2004年度（2004.4～2005.3）　ワークショップ講演

目次へ戻る

Entrepreneurship Workshop I (June 3, 2004)

“SunBridge’s services to support start-up businesses - I bet on Japan!”

Guest speaker:
Mr. Allen Miner
President of SunBridge Corp.

1. Personal profile
Mr. Miner was the founder of Oracle Japan. He incorporated SunBridge in 1999 and created the “Venture Habitat,” which offers an ideal support environment for Japanese start-up businesses. The company provides comprehensive services including incubation, venture investment, and technical, marketing, and human resource support services for start-up businesses.

2. Summary of speech
(1) Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs should adopt the attitude of doing first, then thinking, or thinking while doing. They must bear their own self-imposed burdens while developing their businesses.

(2) Turning point in his life
He has always been a dreamer. His university days were strictly academic. On graduation, he joined Oracle, where he learned the attraction of business, expanded his human network and accumulated the expertise that he currently uses to undergird his business. At Oracle, he learned a key common to all successful people: to respect and take full advantage of the founder’s talent and personality. That is, to believe in one’s own strength under the motto that personal is the best strategy. He realized we should not stick to winning alone but respect and trust all his associates and business partners. Thus, he recruited people who surpass him in business talent and started up a business to support start-up companies in Japan.
Focusing on the potential need for his services in Japan and the recent global trend in business, he gathered his best partners and jumped right in doing business. The lease of the entire 17th floor of the Shibuya Mark City building reveals his amazing business sense.

(3) Issues and models for start-up companies in Japan
There is limited available information on models (both successes and failures). In addition, it is difficult to find people who have both the technical and commercial expertise required for a start-up. The closed nature of the start-up community makes sharing people and information difficult. He cited G-mode and Macromill as models of successful start-ups. Essential requisites for success are to realize that “vision” and “reality” are different things and to focus on a specific area.

3. Comments on speech
As everyone knows, it is difficult for foreigners to master the Japanese language and adapt to Japanese society. That is why we students were impressed with his command of Japanese and his natural adaptation to Japanese culture and traditions. Loving freaky ideas, he has logical management skills combined with a philosophical and literary perspective. His comments reminded us of the significant effect that a difference in values - the different views in the US and Japan on the separation of corporate ownership and management, for instance - has on start-up businesses.

Hiroshi Aoki
Keiko Kishi
Graduate students in charge of minutes

▲このページのトップへ