Dec 11

Dec 11 Pioneers

I had dinner last night with my good friend Koji Hase. My wife used to work for him and we have since become friends. We try to go to dinner every 4 to 6 months and talk about business and life. I really enjoyed our conversations. I find chatting with Koji fascinating as we come from very different generations, backgrounds and perspectives which are so opposite they actually give us common ground.

I am an American trying to do business in Japan while Koji is Japanese but typically interacting overseas. It is fun to discuss and explore our different perspectives and approaches to situations. Koji gives me tips on being more thoughtful and measured in my approach while I advise him on how to be more aggressive and brash. We are a bit of an odd couple...

Koji's name might not be immediately recognizable to you but it should be. This article gives a good introduction on Koji "Few people can claim to have shaped our lives but Koji Hase is one of them." He is well known in the Electronics Industry as 'pioneer of DVD and CD-ROM technology'.

Koji spend 30 years at Toshiba corporation where he lead the development of the CD-ROM and pioneered the development and go to market of the DVD. His efforts, and that of his partner at Warner Brothers Warren Lieberfarb, were recognized by the Entertainment Industry with an Emmy.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting Warren at a friend's wedding a few years ago. We were the only two foreigners there so we had lots of time to chat. We were discussing something and he mentioned that he sat next to the CEO of my company at the time at a meeting in Davos. Since I don't run in those circles it took me a little while to realize he was referring to the 'World Economic Forum'. I don't get invited...yet.

Most of our discussion last night was how do you transform a company. I was thinking about to a lot of the meetings I had over the past few weeks and a lot the ability to drive transformation is to help an organization see a future they didn't know they could have or is possible.

On a completely random point I had a friend attend Tony Robbin's 'A date with destiny' and he shared the playlist. I am filling my iPhone and thought I would share the list with you:

1. Thunderstruck (AC/DC)

2. Holiday (Green Day)

3. Vertigo (U2)

4. In Da Club (50 Cent)

5. Lose Yourself (Eminem)

6. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

7. Sandstorm (Da Rude)

8. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs (Fall Out Boy)

9. Numb (Linkin Park)

10. Speed of Sound (Coldplay)

11. Somebody Told Me (The Killers)

12. This is Your Life (Switchfoot)