One of the things that separates driving enthusiasts from daily commuters is that enthusiasts know how to take a corner. While most drivers ride the brakes or coast through the entire curve, a skilled driver is on the gas just after hitting the apex. A similar thing can be said about skilled public speakers. Continue reading
As I mentioned before, planning and rehearsing are critical for successful presentations. There is, however, one thing that you might have to do on the spot: a meet and greet.
For those of you who do a lot of one-off seminars, you might not have a clue about your audience beforehand. Yet, as previously discussed, tailoring your content to your audience is critical. So dos this mean that we are at an impasse here? Not at all. Continue reading
If you study or experience Japanese culture, it’s only a matter of time before you come across the concept of tatemae, the feelings/attitude that one projects to the public. Tatemae may or may not conflict with one’s honne, or real feelings. Whether or not one’s tatemae should match one’s honne is a constant source of debate. Luckily, we’re not going to go into that here. Continue reading
For my business English seminars, I’m often asked by my clients (internal or external) to cover vast topics in relatively short amounts of time. When this situation arises, I always make sure to inform the audience at the beginning of the seminar exactly how far we’re going into a particular topic. I bookend this at the end of the presentation by either sharing methods or resources to further study the topic or by promising future seminars within the same field. Continue reading
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One of the things I loved about graduate school was the opportunity to apply what I was learning to real-world situations. There’s no better way to learn how to make a marketing plan than to do a real one for a real business. Continue reading
In the midst of my recent seminar about reading and discussing financial statements, I made a rare, spontaneous decision. Instead of simply explaining how accrual accounting works, I picked up a piece of paper, created a 100-yen IOU note, and handed it to one of the attendees. Continue reading
Photo Credit: Toyota/Subaru
In separate posts, I’ve shared words of wisdom from Rakuten’s Hiroshi Mikitani and my own thoughts on “kaizen.” Well, as fate would have it, one of Mr. Mikitani’s recent LinkedIn posts also covers kaizen. Continue reading
