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Hello, my name is Yasushi Sasaki.

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I'm the BCG System Leader of Northeast
Asia, responsible for Japan and Korea.

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Today I'm in Davos, participating in WEF,

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together with our distinguished
guest, Higuchi-San,

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the Chief Executive Officer of
Panasonic Connect. Higuchi-San,

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thank you very much for joining us.

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Thank you for having me.

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Higuchi-San is a very famous,
well-known business leader in Japan.

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He started his career in Panasonic,
then went to Harvard Business School,

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joined BCG, this is important,

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and then led many various important
business leader positions like the

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President of Microsoft in Japan,
and rejoined Panasonic in 2017.

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So he's a really distinguished business
leader in Japan. So Higuchi-San,

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this is your first time in
Davos? That's what I heard.

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Yes. This is my first time,

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and this is also the first participation
as Panasonic, so I'm so excited.

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How's your experience so far?

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There are so many influential
people here, not only from business,

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but also governments and academia.

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So, very exciting. Yes.

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Great. So this week, many business
leaders, politicians, academic leaders,

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I think they discuss various topics,
and then they are... my impression is...

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cautiously optimistic towards the
future, but still uncertainty remains,

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I think in all of us. How do you see...
how do you set your business agenda,

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priority agenda in 2023?

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Actually, the purpose that I
decided to participate in Davos

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is to learn about what
business leaders are thinking

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about, what the priorities are,

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so in a sense I'm learning a

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lot here and many people are
talking about environment,

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right? So this is Davos, this is Europe.

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So the environment is number
one priority. I think so.

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That made me think,

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maybe feel that I have to embed
the environmental priority

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as the core of business
strategies moving forward,

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not just 2023, but beyond that too.

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Great. So BCG also set two
important agendas. One is
climate and sustainability,

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and one is digital and AI.
So I highly agree with you.

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I think that sustainability and
climate is the most important agenda,

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and we all discussed it in Davos
this week. Talking about digital,

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I think that's very much an
important element in your business.

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How do you see the impact of
digital broadly on business,

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and also particularly on the supply
chain side, that's your core business.

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Could you share your insights about
the impact of digital in general

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and also the supply chain impact?

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Okay. Before that,

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I think the weakness of
Japanese companies in general

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is lack of strategy. Where do you compete,

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how do you compete? So,

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strategic literacy,

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in addition to IT literacy,
is quite low, I would say,

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compared to the business leaders
in Europe and, and in America.

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So when you say digital, I mean,

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it's almost impossible to
directly compete with GAFA,

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Microsoft or big tech giants as well

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as Chinese players.

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So how you compete in digital
areas is very important.

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So, in the space of digital,

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it's relatively easier to copy,

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and also agility is very
important. So, in that sense,

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Japanese companies are not agile
enough to lead a digital-only

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space.

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So the combination of analog
and digital kind of hybrid

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strategy is very, very key
for the Japanese players too,

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in terms of how to compete globally.

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Very insightful...

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What are the hurdles for the Japanese
corporations to implement and execute

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these digital initiatives? You said,
you mentioned the word agility,

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that's a key word, but I tend to
see that... it's very, in general,

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very slow in action,

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but how can the Japanese
corporations overcome that aspect?

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Yes, still the way Japanese companies

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develop products, solutions,

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new technology is to work very hard,

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in a very closed environment in
the laboratory or in the factories.

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But you have to look at
the the big picture, right?

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I mean, players in the
world, how they are doing?

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Otherwise you'll be disrupted easily.

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And business model is
equally very important

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to compete.

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Some players could come up with the
kind of advertising-based model,

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and providing the technology
or solutions, for free. So,

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looking at the whole picture of the
competitive landscape is very key for

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Japanese players. So that's one of
the reasons I decided to come here.

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Wow. Very good... Okay. So finally,

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as I said, you used to work for BCG,

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you were with us back in
the early nineties. So,

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this year is 60 years' anniversary
for BCG... any reflections, memories,

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good or bad, any suggestions or advice
to the BCG colleagues in the world?

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First of all, congratulations on
the sixtieth anniversary of BCG.

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I only spent two and
a half years, I think,

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with BCG's Tokyo office. But,

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as I said, strategic thinking...

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strategy is the weakness...

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I mean area, for Japanese,
any business person,

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particularly the business
leaders. So, being trained,

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it was very hard for me in
BCG for even the two and a

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half years... was very, very
valuable experience for my

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career. And I would very
much encourage the current

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BCG employees to learn
strategy - hard. So that will,

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that will be very, very beneficial
for a future business career.

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Got it. Today, strategy is still the core,

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but we are going beyond the strategy...

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hope that we can brush up our value
proposition. So thank you very much,

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Higuchi-San, for joining
us. Thank you very much.

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Thank you for having me.