evolve into e-business entrepreneur.

I will create a new company, JCB e-solutions, which plans and develops the future form of credit cards. This will be done collaborating with NTT DoCoMo, the largest cell phone company in Japan. I can already see the day that cell phones will function as credit cards. We will buy Coca-Cola in vending machines with our cell phone. I will negotiate with Seven Eleven Japan so that electronic money can be used in convenience stores.  I will relieve people’ wallets, swollen with many cards, and give them a final answer to “Why credit card? Why not cash?”   The second e-business “Jaws” will break into bubbles after my sharp ride.    

Until age 18, I was confined in Ehime, the most rural part in Japan. I escaped to Kyoto for my university, seeking a new life. I flew to Australia to try myself more. During my studies in Perth, I discussed my 　life and my thoughts with my classmates until dawn many nights drinking “ Swan Beer” in my favorite bar. I left for Japan from Perth airport, promising to myself, “Next time let’s discuss business.” Without any concrete goal, I entered JCB. I just wanted to do business overseas and discuss with non-Japanese as I did in Perth. But I found myself to be a typical Japanese businessman with no direction on JCB’s ocean.

At JCB I harvested several outcomes as a salesman, getting new sales contracts, including Compaq Computer Japan and Johnson & Johnson Japan. My high sales results put me in the top rank as a promising businessman. My colleague admired my business records. But, for me, these achievements were just figures. This did not reflect my mind. The more I got high sales records, the more I felt myself drifting at JCB. Before I knew it, I obeyed my supervisors regardless of whether they were right or wrong. I cared for my company’s seniors and cared less for myself. For two years I kept agonizing and trying to find my real business life and my real intention hidden behind my business suit. I decided to change myself to be a challenger, not just a “drifting businessman”, to explore my own business oceans, reconsidering the rest of my business life. The more I challenged, the more I freely expressed myself, creating “JCB Expense Settlement Solution” and “JCB Travel Management Solution”.  Achievements I was truly proud of. Finally my own business oceans opened to me. With strong motivation and strong will, my business life seemed to go forward without any hesitation. But other big swells prevented me from advancing.

In March 2000. I spoiled the chance to join Sony’s project about Internet-based procurement.  Mr.Takanose, the head of procurement department in Sony, said to me “Show me JCB’s clear B2B strategy and what you can do for me”. I was in a despair, thinking “How do I show Sony that we have no strategy?” I ran about, inside JCB, to find a clue to build our strategy. There was no clue. I couldn’t visit Sony again.   

In March 2001, I said “ I am sorry” to Mr. Ando, specialist in forming new venture at Tokyu travel agency.  I was working with him to create a joint venture for Internet-based back office’s outsourcing service. Every time after the meeting, I received homework he needed me to complete for the joint venture. But every time I got lost. In developing joint venture, I did not know how to start analyzing this potential market, to market this outsourcing service and to plan this venture’s financial strategy. Another business died out.

At the 2000 B2B Ariba conference in San Diego, I was shocked that Amex was exploring the new B2B Internet market with “Amex@works”. Amex was already attempting to ride e-business “Jaws” while we were still playing on the beach.  

Best windsurfers never sail on a big swell without the right sailing ability and perfect confidence for it.  They know the difference between “reckless” and “challenger”. Before I ride on 2 e-business “Jaws” successfully, I need following two abilities: strong e-business strategic planning ability and entrepreneurship.    

To fill my gap, I started to pursue an MBA and knew Wake Forest will fulfill my goal. Checking your home page and CD-Rom, and discussing with Ms. Pamela Lietz in Tokyo MBA forum, I could visualize myself in Wake forest, working deeply with other students and professors and creating my own business ideas and solutions. You have the advanced e-business program and entrepreneurship with Dr. Stanley W. Mandel and Dr. Ronald L. Thompson. Your MBA program can help me to grow my e-business strategic planning skills with which I apply to all unknown e-commerce oceans that I will surf. Through your entrepreneurship course, I will catch the right venture business skills to be successful. I can make sure my progress with your “The Management Consulting Practicum”. This all convinced me “you are it”. I went on the Internet from my PC and began to fill your on-line application form. Carrying myself to your community, I will play a same role in your community as I did in my life.  

With a strong heart, I will lead in your community.

In 1993 during my university, I applied to lead 50 freshmen to adapt to university life. Although initially all 50 freshmen put on a cool air towards me, I decided to unite my mind with their mind to lead them. I attended all of their discussion classes and disclosed myself there. I kept listening to the agonies of broken hearted girls, telling my more devastating broken heart stories to ease them. For 48hours without sleep, I nursed freshman Takeda, whose heart stopped after too much drinking in a bar.  In JCB, I guided my junior to seek his dream. Mr. Yamagishi was a stray fish in JCB oceans. He wanted to be a computer graphic designer. I mentored him in a Miami coffee shop over 5 hours. He left JCB for his dream, saying to me “I found my way!” I influenced JCB by initiating projects. I continued to challenge my successive department heads, showing my honest opinions about their marketing strategies. For me, leadership is to disclose myself, to lead other people the right way and to make myself grow more through leadership activity. I can see myself doing this in Wake Forest community. I will tell all my job stories and disclose my failures and my success in every class. I won’t hesitate to raise my hand first in every class. I am welcome to “cold calling”. I will lead discussions to elicit other peoples’ opinions. This can help my classmates to think more deeply in any discussion. My classmates will learn from my honest stories. My leadership will value your community.

My classmates will burn to reach their goals with me.

Please do not touch my motivation. Otherwise you will get burned. I always set up my goals in my life and tried to achieve them. During university, I tried to be the “ hottest wind surfer in Japan.” I threw myself into icy cold water in lake Biwa near Kyoto for 2winter seasons. Although it was snowing around me, my heart was burning.Seeing my effort, other members joined with me. My winter windsurfing team grew bigger, from just me to 10 committed members. In JCB, I set up a goal to be an “innovator”. To be an innovator, I dived into the new B2B market. I worked until midnight over 3 months for this strategy. My colleagues called me “ Seven-Eleven” at that time. Although my strategy was not perfect, Mr. Fukagawa, my department head, understood my motivation and believed in me, saying “Ok, I will help you.” Later, I saw JCB launched a new organization for B2B. During my Wake Forest’s time, if my classmates are giving up their aims, I will show my motivation to my goal, encouraging them and walking with them until they achieve their objectives.

I will bring the joy of developing new business plans with other students.

I believe in the equation zero + zero = one. Like that, I created new things out of nothing. When I lived in Perth, Australia, I produced a Japanese culture promotion event to introduce my culture to other foreign students. In JCB, I kept creating new solutions from zero, including JCB Business Travel Solution and JCB Expense Settlement Solution. In your community, I will get a chance to show my creativity in any business plan contest, beating out other business schools. Through sharing my new way of thinking, my classmates can understand the joy of creating new business. I will show them how I developed my past business models, describing my thought circuit inside my brain. This will lead other students to catch a new perspective.