Gerhard Fasol.

Category: Economy

  • Japan Cloud computing impact and trends

    Japan cloud computing impact and trends, keynote article

    Software eats everything, and cloud eats software… we all see a strong trend of all data and computing to move to “the cloud”, because if done well, managing data and computing in the cloud can be far cheaper than on computers and on storage that you or your company owns.

    It is also much more efficient to manage security centrally in a scaled fashion for large numbers of users, rather than specifically for each computer, or each local network separately.

    We expect to move almost all computing and data to the cloud, where we have multiple access points via tablets, smartphones and PCs/Macs or other devices or machines.

    Japan Cloud – “Cloud computing impact and trends” by Gerhard Fasol, Keynote article about in the RENESAS ELECTRONICS customer magazine and website “Renesas Edge Global Watch”

    The article summarizes the essence of how The Cloud is constructed, the key components, both hardware and software, and some examples of how The Cloud is used.

    Japan cloud related:

    • “What Makes Japan’s Data Center Landscape Special: Trends, Growth, and Business Continuity Needs”, keynote at the DataCenter Summit, Tokyo, on May 22, 2013 by Gerhard Fasol
    • GMO Cloud KK

  • Cash goes mobile and electronic. First to market in Japan and then what? (TTI-Vanguard conference keynote)

    The organizers of the legendary TTI-Vanguard conference series organized a conference on “Futureproofing” in Tokyo, and invited me to give a keynote on Japan’s creativity and first-to-market for many technologies and business models, and Japan’s difficulties to capture global value from this creativity, a phenomenon often called “Japan’s Galapagos syndrome“.

    The organizers, and particularly the legendary Bob Lucky and organizer Hal Levin made great efforts in assisting me to plan and prepare my talk. Although I was given about 30-40 minutes for my talk I was asked to present the conclusions in the first slide at the beginning of my talk and then essentially be prepared for open discussion during the 30-40 minutes instead of giving a traditional talk.

    I picked electronic money, near-field payments and mobile payments as an example to demonstrate Japan’s Galapagos syndrome.

    I started my talk with the following conclusions:

    • Conclusions 1: Japan has invented and first brought to market many new technologies and business models in today’s hottest areas, and Japan has been terrible at capturing global value from this incredible creativity
    • Conclusions 2: why does it take at least 10 years to reinvent the wheel in London?
    • Conclusions 3: WHAT is holding Japan back to capture global value from fantastic inventions?
  • More Drastic Changes Needed at Sony (CNBC TV interview)

    More Drastic Changes Needed at Sony (CNBC TV interview)

    Read more about SONY and Japan’s electrical industry sector: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/j_electric/

    Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Investor Club: What crisis? Meet some booming Japanese companies

    It’s not all doom and gloom here in Japan. Nintendo’s sales and operating profits are rising 8.8% year-on-year. KDDI saw its net profits increasing 59% year on year. Yahoo Japan increases dividends by 22%-25% for 2008. Who are today’s winners in Japan’s IT industry? Gerhard Fasol will show us how and why some great Japanese companies excel in today’s crisis.

    The talk reviews today’s status of Japan’s electrical companies, the telecommunications sector and the internet sector, and introduces seven different companies, which show rapid growth of revenues, operating income and net income despite the crisis. These seven companies we introduce turn the crisis into an opportunity.

    Mr Fasol is one of the best specialists of Japan’s IT industry. After 12 years in Japan working for the most prestigious Japanese institutions and companies (the University of Tokyo, NTT, Hitachi…), he founded the strategy and M&A firm Eurotechnology Japan KK in 1996. Mr Fasol has advised some of the greatest companies, including NTT, SIEMENS, Deutsche Telekom, Cubic, Unaxis and about 100 fund managers on strategy for Japan, as well as the President of Germany. He helped a French pharmaceutical company acquire a factory in Japan.
    He comments regularly on CNBC on Japan’s tech sector.

    Schedule: March 24th, 2009 (Tuesday) from 18:30
    The conference will be followed by a light cocktail.
    Place: French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan, meeting room
    Iida bldg 1F, 5-5 Rokubancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0085
    Tel.: 03-3288-9624
    Access map: www.ccifj.or.jp
    Language: English
    Fees: 5.000 yens (to pay in cash at the door)
    Payment will be required for cancellations or no-show after this deadline.
    Announcement on the website of the French Chamber of Commerce
    read a report on the talk here in the monthly newsletter of the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan (in French)

    Background reading: our J-ELECTRIC report about Japan’s electric companies
    and our Eurotechnology Japan Blog

    Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • 50 years European Union celebration in Tokyo

    50 years European Union celebration in Tokyo

    50 Years European Union

    50 years European Union – 50 Years Treaty of Rome

    Today was the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome which was at the beginning of the European Union.

    The Treaty of Rome (Wikipedia) (“Treaty establishing the European Economic Community”) was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany and came into force on 1 January 1958.

    The Text of the Treaty of Rome is here as a pdf file.

    In Tokyo we had a big party at the top of Roppongi Hills – 52nd floor. Here are some pictures…

    Celebration of the foundation of the EU 50 years ago with the Treaty of Rome
    Celebration of the foundation of the EU 50 years ago with the Treaty of Rome
    Celebration in Tokyo of the 50 year anniversary of the Treaty of Rome- the foundation of the EU
    Celebration in Tokyo of the 50 year anniversary of the Treaty of Rome- the foundation of the EU
    Celebration of the 50 year anniversary in Tokyo of the Treaty of Rome that laid the foundation for the European Union
    Celebration of the 50 year anniversary in Tokyo of the Treaty of Rome that laid the foundation for the European Union

    Copyright(c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • M-Commerce towards US$ 100 billion

    Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

    ” title=”Eurotechnology report on mobile payments and mobile commerce” target=”_blank”>Mobile commerce (the mobile phone equivalent of mailorder) exceeded mobile content (music, weather, news, etc) first in 2004 in Japan and is on the way to reach US$ 100 billion in the not too distant future. Read more about Japan’s m-commerce sector below.

    mobile commerce and mobile content in Japan
    mobile commerce and mobile content in Japan

    US$ 0.5 Billion killer application for m-commerce?

    We estimate that m-commerce (the mobile equivalent of mail order, or instant purchase of goods and services) has reached approximately US$ 10 billion per year in Japan, and most likely exceeds this mark already. Mobile phones are used in Japan to purchase many different types of products from music, to train tickets, air tickets, event tickets, books, and even cars. In our work for our customers we analyzed in detail a “killer application” for mobile commerce, where in Japan a single mobile website achieves about US$ 0.5 billion in annual sales.

    read about mobile commerce (and the US$ 0.5 Billion/year killer m-commerce site…

    Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Panel Discussion to 200 Japanese Executives at the Industrial Club of Japan

    May 30, 2006: at the Industrial Club of Japan

    Panel discussion for about 200 Japanese CEOs and high level managers about the challenges of international business management.

    The five panelists were:

    • James C Abbeglen
      Allen Miner (CEO of Sunbridge Venture Habitat, and founder of Oracle Japan)
    • Kong Jian (China – Japan Economic Federation)
    • Koshiro Kitazato (Chairman of BT Japan)
    • Gerhard Fasol (CEO Eurotechnology Japan KK)
    Industrial Club of Japan
    Industrial Club of Japan

    By the way – several years earlier Hitachi Board Member Takeda had invited me for lunch at the same Industrial Club of Japan – before the reconstruction of the building – to persuade me to leave my tenured position at Cambridge University, and to become Manager of the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory.

    Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Briefing 30 Swedish Controllers / CFO’s of Investor AB’s portfolio companies on Japan’s telecom markets

    by Gerhard Fasol

    April 24, 2006 was my Swedish Day: for breakfast I was invited to IKEA’s opening party for their new store in Funabashi (I met even with the global Chairman of IKEA – that he attended the opening in Funabashi shows how seriously IKEA is taken the market entry to Japan) – we had done some IT work for IKEA.

    Lunch and afternoon I spent with about 30 Swedish CFO’s / controllers of some of the largest Swedish corporations, who had come to Japan on a study tour. These CFO’s/Controllers were all working at companies in Investor AB’s portfolio.

    The Swedish controllers had asked for a briefing on Japan’s telecom industry. Some of their companies are considering to start, re-start, or grow faster in Japan, so there were many detailed questions about business in Japan, what can go wrong, personell issues, experience of other multinationals, and of course a lot of questions about IKEA and Vodafone.

    My presentation was similar to the presentation I had given on March 23, 2006 to the Technology Attaches of the Embassies of the 25 European Union countries, which lead the European Union to award our company a project contract about EU vs Japan benchmarking issues in telecoms and key technology areas.

    Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

    Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Okaerinasai IKEA

    Today, Monday April 24, 2006 at 7:30am, IKEA invited about 300 guests to celebrate the opening of the first 100% IKEA-owned IKEA store in Japan. We had the honor of working for IKEA – IKEA is another company that “thinks different” in so many creative ways. We wish them all the best in Japan!

    IKEA had attempted earlier to establish business in Japan via a joint-venture established in 1974. This Joint-Venture was terminated in 1986, and IKEA ended business in Japan in 1986. Interestingly – and this is not the only such case – its only that IKEA itself at that time failed in Japan. The business IKEA created in this joint-venture actually continued successfully without IKEA even after IKEA had left Japan.

    About 20 years later, this is now IKEA’s second venture into Japan.

    The photographs shows Mr Koshichi Fujishiro, the Mayor of the City of Funabashi, and Mr Gordon Gustavsson, Manager of the new IKEA Funabashi store sawing the traditional log. Witnessing the log sawing ceremony are Ms Akiko Domoto, Governor of the Chiba Prefecture, His Excellency, Mikael Lindstrom, the Ambassador of Sweden, Anders Dahlvig, CEO of the global IKEA Group and Tommy Kullberg, CEO of IKEA-Japan:

    IKEA opening ceremony for the IKEA store in Funabashi
    IKEA opening ceremony for the IKEA store in Funabashi

    Opening ceremony for IKEA's store in Funabashi
    Opening ceremony for IKEA’s store in Funabashi

    Opening ceremony of the IKEA store in Funabashi: the Mayor of Funabashi and the IKEA store manager saw a log
    Opening ceremony of the IKEA store in Funabashi: the Mayor of Funabashi and the IKEA store manager saw a log

    A JR-Keiyo Line train with IKEA logos passing the new IKEA store in Minami-Funabashi:

    IKEA advertisements on JR-East trains
    IKEA advertisements on JR-East trains

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • About Tokyo Stock Exchange Turbulence on CNBC and RedHerring

    About Tokyo Stock Exchange Turbulence on CNBC and RedHerring

    Wednesday January 18, 2006 I was interviewed live on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” news program about the turbulence on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following lower than expected quarterly earning reports by Intel, Yahoo and IBM, and a sell-off of Livedoor shares. Here is a summary of what I said in the interview:

    Overall I am very optimistic for Japan’s economy, and I expect that the stock markets will recover soon.
    There are short-term issues, mid-term issues and long-term issues.
    Short-term, there is impact by Intel’s lower than expected results in the semiconductor sector, especially on Tokyo Electron, which shares also dropped substantially. However I think that the strong drop in share values on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) was much more an effect of the Livedoor issues than disappointment with the US high-tech results.

    The Livedoor issues are temporary and not significant for the bigger picture in Japan, and will be resolved very soon by the Police, Stock Exchange and the other relevant authorities. I don’t expect long-term impact. There may be some changes in rules concerning M&A.

    Concerning the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE): the capacity of the TSE seems to be around 4 million transactions/day, and the Chairman of the TSE stopped trading when the transaction volume started coming close to this limit. This shows the IT limitations of the TSE. This would be less serious if it was an isolated incident, however during the last year there have been several IT related incidents, such as the incident where erroneously 600,000 shares were sold at a price of 1 YEN, instead of one single share for YEN 600,000, which caused huge losses, and was not caught by the trading software, and there have been a number of similar glitches recently. So clearly the IT infrastructure needs improvement. However, from what I have seen in Japan, I expect now a lot of serious committee work, and I expect that the IT systems will be fixed in due course – I am very confident about that.

    So overall I think Japan will come stronger out of these temporary issues.

    Regarding the question of human issues vs technology on the Stock Exchange, I think both human issues and IT are important and both must be working well.

    Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved