During the class yesterday, Ken gave us instructions on the final project for LILTDY, which is a 2000 word academic research paper on topics we have or will be covered in class. When I first saw the direction, I was interested in writing about an analysis of a leader's style since we are currently reading Leading at the Edge, the book that is basically about an analysis of Shackleton's styles and strategies shown through his antarctic expeditions. This book would become a useful guideline for me to write a paper. Then I started to think about who I am going to write about. The directions gave some examples of famous "leaders", such as Walt Disney or Steve Jobs, and the third person grabbed my attention: Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda. I had his biography in a comic book form and used to read it over and over again. The fact that I already have some prior knowledge had me determine to choose him as the topic for the final project. Surprisingly, his name is not known as much as his company's; therefore, I would like to give a brief information that I can remember.
He was born in Shizuoka prefecture and loved vehicles and planes since he was little. He even got out of his house in midnight to go see an exhibition of plane test flight. When he grew up, one day he was offered to fix a broken engine of the fire truck. It went sucessful, and this became the turning point of his life. He realized what he can do with his two hands. He determined to proceed his way to mechanics. However, he did not have much expert knowledge in mechanics, so soon he decided to go to a vocational school of mechanics. I would say his life was a succession of determination that led him to be a great leader. I definitely need further research on this figure to critically analyze him.
Analyzing Soichiro Honda's leadership style will be a great topic for your final presentation.
返信削除Kenta,
返信削除I think studying a Japanese leader would be very interesting. I also think analyzing an athletic coach in Japan would be interesting as styles will probably differ in the west and in Asian countries.
Tak
I briefly read about Soichiro Honda's style of leadership and his way of communicating with his co-workers, and found it interesting that his methods were quite unlike those of Shackleton's. This website I found has many entries on negotiation and leadership.http://www.ideasgrp.com/blog It might be useful for your research paper.
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