Many Japanese firms have recently become curious about the methods and approaches that are used by successful Silicon Valley companies including agile development and The Lean Startup, and want to learn about them and apply them in their firms. However, there is very little information available in Japanese about the details of the actual techniques that are used in Silicon Valley and how they are really applied, and even less information about the challenges of adopting those techniques in the typical Japanese company environment.
Three bilingual consultants who have been active in helping Japanese firms learn about Silicon Valley and adopt its most advanced methods — Morio Itozu, Rochelle Kopp, and Steve McGee — have joined forces to present this unique conference. Our goal is to fill in the information gaps that many Japanese experience in learning about Silicon Valley methodologies, and to create a forum for discussing how to best apply those methodologies in the context of a Japanese company.
With the exception of the luncheon keynote and the basic agile track, the entire conference will be conducted in Japanese.
This seminar is targeted at the following:
• Japanese who work for companies that want to boost their ability to be innovative
• Japanese who are working for companies that want to learn and adopt the best practices of Silicon Valley
• Japanese entrepreneurs who are starting their own companies, or thinking of doing so soon
• Japanese who want to apply agile development methods in their companies
• Japanese who work for companies that want to make their organizations more dynamic and flexible
What you’ll gain from attending:
• An understanding of what modern, innovative companies do to retain and motivate key talent to deliver higher value products faster.
• A model and language to explain the Silicon Valley Way to your leaders, and learn ways to start implementing some of these practices.
• Insight into what makes Silicon Valley tick, and how to capture some of the Silicon Valley ethos in your company.
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-silicon-valley-way-a-conference-for-japanese-innovators-tickets-16930374205
Session schedule:
8:30 am Registration and continental breakfast
9:00 am Understanding Silicon Valley culture, and an introduction to agile and Lean Startup
10:00 am
BASIC TRACK — Agile development process basics
ADVANCED TRACK –Effective agile implementation
11:00 am The interface between agile development and the rest of the organization
12:00 pm Lunch
Lunchtime keynote by Mickey Mantle, Mickey Mantle, author, Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams: Keys to Crafting an Effective Agile Programming Culture
1:00 pm Special barrier for Japanese firms in implementing agile development
2:00 pm Case studies of success stories implementing agile development
3:00 pm Small group discussions about participants’ experience implementing agile development
4:00 pm Agile as a seed for bigger change — how can creative knowledge work be managed effectively?
5:00 pm Networking reception
7:00 pm Post conference dinner event (Tied House Brewery, Mountain View; separate fee)
Presenters:

Morio Itozu, President, Itozu Consulting
Morio Itozu is an experienced bilingual (Japanese and English) intercultural global organization development consultant. Morio has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 25 years and has worked with Japanese and global companies to solve their problems, improve their performance and team work, change their organizational culture, integrate organization and culture after M&A, and develop their leaders. He has worked with companies including Hitachi, NEC, Nitto Denko, Toshiba, Japan Airlines, Chugai Pharma, Microsoft, HP, Intel, Cisco Systems, Motorola, Universal Studios and UPS. Morio studied and worked directly with Dr. Will Schutz who created FIRO-B, the globally used psychometric instrument, and is a pioneer of the Organizational Development field.
Rochelle Kopp, Managing Principal, Japan Intercultural Consulting
Rochelle Kopp is founder and Managing Principal of Japan Intercultural Consulting, an international training and consulting firm focused on Japanese businesses that are expanding globally. She specializes in human resource management, cross-cultural communication, and global human resource development. One of her focuses is helping firms from Japan and other countries build their teams and strengthen their HR infrastructure in the United States. She has a particular interest in helping firms and entrepreneurs from Japan understand and thrive in the unique culture of Silicon Valley. Clients she has worked with include DeNA, Fujitsu, Honda Research Institute USA, JINS, Kyocera, Softbank, and Sony. Rochelle is author of over 25 books in Japanese including Managing Non-Japanese Subordinates, Creating Engaged Employees in Japan, and an upcoming book on Silicon Valley buzzwords.
Steve McGee, Steve McGee Consulting
Steve McGee is an Agile Management consultant helping software companies enable frequent delivery, shorter lead times, and better commitments. With 20 years of organizational change experience, training and development, including six years as a cross-cultural management coach in Japan, he works with companies to find ways to integrate systems that are based on conflicting values.
Steve first introduced agile to a software and consulting firm in 2007, and subsequently applied agile principles and practices to projects as diverse as changing accounting policy, events, and change management. Prior Agile Transformation and Organization Change clients include: Western Union, ClearXchange, Flint, Ericsson, Motorola, Life360, Apple, Visa, TSYS, eBay, MobiTV, PlayStudios, Zephyr, UCSF, Quantum Art, Yokogawa, Deloitte-Tohmatsu, Johnson & Johnson, and Biosensors.
Steven Ganz, Founder, Teamifier
Steven Ganz is a Silicon Valley based entrepreneur and consultant. He is currently developing innovative technology involving collaboration and software development processes for several of his own ventures. He also consults with startups and research labs to help them plan, implement, validate, and/or promote their core technologies. His personal research background is in programming languages theory, and his broad technical knowledge base and research skills enable him to provide support to clients across various technical domains, which have included: adaptive systems, machine learning, nanotechnology, natural language processing, robotics, the semantic web, and wireless networks. Clients he has worked with include Ricoh, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, and MobKite.
Mickey Mantle, Author, Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams
Mickey Mantle has a track record of more than 40 years of success in the software industry. He is a graduate of the University of Utah with a degree in Computer Science. Joining Pixar shortly after it was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986, Mickey managed the development of all of the software for their external products. In 1991, Mickey joined Brøderbund Software as Vice President of Engineering and CTO where he managed the vast development organization that produced numerous award-winning PC and Mac games. Leaving Broderbund in late 1997, Mantle then joined Gracenote where as Senior Vice President of Development he managed all technology development, operations and professional services. Mickey retired from Gracenote in 2011 and founded Wanderful, Inc. shortly thereafter.
Venue:
The session will be held at Hacker Dojo a collaborative space at the heart of Silicon Valley that embodies the ethos of openness and innovation. Many startups have been founded at Hacker Dojo, including Pinterest.
Environment:
In this session we will strive to create an open atmosphere of sharing among the participants. We won’t however be sharing proprietary information. Befitting Silicon Valley, both the dress code and the atmosphere will be casual.
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-silicon-valley-way-a-conference-for-japanese-innovators-tickets-16930374205