Last fall, SPICE provided me an opportunity to design and organize its first post-collegiate online course. The Stanford-Hiroshima Collaborative Program on Entrepreneurship (SHCPE’s Japanese-friendly pronunciation, “shu-ppe”) was conducted in collaboration with the Hiroshima Business and Management School (HBMS) at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima (PUH). HBMS offers the only Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in Japan’s western region of Chugoku and Shikoku. Interacting with amazing individuals on both sides of the Pacific, this unique experience brought me priceless moments.

Innovation in Itself

SHCPE, a course to help nurture entrepreneurial thinking, was an innovation in itself. The program was born out of Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki’s vision to design and implement a social challenge to help accelerate Hiroshima’s regional growth. Harnessing the resources of Stanford and Silicon Valley, the new online class was launched to empower the students and to revitalize the business sector in Hiroshima. SPICE created the curricular content and HBMS provided the learning environment designed to maximize the academic experience for the students. As the course’s curriculum designer, I leveraged the expertise of my fellow SPICE online instructors and applied design thinking, a method developed by Stanford faculty, practiced widely in Silicon Valley, and popularized globally to understand the end-user, challenge our assumptions, and reconstruct alternative perspectives to generate innovative ideas.

Bridging Silicon Valley and Hiroshima

SHCPE’s 18 MBA students in Hiroshima met every Saturday morning for three hours from September 28 to November 16, 2019 to connect online with Japanese entrepreneurs, professionals, and scholars in Silicon Valley. The first virtual class focused on discussing the mindset expected for the course as well as the conceptual framework. In the following six weeks, we welcomed guest speakers who shared their diverse experiences. What were their prior experiences, expertise, and insights? What resources did they have to achieve their goals? What were the major promoters and impediments to their journeys? Through active exploration of these questions, the students were exposed to real-life case studies to analyze Silicon Valley’s ecosystem and think critically about entrepreneurial competence and qualification. The course was conducted entirely in Japanese.

The guest speakers engaged and energized the HBMS students. Akira Onozato spoke about the evolution of Silicon Valley over the past three decades. His diverse experiences as a serial entrepreneur painted a rich picture of the San Francisco Bay Area’s growth cycle. Akira’s story provided a great segue to Rika Nakazawa’s lecture on the mindset and culture surrounding startups. Rika highlighted grit, tolerance of failure, and branding as important assets of successful entrepreneurs. Dr. Fumiaki Ikeno spoke on the landscape and trends in the medical device industry. He pointed to Japan’s declining productivity and economic competitiveness and discussed the persistent fear of failure as a major impediment to promoting entrepreneurship. As an active venture capitalist on both sides of Pacific, Seiji Miyasaka explained the funding schemes and financial cycles surrounding the investment climate of startups. Using case studies, he highlighted the role of investors who act as coaches to aspiring entrepreneurs. Tatsuki Tomita’s definition of a startup was shaped by his own experiences of starting multiple companies. His discussion of the pivot pyramid provided a visual guideline for how startups can experiment with ideas and find their product-market fit. Tasha Yorozu shared her expertise as a legal counsel, walking through the steps of starting a business in Silicon Valley. Along with Jumpei Ishii, a visiting legal counsel from Japan, Tasha further discussed their observations of successful startup practices and common pitfalls. The diversity of SHCPE guests represented the vibrant Silicon Valley community. 

Active Learning and Knowledge Construction

While these professionals provided informative accounts of their expertise, SHCPE’s ultimate goal was to help each HBMS student to develop a mindset of an active learner. The MBA students were constantly challenged to think critically about the weekly theme, and work in pairs or teams to discuss assigned topics. The experience offered a dynamic and interactive learning environment for the Japanese students in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who had been accustomed to traditional lecture-style formats. SHCPE’s curriculum based on design thinking adopted an inquiry-based learning pedagogy, which engaged every student through weekly assignments and in-class discussions. During the first class, the students were informed that SHCPE would not teach them entrepreneurship. Instead, this course would provide them with the opportunity to reconstruct their knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation based on what they observe, hear, and feel during the class. In addition, the students were required to provide feedback after each class, which was utilized to redesign the lesson plans for the following week.

This active and experiential mindset was envisioned by Dr. Gary Mukai, Director of SPICE and a renowned Japan–U.S. educator. “At SPICE, we provide students an opportunity to own their learning experience. Education is about empowering the students,” Dr. Mukai asserts. This tradition comes from the American philosopher and education reformist John Dewey, who said, “I believe finally, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing.” SHCPE’s inaugural curriculum aimed to implement this philosophy through direct, real-life interaction with founders and movers in Silicon Valley, and through the iterative process to deconstruct and reconstruct their knowledge on entrepreneurship.

Innovation Through Education

What SHCPE aimed to achieve was innovation through education. The weekly three-hour online class was roughly divided into three parts: guest lecture, class discussion, and interview. Prior to the interview session, a pre-assigned team of three students met with me in a separate online room and brainstormed their interview questions. For the majority of the students, it was their very first time to formally interview a person, and the experience brought a novel learning opportunity to think critically about entrepreneurial competence. Many commented on the challenge and the excitement of getting to know strangers by engaging them in a thoughtful conversation. The weekly interview highlighted the philosophy, aspiration, and raw sentiments of the guest speakers, evoking passion, energy, and empathy among the students.

Through observations and discussions, the SHCPE participants built their own knowledge and understanding of what constitutes entrepreneurship. To conclude the eight-week course, I had the chance to visit Hiroshima to offer the last SHCPE class in person, and to observe first-hand their reaction to the curriculum design. Meeting the students as well as the HBMS faculty and staff who supported SHCPE, was an incredibly rewarding experience. My class focused on education and empowerment. The students discussed in teams how they might develop a curriculum to promote entrepreneurship in Hiroshima. Much to everyone’s delight, one of the students expressed his hope to apply what he learned in this course and serve as an angel investor to support local startups. The class culminated with a closing ceremony during which each student was presented an official Certificate of Completion. My trip to Hiroshima also provided a valuable opportunity to visit Governor Yuzaki as well as PUH President Ken-ichi Nakamura, who emphasized the importance of adding a real-life, global perspective to the HBMS curriculum. Programs such as SCHPE were made possible through these leaders’ foresight and support.

SHCPE strived to adopt the pedagogy of active learning and the toolsets of design thinking to implement Governor Yuzaki’s vision of “learning innovation.” The course appears to have succeeded in helping to realize his vision as one student reflected upon his experience:

This class does not intend to offer answers [to the question what entrepreneurship is]. Instead, it urges the students to constantly think on their own and engage themselves in learning. This is very different from the Japanese traditional pedagogy, which relies on rote memorization and mechanical process of practice problems. This class highlighted the fundamental difference in the philosophy of how we look at education, and I enjoyed this eye-opening experience.

SHCPE ’19 concluded with much enthusiasm. SPICE looks forward to continuing its partnership with HBMS to build upon the invaluable lessons learned from the inaugural program. With Stanford e-Hiroshima, an online course for high school students managed and taught by my colleague Rylan Sekiguchi, SPICE will continue its efforts to empower the people in Hiroshima.

Acknowledgement

I am greatly indebted to Dr. Gary Mukai for providing me this invaluable opportunity. Special thanks go to Carey Moncaster, Dr. HyoJung Jang, Jonas Edman, Meiko Kotani, Naomi Funahashi, Rylan Sekiguchi, Sabrina Ishimaru, Dr. Tanya Lee, and Waka Takahashi Brown for their valuable comments on the preliminary curriculum. I thank all of my colleagues at SPICE for their support and encouragement throughout the process.

My special gratitude goes to Akira Onozato, Dr. Fumiaki Ikeno, Jumpei Ishii, Rika Nakazawa, Seiji Miyasaka, Tatsuki Tomita, and Tasha Yorozu who took the time out of their busy Friday evening to participate in the virtual classroom. Their contagious enthusiasm energized the students.

Last but not least, I would like to express my deep appreciation to my collaborators at HBMS. I thank Professor Katsue Edo for his hard work and commitment to implement the program, Professor Yasuo Tsuchimoto for his technical expertise and dedication to administer the distance-learning, Professor Narumi Yoshikawa for supporting in-class discussions, and Kazue Hiura, Yoshihiko Oishi, and Kenji Okano for their capable assistance and thoughtful arrangements. Last but not least, my heartfelt congratulation goes to the 18 MBA students who successfully completed SHCPE ’19. The inaugural class will always have a special place in my heart.

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• Stanford Alumni Weekend (October 24–27, 2019) Feature: Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki & SPICE’s Dr. Mariko Yoshihara Yang and a New Online Course for MBA Students in Japan

 

Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki (MBA, 1995) and Dr. Mariko Yoshihara Yang (MA, 1995, PhD, 2000) participated on an education-focused panel at Stanford University on August 26, 2019. The panel was part of the California-Japan Governors’ Symposium that was co-hosted by the U.S.-Japan Council and the Silicon Valley Japan Platform, which is co-chaired by Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto, founding director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. One of the objectives of the education panel was to encourage educational collaborations between Japan and California.

Keeping many of the key discussion points from the education panel in mind, Yang recently conceptualized and launched a SPICE online course for MBA students at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima (PUH) and other universities in Hiroshima. The course is called the Stanford-Hiroshima Collaborative Program on Entrepreneurship (SHCPE) and is offered under the leadership of Professor Katsue Edo, Hiroshima Business and Management School (HBMS), PUH.

Yuzaki shaped the rationale for the course. Yuzaki stated, “We are now facing times when it is critical to design a new social system for accelerating the growth of Hiroshima Prefecture. In this environment, the government of Hiroshima is promoting various plans for enhancing a creative region and developing the economy and society of Hiroshima.” This sentiment has prompted Yuzaki to stay in close touch with his Stanford mentor, Okimoto, and involved with the Silicon Valley Japan Platform. Yuzaki continued, “To achieve this goal, challenging students through education is one of the most important issues in Hiroshima. The Stanford-Hiroshima Collaborative Program on Entrepreneurship established by the HBMS at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima and SPICE will deliver a very valuable program which offers knowledge and wisdom of the practitioners of business in Silicon Valley, which is an intense area of innovation near Stanford University. It will also foster entrepreneurship and management for the next generation of leaders, who will contribute to the further development of Hiroshima and Japan.”

SHCPE Instructor Yang has noted that the course “provides a unique opportunity for the MBA students in Hiroshima to connect and interact with Japanese entrepreneurs, professionals, and scholars of Silicon Valley in a virtual setting. SHCPE’s speaker lineup includes Stanford scholars as well as founders of a software startup, a social networking organization, and an educational non-profit as well as venture capitalists, a legal expert, and a policy advisor. Together with these guests, the students explore and analyze Silicon Valley’s ecosystem and think critically about entrepreneurial competencies.”

 

Dr. Yang (on screen) with MBA students at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima. Photo credit: Kazue Hiura, PUH.    

 

In November, Yang will be visiting Hiroshima to meet with Yuzaki as well as PUH President Ken-ichi Nakamura. Yang will have the chance to share her initial assessment of the course with Yuzaki and Nakamura, who has emphasized the importance of inviting lecturers from universities outside of Japan to work with PUH’s MBA students in order to underscore the importance of adding global perspectives to the curriculum. Nakamura has stated, “For the students to step forward into the globalizing world, they must feel and experience the real challenges of an increasingly interdependent world and this course is providing exactly that.” Yang will also be offering the final SHCPE class in person and will meet her students in person for the first time.

SHCPE is an example of “Engagement beyond our university,” which is one of the four key areas in Stanford’s long-range plan and a timely topic of consideration during the upcoming Stanford Alumni Weekend. Yang has noted, “SHCPE utilizes knowledge and methodologies developed at Stanford University. In the first session, students were introduced to techniques and mindset of Design Thinking by interviewing, ideating, and prototyping for their partners. Through the eight-week course, the students will not only acquire new knowledge on Silicon Valley’s ecosystem, but also challenges themselves to hone their analytical skills, nurture entrepreneurial creativity, and develop a Growth Mindset.” This resonated in Nakamura who reflected, “The Stanford-Hiroshima Collaborative Program on Entrepreneurship was developed to be an opportunity for our students to learn the ways of thinking taught by the innovators of Silicon Valley and Stanford University. We are confident that this will be an exciting program which will contribute not only to promote academic research but also to promote business practices in Hiroshima.”

As SPICE continues to strive to make Stanford scholarship accessible to students not only in the United States but also in other countries, SPICE looks forward to continuing its partnership with PUH and other universities in Hiroshima for many years to come, and building upon lessons learned from the inaugural SHCPE course. Yuzaki and Yang crossed paths during their graduate school years at Stanford and Yang reflected that “despite the passage of many years since the completion of our programs, it has been very much an honor to reconnect and work with fellow Stanford alumnus Governor Yuzaki to improve U.S.–Japan relations through educational channels across the Pacific… and I would be remiss to not say that the reconnection would not have been possible without the vision of my academic advisor and mentor, Professor Okimoto.”

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The stars have finally aligned to enable SPICE to launch its first online course in China, Stanford e-China—an interactive, virtual class for Chinese high school students. Many factors now make this venture possible: access to China’s education system via partners on the ground in country; capable virtual technology; compelling student interest among Chinese high school students to study abroad at universities like Stanford; and the identification of a highly qualified instructor.

The inaugural Stanford e-China online course, Technologies Changing the World: Design Thinking into Action, will start in Winter 2020, open to enrollment of high school students throughout China. Students will explore cutting-edge technologies that are defining the future and providing exciting areas for academic study, professional opportunities, and entrepreneurial innovation. Focusing on the fields of green tech, finance tech, health tech, and artificial intelligence, students will engage in live discussion sessions (“virtual classes”) and real-time conversations with Stanford University scholars, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, as well as American high school students.

While collaborating with Study Abroad Director Emma Vanbergen and China Director of International Education Julia Gooding at BE Education, it became clear that Chinese students seek hands-on projects with real-world impact. As China leads the way in many technological fields from green tech to artificial intelligence, a key challenge in developing this online course has been finding a framework that encourages students to analyze challenges facing each of the technologies highlighted in the course and then brainstorm innovative solutions. To showcase the dynamic research and teachings at Stanford University, SPICE honed in on Design Thinking, a creative-thinking and problem-solving framework very active throughout campus and Silicon Valley.

As a final project, Stanford e-China students will delve into an area of personal interest in one of the technology fields, applying aspects of the Design Thinking framework, to develop a prototype pitch. The top three students from each course will be invited to Stanford University to present their pitches and sharpen Design Thinking skills with Stanford practitioners in person. Design Thinking is a very hands-on, interactive, team-based experience that is dependent on critical feedback from other people. Translating the Design Thinking concepts online, with students, scholars, and practitioners virtually scattered across the world presents an exciting opportunity to create curriculum that effectively introduces the skills and mindset.

SPICE is drawing on the expertise of Mariko Yoshihara Yang and Rie Kijima, co-founders of SKY Labo and long-time collaborators with SPICE and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. The technologies explored in this course—green tech, finance tech, health tech, and artificial intelligence—have timely, global impact. The contributors to the Stanford e-China’s development span the world as well—from Stanford to Britain, China, and other countries of Asia. The Stanford e-China course is informed by over 16 years of SPICE online course offerings for high school students in other countries in Asia as well as throughout the United States. Stanford University scholars will also play pivotal roles as lecturers and guest speakers on the course’s leading technological fields and related pressing issues.

SPICE Director Gary Mukai recently noted, “The roots of SPICE date back to the establishment of the Bay Area China Education Project (BAYCEP) at Stanford University in 1973. Since then, SPICE has produced curriculum materials on China and hosted teacher professional development seminars on China for teachers in the United States, and more recently has offered an online course on China for high school students in the United States—all with the goal of helping Americans better understand China. I am delighted that 46 years since the establishment of BAYCEP, Stanford e-China has become a reality and for the first time in its history, SPICE will be working formally with students in China. SPICE is grateful to be collaborating with BE Education in this initiative.”  

The inaugural 10-week course will be offered in Winter 2020. Shorter 4- to 6-week courses will be offered in Summer 2020. Course details and application deadlines are available at http://stanfordechina.org. The online course is offered in English. Stanford e-China students should expect to allot 3–4 hours per week to complete the lectures, virtual classes, discussions, readings, and assignments. Although participation in virtual classes (held on Saturday mornings) is mandatory, students will be able to structure the other work around their individual schedules.

Carey Moncaster is developing the course as the Stanford e-China instructor. After graduation from U.C. Berkeley, Carey lived and worked in China throughout the 1990s as the country embarked on monumental economic changes. This experience was followed by graduate studies in East Asian Studies at Stanford University and her initial work with SPICE. She has launched educational programs for U.S. high school students throughout Asia, and most recently returns to SPICE from Seattle’s high-tech world of start-up ventures.

For more information, please contact Carey Moncaster, Stanford e-China instructor, at cmoncaster@stanford.edu.

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Stanford e-Japan Instructor Waka Brown and I recently met in Tokyo with Mr. Tadashi Yanai, President of the Yanai Tadashi Foundation. The Yanai Tadashi Foundation is the current supporter of Stanford e-Japan, an online course about U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations that SPICE offers in English to high school students from throughout Japan. Stanford e-Japan is now in its fourth year, and one of its objectives is to encourage students in Japan to consider applying to U.S. universities after graduating high school.

This objective aligns with one of the goals of the Yanai Tadashi Foundation—that is, to provide scholarships to students in Japan seeking to study as undergraduates in the United States at select universities, including Stanford. Its website notes the following: 

Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarship aims to provide promising young people with leadership potential the opportunity to study at world-class universities in the United States. The scholarship enables recipients to mix with an internationally diverse student body to cultivate their entrepreneurial skills and enhance their global perspective, encouraging their development as future drivers of a better society.

 

Brown has been encouraging some of her Stanford e-Japan students to consider applying to U.S. universities and the Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarship program. I recently spoke with Stanford University freshman Daisuke Masuda who is a Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarship recipient and asked him to share his thoughts on studying at Stanford. “I really wanted to study computer science and medical technology, and given that Stanford has strengths in both areas and is also at the center of Silicon Valley, I felt that Stanford was ideal for me. My current future goal is to use medical technology to solve social issues caused by aging societies.” He continued, “That said, I would not be here without Mr. Yanai’s generosity. I am also grateful to the other Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarship recipients across the country for being such a great community of learners. I highly recommend that high school students in Japan consider studying in the United States as undergraduates and applying for a Yanai Tadashi Foundation Scholarship. It is challenging but rewarding to study with brilliant students from all over the world.”

 

Also, while in Tokyo, Brown, Junichiro Hirata (Stanford e-Japan advisor), and I had the chance to meet with three Stanford e-Japan alumni. The Stanford e-Japan Program recognized Hikaru Suzuki and Haruki Kitagawa as two of the top students in the first Stanford e-Japan cohort in 2015. They are now attending the University of Tokyo and Keio University, respectively. Both remain engaged in U.S.–Japan relations and aspire to graduate studies at Stanford or another U.S. university. Jun Yamasaki, who was one of the top students of the fall 2017 Stanford e-Japan session, is currently a student at Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen Senior High School in Tokyo and plans to enroll at a U.S. university this fall.

 

Brown remarked, “It was very rewarding to witness the growth of the leadership skills of my former students and to listen to what they are doing and aspire to do in terms of promoting international mutual understanding. During my meeting with Mr. Yanai and his staff, I discovered that these are not only hallmarks of SPICE since its inception in 1976 but also of the Yanai Tadashi Foundation as well.”

Brown and I hope to see Suzuki, Kitagawa, Yamasaki, and many more Stanford e-Japan alumni as students at Stanford—like Masuda—someday. Mr. Yanai hopes that with the increasing numbers of Japanese students studying in the United States, the numbers of Japanese who enter fields like international business between the United States and Japan will also grow.