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.