Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Just finished reading the book titled “Hot, Flat and Crowded” by Thomas Friedman, 3 time Pulitzer Prize winning writer from the New York Times.  Hot, Flat and Crowded means the convergence of three forces:  Global warming, Globalization (which was the topic of his last bestselling book, “The World is Flat”) and Global population growth.
 
Friedman believes [...]

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Shift Happens – Did You Know?

This was first created by Karl Fisch in 2006, modified by Karl and Scott McLeod in 2007 and in 2008, adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome.  So it is dubbed “Did You Know 3.0″.
Do watch it if you have time, only 5 minutes long with a very catchy tune [...]

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Hollywood stars in Japanese ads

Hollywood stars have global appeal.  Here in Japan, it is no different as famous Hollywood stars have appeared in Japanese advertisements selling drinks, cars, phones, electronics, etc.  Have you seen the movie titled “Lost in Translation” with Bill Murray.  He played a movie star who traveled to Tokyo to shoot a commercial for Suntory Whiskey.
Currently, [...]

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Time Magazine: From Japan With Love

The cover story of the December 1, 2008 Japan issue of Time Magazine, titled Japan Reaches Out, describes Japan’s growing soft power making it a responsible world leader, in spite of its poor political and economic situation.
Foreign interest in learning Japanese is stronger today, with nearly 3 million people worldwide studied Japanese as a foreign [...]

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Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the hell is Matt? Apparently, he is all over the world!
A video of someone named Matt Harding doing his little dance all over the world – love this video to remind us that we are living in a small world (or flat world as Tom Friedman would say).
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from [...]

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A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

On a recommendation by an IBM colleague, I read Daniel’s Pink book titled “A Whole New Mind“.

It is a short and very easy read – I finished the book in 2 days. The author succinctly diagnoses the major problems the Western countries are facing: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Note that Asia is [...]

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ReportonBusiness.com: There’s trouble in Tokyo

An interview with Atsushi Saito, head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, warns of an impeding crisis in the Japanese economy from an article published on May 1, 2008 in Canadian ReportonBusiness.com.  The Japanese economy is the world’s second largest economy, but is in danger of bankruptcy because of its huge national debt, but more importantly [...]

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The Sushi Economy

Based on a referral from a friend, I picked up the book titled “The Sushi Economy” by Sasha Issenberg, published on May 2007 (so pretty new book). This book talks about three things that I am most personally interested these days: Globalization, Economics and Sushi. Well, I accepted my international assignment to [...]

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A few observations on working in Japan

Below are a few observations about the working environment in Tokyo.  In summary, it seems that I have been transported in time about 10-15 years ago (don’t get me wrong, this does not mean it is bad).
1.  Full employment policy – In Japan, layoffs are uncommon and employees usually work for one company in their [...]

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Discovery Channel: The Other Side of Outsourcing – Thomas Friedman

Check out this video on YouTube, from Discovery Channel about life in India as a result of outsourcing, through a visit by “The World is Flat” author Tom Friedman.

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