Living in More Than One World

In my previous installment of posts about the new book Drucker: A Life in Pictures, I remarked on the tremendous variety of people who are represented in documents depicted from the Drucker Archives, including Cesar Chavez, Rick Warren and Frances Hesselbein. As the chapter “The Social-Sector Advisor” makes clear, Peter Drucker was a citizen of the highest order. Besides some of the organizations mentioned in my earlier posts, this also illustrates his involvement with CARE International (CARE Foundation International Humanitarian Award; May 24, 1995), the Salvation Army (Evangeline Booth Award, 2001) and Mutual of America (Distinguished Citizens Service Award; April 4, 1991).

I was particularly struck by the photo of the typewritten document “Peter F. Drucker (Partial) List of Community Service Responsibilities 1950-1988.” He separates the list into two categories: (1) Doing, (2) Advisor and Consultant. The first includes (all as Drucker typed it): Trustee-some time Vice-Chairman, Montclair State College, Montclair, NJ, 1960-71;[Drucker lived in Montclair when he taught at New York University]; Board of Directors, American Management Association, 1952-1960; 1972-1976; Commissioner, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1986; Member, Asian Art Council, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986; Member, Advisory Council, Peace Corps, 1968-1973; President, Society for the History of  Technology.

In category two (again, not repeating organizations from my earlier posts, and as he typed it), the list includes the American Heart Association, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford Graduate Business School, Navajo Indian Tribal Council, International Rescue Committee, Japan House NYC, American Symphony Orchestra League and the Western Association of Hospitals. Those are only some of the organizations on both lists. And all of these responsibilities were on top of his other consulting work, as well as his teaching and writing. Peter Drucker as role model is on full display in this chapter, and in the entire book.

Matthew E. May delivers lots of timely and relevant information in The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything, his engaging new book about doing better work and living more productively and meaningfully. As the title suggests, Matt stresses the value of thoughtfully and strategically paying attention to what is not essential and can be eliminated; the creative importance of emptiness and negative space; and the power of intelligently working within constraints. This is his fourth book since 2006, on top of leading his own Los Angeles-based “ideas agency,” Edit Innovation, and lots of public speaking and blogging.
He has extensive experience working with Toyota, and one of the aspects I particularly enjoyed was the material on Japanese and Zen-based thought and action. It is helpful as I continue to reflect on my recent first time in Tokyo, where I spent a week making presentations about my book. And I am also honored to be one of the 54 “Silhouettes in Subtraction,” people who were invited to write one page each in his book about how subtraction has been important in our life and work. These include thought-provoking essays from the likes of author/executive Chip Conley, presentations guru Nancy Duarte and Little Bets author Peter Sims.
There are a number of captivating illustrations and pictures; appropriate for a book that is at least partially about design. Matt discusses how ideas become creative expression and how things can be and have been built better. You will also find in-depth looks into the creation of the Lexus brand within Toyota; the iconic FedEx logo; the Exhibition Road “shared space” street in London and the thought process that goes into comics, from an interview with Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
A premium is placed on things that are important yet difficult to achieve; such as reflection, quiet, calm and tranquility. On pages 192-198, he succinctly outlines some portals into these states; including mindfulness meditation, neurofeedback and retreats. These may not always be easy, yet the final one is certainly doable: “long, languid showers.”

A number of books and articles that I collected over a period of years became important background material for the Peter Drucker-related visit I made to Japan, as I wrote in the previous of (now six) posts about my week in Tokyo.
As helpful as all of that reading material was, I also read a lot of Drucker’s work about Japan, in books and articles, before and especially during my time there. One was Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue Between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi, which I read in the English translation published in 1997. But within that book it notes that the original was published in Japanese in 1995, titled Chosen no toki, as two volumes, by Diamond, Inc., Drucker’s publisher in Japan (and I’m happy to say, mine as well).
The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the American Condition; a 466 page collection of essays with new Drucker introductions, originally published in 1993, was also really valuable. Part Seven is called “Japan as Society and Civilization,” and contains five chapters plus the introduction.
It contains some of his most personal and wide-ranging writing on many aspects of Japanese life, including a 17 page essay, “A View of Japan Through Japanese Art,” which originally appeared in the catalog for a 1979 art exhibit. I particularly enjoyed a Wall Street Journal piece from 1980: “How Westernized Are the Japanese?” It includes a wonderful section about a “twenty-year-old daughter of old friends – we have known her since she was a toddler,” who indignantly tells him that in her philosophy seminar about Plato, the readings were not translated into Japanese. They were in the original Greek. She was also reading Kant and Schopenhauer, in German; along with “Whitehead, Russell, Wittgenstein and Symbolic Logic, in English, of course.” What, Drucker asks her, are you doing for fun? Her reply: “This is fun.” The young student would be 52 now. One wonders what became of her, and the other people in this short, enlightening article in a big, helpful book.

In my previous post about my recent Peter Drucker-related visit to Tokyo, I wrote about the generous people in Japan and the United States who helped me prepare for my first visit to Japan. I also did a lot of reading about the country in the months leading up to the visit, on the 14 hour airplane flight, and while I was in Tokyo.
Besides the Fodor’s guidebooks/website and tips-about-Tokyo web searching, I finally was able to make use of articles I’d been saving for years about Japan from The Economist and the Financial Times. It was a fitting touch that my hotel had free copies of the Financial Times Asia edition in the lobby. I also enjoyed reading the English-language daily The Japan Times, which appeared each morning on a small shelf outside the hotel room. I found a number of books to be valuable, especially Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West, by T. R. Reid; the former Tokyo bureau chief of the Washington Post. I had earlier read The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity, by Edwin O. Reischauer and Marius B. Jansen. Drucker described Reischauer in 1979 as “the former American ambassador to Japan and the foremost authority on Japanese history and society.” His legacy lives on at The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Another helpful book was the clearly-written A Traveller’s History of Japan, (4th edition) by Richard Tames; the most recent of the above-mentioned titles, other than the Fodor’s guides.
However, some of the best reading material on Japan, for the purposes of my visit, came from Drucker himself. In my next post, I’ll sketch out some of the articles and sections of books by Drucker that helped me while in Tokyo, and provided valuable guidance as I prepared my presentations.

When Peter Drucker began visiting Japan in the 1950s, I imagine he had to prepare and arrange his schedule by exchanging letters and possibly some expensive phone calls. In preparation for my recent Drucker-related (first) visit to Japan to speak at the Drucker Workshop 7th Annual Conference, I had the benefit of staying in no-cost touch ahead of time with the great people I’d be working with, whom I wrote about in my first post in this series. There were many details to be ironed out, unfolding over several months; mainly via email and Facebook. All were patient about answering my endless questions with targeted information and recommendations.
The same is true for two of my friends at the Drucker-Ito School in California, Jeremy Hunter and Emi Makino, both of whom have deep knowledge about and experience in Japan. Besides many emails, I discussed the upcoming trip in person with Jeremy last November and Emi this January.
Having strong connections with so many talented and generous people was a big reason my visit was so memorable. I finally got to meet in person William Reed, whom I’ve been corresponding with since he wrote a great post about my book in 2011. (He was born and raised in the United States, but has lived for years in Japan.) Will has developed a living in more than one world-type multi-pronged career built around writing, consulting, calligraphy and martial arts.
In the next installment of this series, I’ll write about some of the reading material (in print and online) before and during the visit that helped enrich my experience.

In the previous entry in a series of posts about my recent Peter Drucker-related visit to Japan,  I wrote about Atsuo Ueda, Drucker’s longtime editor/translator in that country, who supervised the translation of my book. Even though I can’t read the language, I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Mr. Ueda’s new book, Peter F. Drucker Completed Book Guide. It is published by Diamond, Drucker’s longtime publisher, which also published my book.

Among other features, the guide appears to be a summary of each of Drucker’s books, with a beautiful design and the names of each book also in English. Some were different in their Japanese release (such as the multi-volume The Essential Drucker, which originated from a concept developed by Mr. Ueda) and at least one, My Personal History (2005), was not published in the United States. What makes Completed Book Guide particularly worthwhile to own are the thumbnail pictures of each of the book covers in Japan. This is especially true for Drucker’s two novels, The Last of All Possible Worlds (1982) and The Temptation to Do Good (1984).

The guide begins with a 26 page dialogue between Mr. Ueda and Shigesato Itoi. I have to admit I had not heard of Mr. Itoi before, but I’ve discovered that he is quite well known in Japan and beyond for his creative work in many different worlds; such as writing, television, video games and advertising. Given his wide range of talents, accomplishments and interests, it’s not surprising that he should also be associated with Drucker.  I’d love to see an English translation of this dialogue, not to mention the whole book!

Earlier this week I wrote the first in a series of posts about my recent visit to Japan in support of the Japanese edition of my Peter Drucker-related book. As I mentioned, I worked closely with Chikao (Chuck) Ueno, Tomomasa Yagisawa and Joseph Lee, among others. All three were generous and kind to me and my wife, Deborah, during our week in Tokyo. We had personalized introductions to the city that would be hard to get otherwise.
And I was happy to meet the translator of my book, Yasushi Isaka. Chuck introduced him to the American edition when it was published in 2009. He immediately offered to translate it, which happened when Diamond (Drucker’s publisher) bought the translation rights in 2010.  We worked closely via email, but did not meet in person until I spoke at the Drucker Workshop 7th Annual Conference on May 26th, which he helped organize.
That day I also had the privilege of meeting one of the other speakers, Atsuo Ueda. Mr. Ueda was the supervisor for the translation of my book, a real honor for me, given that he was Drucker’s longtime translator and Japanese editor. After his presentation, I met and spoke with him briefly and had we had our picture taken together. Yasushi interviewed Mr. Ueda extensively for a series on Drucker in 2001. You can also find some highly interesting material from Mr. Ueda on the website of the Drucker Archives.
After my presentation (Bruce Rosenstein In Conversation with Joseph Lee), we went to the reception, which was held in another building. I met many interesting people and signed books (both the American and Japanese editions). Another highlight was meeting Natsumi Iwasaki, author of the multi-million selling book (so far only published in Japan), with the title loosely translated of What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s ‘Management’? Natsumi has a varied career, and last year joined the Board of Advisors of the Drucker Institute.
My week in Tokyo was quite eventful: stay tuned for the next installment in this series!

Last week I had the honor of visiting Tokyo, to make four presentations related to Peter Drucker, who remains a major influence in Japan. It was my first visit to the country, and a profound experience. This is the first of a series of posts I’ll write about different aspects of my days there.
Everything revolved around my presentation for the Drucker Workshop 7th Annual Conference, at Waseda University, on May 26th. My appearance there was arranged by Chikao (Chuck) Ueno, whom I first met when researching my book at the Drucker-Ito School in Claremont, Cal., in 2007. (The name of the school further shows Drucker’s ties to Japan, with its benefactor Masatoshi Ito, a Japanese business leader.) A Japanese translation of my book was published last year by Diamond, Drucker’s longtime publisher in that country. On May 25th, the night before the major event, Chuck arranged for me to speak to the monthly meeting of an English language study group of Workshop members.
The format of the 5-26 presentation was “Bruce Rosenstein in Conversation with Joseph Lee.” Joseph teaches at both Pepperdine University in  California, as well as Chuo University in Tokyo. On May 29th I spoke to his leadership class at Chuo’s MBA program for a discussion about my book.
The May 24th event was “An Evening with Bruce Rosenstein,” at the Shibuya Cultural Center Owada, in a very cool part of Tokyo. This was arranged by Tomomasa Yagisawa, a Drucker-Ito alum whom I met, like Chuck, in Claremont in 2007.  The other organizer was Katsu Fujita, a Drucker-Ito alum whom I met in person for the first time, although we’ve been in email contact for the last year and a half.
This has just sketched out a few of the basic details of the Tokyo events, and some of the people who made them so memorable. I’ll go into more detail in future posts. I can see why Peter Drucker had so much affection for Japan!