Business schools can help foster critical capabilities and life skills: how to make decisions around unanswered questions.
As the global economy looks increasingly uncertain, many people are scrambling to enhance their career portfolio and determine what direction their life is taking. Can an MBA degree help soothe some of these anxieties? Professor Hiroshi Kanno, a corporate strategy specialist who runs MBA programs in Japanese and English at Waseda Business School (WBS), and Ms Junko Suzuki, Chief Operating Officer of Global Finance at Nomura Holdings, discuss how business schools can help develop highly sought-after professionals in today’s rapidly changing business world.
We have various choices for learning. Why do business schools matter these days?
Kanno: As the world is more digitalized, anyone can easily access any information anywhere. Students don’t need to come to schools for one-way lectures. They read textbooks and watch video lectures in advance, and come to class to discuss, brainstorm, and develop answers for difficult questions. These things cannot be taught by self-studying.
Suzuki: Nomura Securities, one of the core subsidiaries of Nomura Holdings, has a long history of sending employees to business schools, with about 550 people attending over the past 60 years, mainly to well-established institutions in the US. The finance industry is highly complex and covers many diverse aspects of business practice; also, while “globalization” is a trendy word, we still see many differences in the regulations of the countries and jurisdictions where we operate, each creating unique challenges for our business. Therefore, we are seeking talent that is able to operate in a dynamic business environment and has diverse business knowledge and exposure to different cultural backgrounds. We believe Business schools can provide the opportunity and environment to learn these skills in comprehensive and practical ways through teaching and networking.
How has the value of MBAs changed over the past few decades?
Kanno: When I was an MBA student, the most popular jobs after graduation were at investment banks and consulting firms. Recently, however, many MBA graduates prefer to work for start-ups, because they are more ambitious and want to change the world by launching their own products and services.
At business school, we often cite “knowing, doing, being” as keywords for learning. “Knowing” is to obtain knowledge and “doing” is to develop the capability to act. “Being”— which means becoming the person you want to be— is increasingly the most important. The Internet cannot teach you, as a leader, how to make the right decisions to prevent misconduct. But our students have a great interest in ethical issues, and they get the most excited when we discuss business ethics in class. One of our missions is to help them develop these values.
Suzuki: Ethics is the most important element in any business. Our global finance division plays a crucial control role for the firm and needs to be impartial when dealing with the business. For example, finance division is in charge of ‘reasonableness’ of the firm’s balance sheet, including both quantitative and qualitative information reflecting financial positions. To keep a healthy balance sheet, finance division independently assess asset valuations, using professional judgement and minimal influence from the business side. This sometimes involves the need to challenge business members, but we hold ourselves accountable for our own business conduct as a corporate citizen. We cannot be complacent.
How valuable is an MBA in the job market?
Suzuki: Finance division has a few hundred people with almost 70% from outside companies prior to joining of Nomura. For early career joiners, we have various recruiting channels, such as Boston Career Forum and campus recruiting in the US. In the past couple of years, we have started hiring more MBA holders, and we have been pleased with their contribution, bringing both knowledge and maturity to their roles. Although having an MBA is not mandatory, many applicants who are selected for a final round of job interviews tend to hold MBA degrees. We have also hired two WBS graduates.
Regardless of MBAs, we are seeking people who have a clear vision of their career and life plans, and what they want to achieve at Nomura. We also look for people who show confidence and good judgement in decision making, especially in ‘grey’ areas. We believe this type of thinking comes from wisdom, exposure and experience, something which “book smart” persons may not be able to do easily.
Kanno: Many people come to our school not for a degree but for opportunities to grow, which ultimately gives them a competitive advantage in the job market.
What are the strengths of WBS?
Kanno: The biggest strength is diversity. Our programs include the full-time English course, the finance course and the double-MBA course with the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Our faculty staff are either at the forefront of academic research or well recognized as global business leaders. As our programs are diverse, we have a variety of students from different nationalities and industries. Non-Japanese students can interact with Japanese students and they improve their Japanese language skills very quickly. WBS is an exciting place for those who want to work for a Japanese company or do business related to Japan. Despite the pandemic, we continue to receive a lot of applications from abroad.
Another merit is the assured quality of education. WBS has obtained EQUIS and AACSB—two of the world’s three major international accreditations for business schools—and ranks highly in various business school rankings(1).
Moreover, we encourage dialogue between students and corporate presidents, and invite numerous guest speakers from various fields. We often visit many companies: from established firms like Nomura to aggressive start-ups.
What should young people keep in mind?
Suzuki: I believe when it comes to the kind of career you would like to pursue, it must be your own decision and you should have conviction that you have made the right choice. Similarly, in business there will be many situations where decisions need to be made without a simple yes or no answer. In such scenarios, where there are various different options to choose from and there may be conflict, it is important to make a decision and take responsibility, even if the outcome is not the best result.
Kanno: You have to have an idea of the career or life you want to pursue. If you come to a business school to achieve this, you will be very successful. This goal is exactly how we select our applicants.
Suzuki: As a global society, we are working very hard to transform ourselves as we move towards an uncertain future. We are trying to find answers by talking to people, reading, attending webinars, and many other efforts, but it can be challenging to decide how we should proceed. I think we need to train ourselves more to challenge and resolve unanswered questions.
It takes a lot of energy and effort to get out of a comfort zone, so I think it’s good for people to put themselves in intellectually stimulating environments. I envy people who have the opportunity to go to business school and be in these types of environment in this age of uncertainty.
(1) WBS ranked top in Japan and the fourth in Far Eastern Asia for full-time MBA in Eduniversal Best Masters Ranking 2021here
KANNNO Hiroshi, Professor, Waseda Business School
Hiroshi Kanno received his Master of Engineering and Architecture degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Master of Science in Industrial Administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Kanno worked in consulting services at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for 17 years. His last position at BCG was Partner and Managing Director, where he served as the Asia/Pacific regional leader of BCG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice.
SUZUKI Junko, Nomura Holdings, Inc.
Japan Finance COO Office Head | Global Finance COO
Managing Director
Thunderbird School of Global Management (Master of International Management)
30 years of product accounting, internal control, and project lead experience in Finance function. Worked at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup prior to joining Nomura Holdings, Inc. in 2010. Appointed as Finance Transformation Office Head in April, 2021.