Professor Kazuhiko Kato teaches a seminar on strategic management, where he introduces subjects like business launching (especially intra-venture projects and start-ups), business incubation or management strategies. It is a course designed for students who enjoy conceiving new ideas for business, want to supervise an intra-venture projects in their future company or simply dream of a working in a job related to strategic management.
The first half of today’s lecture focused on presentations each student made about a business of his choice. One pupil decided to analyze the cosmetic industry – and it seems that domestic market in that area is continuing to expand, as the biggest 100 yen shops across Japan are increasing display area for cosmetics in their stores. The student gave presentation on possible challenges arising from this situation.
Students' viewpoint
The first challenge she brought up was increased demand for high-quality products in low prices. Since the need for cheap and good products is steadily growing, there is a tendency for progressively lower revenue for the companies in business. We are also witnessing the beginning of a transition from an era of“the product everyone uses = good product”, to “a product perfectly suited for me = good product”, which requires different marketing techniques. Until now, the trend was to put money into a campaign conveying the message that many customers use our product so it must be good, yet from now on it will have to change.
The second challenge she mentioned were regulations regarding China’s New e-Commerce Law, which from January 2019 has imposed tax on online retailers. As an effect, we saw a drastic decrease in number of Chinese businessmen who were receiving orders from Chinese clients and traveled to Japan to purchase Japanese cosmetics in 100 yen shops on their behalf (so called “social buyers”), so dark clouds have gathered over Japanese cosmetic companies which targeted Chinese clients and were heavily dependent on this inboud demand.
Job hunting support during a seminar
During this course, each student gives a presentation on a company of interest, which is a great opportunity to share knowledge about various businesses. In addition, the Professor also allocated time for solving questions from an SPI test. This way, the classes will not only enable students to develop their analytical or communication skills, but also serve as preparation for job hunting from an early stage of their studies. By providing our students with opportunities to think about work and business from a broader perspective, we support them in landing the job in their chosen company.
What is SPI? It is an aptitude test created by one of recruiting companies, often used during earliest stages of candidate selection process. If you fail it, you will not advance to the next stage of recruitment, e.g. job interview.