Hirotaka Takeuchi’s research while affiliated with Harvard Medical School and other places

In this article, we apply our latest thinking on knowledge to provide insights on how to reconceptualize strategy to cope with a VUCA world, epitomized recently by COVID-19. We demonstrate that business leaders must draw on phronesis, or practical wisdom, for strategy to become more future-oriented, society-focused, dynamic, and human-centric. Using in-depth case studies, we show how companies will survive in the long run if they start with a moral purpose, and end by offering value to customers, contributing to society, living in harmony with nature, and creating a new and better future. We came up with six practices that enable business leaders to create new and better futures, citing evidences from neuroscience. We conclude that humans should be at the center of strategy, driving future-making with the help of digital-led automation. Reconceptualizing strategy based on this "inside-out" approach, the reward to the company is resilience, longevity, and sustainability.

Two simple but fundamental questions set knowledge-based strategy apart from other schools of thought in strategy. The first is ‘Why do firms differ?’ Firms differ not just because they have different activity systems or different resources, but because human beings running the firms envision different futures. The second is ‘Why do firms exist?’ Firms exist not only to maximize shareholder value, but also to improve the human condition and improve the future for their customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders as well as for society at large, including the environment.

In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global organizations that operate effortlessly across borders. And they find it tough to ensure that their people adhere to values and ethics. The authors assert that leaders must acquire practical wisdom, or what Aristotle called phronesis: experiential knowledge that enables people to make ethically sound judgments. Wise leaders demonstrate six abilities: (i) They make decisions on the basis of what is good for the organization and for society. (2) They quickly grasp the essence of a situation and fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events. (3) They provide contexts in which executives and employees can interact to create new meaning. (4) They employ metaphors and stories to convert their experience into tacit knowledge that others can use. (5) They exert political power to bring people together and spur them to act. (6) They use apprenticeship and mentoring to cultivate practical wisdom in orders.

Eisai has used knowledge creation as the engine of growth for its operation in Japan and was wondering if it can be utilized on a global scale.Learning Objective: Show how SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) works.

This book provides an introduction to the field of knowledge management. Taking a learning-centric rather than information-centric approach, it emphasizes the continuous acquisition and application of knowledge. The book is organized into three sections, each opening with a classic work from a leader in the field. The first section, Strategy, discusses the motivation for knowledge management and how to structure a knowledge management program. The second section, Process, discusses the use of knowledge management to make existing practices more effective, the speeding up of organizational learning, and effective methods for implementing knowledge management. The third section, Metrics, discusses how to measure the impact of knowledge management on an organization. In addition to the classic essays, each section contains unpublished works that further develop the foundational concepts and strategies.

This book provides an introduction to the field of knowledge management. Taking a learning-centric rather than information-centric approach, it emphasizes the continuous acquisition and application of knowledge. The book is organized into three sections, each opening with a classic work from a leader in the field. The first section, Strategy, discusses the motivation for knowledge management and how to structure a knowledge management program. The second section, Process, discusses the use of knowledge management to make existing practices more effective, the speeding up of organizational learning, and effective methods for implementing knowledge management. The third section, Metrics, discusses how to measure the impact of knowledge management on an organization. In addition to the classic essays, each section contains unpublished works that further develop the foundational concepts and strategies.

Business strategy is becoming increasingly ’pluralist’, drawing on the insights of different disciplines and business practice in different parts of the world. This book brings together, under three main headings, the work and ideas of leading international scholars working in the field: Part I, Technology in the firm (4 chapters); Strategy/organization (6 chapters); and Part III, Regions (8 chapters). The purpose of the book is to explore, from different perspectives, the dynamic interplay between the technology of a firm, its strategies, organizational choices, and issues of place, region, and location. The volume is an edited version of the revised papers that were originally presented at the Third Prince Bertil Symposium on the Dynamic Firm, in Stockholm, in June 1994.