Born and grew up in Kyoto. Before joining the faculty of the College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University in April 2003, I worked for an audit corporation as a certified public accountant, where I engaged in auditing and various consulting services including: guidance on initial public offerings; management consulting for startups; industry-academia cooperation; and internal auditing. Through this experience, I felt there were limitations in the contemporary accounting system and started studying strategic maps and business plans, which remain my current research themes.

While working as a certified public accountant, I became interested in the moment when qualitative information is transformed into quantitative information, or, to be more specific, how qualitative information can be related to numerical targets that corporate managers set in order to indicate the direction for their companies to follow and check whether the direction is right. This interest led me to my current study on the methods of business planning and management strategy analysis, as well as on the improvement and development of strategy maps, which are tools that help to identify and solve corporate management problems. I am now conducting a survey with long-established companies in Kyoto to which these tools can be applied. The study at my seminar consists of three elements: reading MBA-level textbooks in turn; analyzing relevant cases; and conducting joint research with companies and other organizations. Basically, the seminar aims to train students to develop the ability to think theoretically and from diverse viewpoints through case studies on management strategies.

Policy science is not just about considering “why” a certain problem has arisen by analyzing the situation, but involves a process of considering “what” should be done to develop a plausible solution, and if possible, implementing the solution and examining its effect, thereby developing a better solution. It is not sufficient just to learn about tools that can be used for solving problems; students are also encouraged to learn the process of identifying and solving problems from actual cases, both theoretically and empirically.

Business succession, management of knowledge, management strategy