Most globetrotting American businesspeople are aware that the current chatter in many airport executive lounges throughout the world revolves around predicting the decline of America as the world’s richest nation and standard bearer for the future of business. Of course recent events involving convulsions in the U.S. financial system, massive bank failures and bailouts, and the devaluing of the dollar have all contributed to such notions, but the facts on the ground still seem to point toward the U.S., and its entrepreneurial spirit, as the vanguard of our global business future.
This point was recently brought home to me while examining the current fortunes of Japan’s youngest billionaire, 32-year-old Yoshikazu Tanaka, the founder and CEO of social networking service Gree (www.gree.jp). With a personal net worth of around $1.6 billion, Tanaka is not only the youngest billionaire in Japan, but also one of the few “self-made” billionaires in the country to take an idea from start to finish powered primarily by his own ingenuity. Tellingly, on the world stage, the only billionaire younger than Tanaka is 25-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Playing host to over 15 million users who primarily access the service’s gaming and networking tools via mobile phone, Gree is slowly closing in on SNS powerhouse Mixi, a site that boasts roughly 18 million users. What makes Tanaka’s unique drive and success in Japan particularly interesting is that it was largely inspired by innovators from the U.S.
In a recent interview in Forbes, Tanaka revealed that the seeds of his early tech obsession came in part from his exposure to the book “Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century” by American futurist Alvin Toffler. In fact, the meeting rooms within Gree’s headquarters bear names such as Mountain View (home to Google) and Sunnyvale (Yahoo’s U.S. homebase), obvious homages to the giants of Silicon Valley. In keeping with his Silicon Valley-style approach—the polar opposite of Japan’s traditional focus on buttoned-up humility—Tanaka is even quoted in the article as saying, “We will pass [Mixi’s user base numbers] within six months.” Until recently, such naked confidence was a rare sight among Japanese executives. But despite cautionary rise-and-fall tales such as that of Livedoor’s brash Takafumi Horie, American-influenced entrepreneurial bluster is on the rise in Japan.
Moving into the new year it is important to remember that the ethos of constant change and innovation that America is known for usually finds its most fertile ground during economically challenging times such as these. Further elaboration on how Japan is finding its footing during this economic storm, as well as the opportunities inherent in the tumult, can be found in Jesper Koll’s insightful Points Of View column this month on page 20.
Finally, as we witness continued tectonic shifts in the market typified by JAL’s bankruptcy proceedings (page 11), and global events that will shape the next decade such as the recent COP15 conference (page 28) and the upcoming APEC meeting in Japan (page 36), it may be helpful to keep in mind that creating “order out of chaos” has always been a profitable enterprise.
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