Hitotsubashi ICS organized, together with the ICS Alumni Association, the 2nd Online ICS Alumni Day on Saturday, June 25. The event was co-hosted by Professor Yoshi Fujikawa (Yoshi), the faculty in charge of external relations and external affairs, and Yukiko Ueno (Yuki), an EMBA alumna from the Class of 2020.
This year's Alumni Day themes were: “Building,” “Engaging,” and “Taking Action."
We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces from across the globe. We welcomed everyone virtually to the 2nd Online ICS Alumni Day. This was an inspiring event for all MBA, EMBA, and DBA graduates, together with current students, faculty members, and the staff. Together we celebrated key milestones, shared memories, and renewed the friendships that began at Hitotsubashi ICS.
First Things First: Celebration!
It is our tradition to jointly celebrate the anniversaries of different MBA graduating classes. This year was the 20th anniversary for the MBA Class of 2002, and the 10th anniversary of the MBA Class of 2012. JG Puzon (full name to be added) introduced a commemoratory video for the Class of 2012:
Hi! Good evening, good afternoon, good morning to everyone. A very quick message here on behalf of my classmates from the Class of 2002, both from Japan and various other countries. Just allow me to say how proud we are as a class to be true alumni of ICS. You know that our individual and collective experiences at ICS have had a very profound and powerful impact on our lives, and also the lives we touch, whether it be it in our professions, our community, and even on the global stage. So as we celebrate our 20th Jubilee, allow me to share some of these experiences by way of video, both in and out of the classroom, experiences which have contributed to the strengthening of our knowledge, wisdom, and above all friendships with one another. I'll have to warn you–these pictures are kind of old for the younger ones now. Our sincerest thanks to the organizers. And may we have more homecomings. Long live ICS! Thank you! - JG Puzon
We then fast-forward 10 years, to the celebration of the MBA Class of 2012, which also enjoys close ties, just like the Class of 2002. Actually, some of them joined the event together from a restaurant in Tokyo!
These videos truly embody #OneICS. So, just like the Classes of 2002 and 2012, let's keep our alumni community connected and strong. We've been working on strengthening ties since last year.
Building
With regard to “Building” on what we have achieved as a foundation, we welcomed our new dean, Prof. Emi Osono (Emi), who shared ICS’s revised Mission, Vision and Core Values (MVV). She explained that no big changes because the original Mission includes the keywords that represent uniqueness of ICS - bridge, knowledge, Tokyo, Asia, and the world. Yet, she added, “embracing complexity”. It means embracing the complexity of this world. We should be open-minded and embody intellectual humility.
Emi announced other minor changes to the vision and core values. “Citizenship” was changed to “Initiative.” Meanwhile “Global Citizenship” remains as a core value, and we still have the global citizenship course taught by Hideki Kawada. We want to emphasize “proactiveness and action.” As a business school, we have launched several new initiatives, some of which are already being implemented. Yoshi will explain those concrete actions.”
Finally, Emi closed her presentation by making an important announcement. She conferred on our former faculty member Sherman Abe the status of “Faculty Alumni Emeritus.” We are very grateful to Sherman, who has been contributing to ICS and maintaining warm ties with ICS alumni, while sharing his very enriching philosophy!
Sherman shared some words with us following Emi’s announcement:
Emi, I very much appreciate what you've done for me. As you can see, I show myself as a faculty member of 2000. Because like several others of us, we started at ICS that year, when the school first began. And I think we need to acknowledge that Hiro Takeuchi, the founder and visionary of the school, really put together something very special. And ICS has been a very special part of my life as it has been for all of you. And I'm talking to you from California. It's about 3:30 a.m. here. But I'm wide awake, because I think that this question is very special. And I’m very, very happy to see so many familiar faces. I taught from the year 2000 until 2014, and stayed on for another three years at ICS. So those after 2017 may not be familiar with me. But, I always hang around because I consider ICS my second home. So thank you, thank you very, very much for this opportunity.
The second half of the “Building” part of this event covered the ICS Alumni Donation Drive. We invited all of our alumni to build ICS’s future together. Prof. Yoshinori Fujikawa (Yoshi) explained the general purpose of the Donation Drive initiative, which is to support the activities towards building our new MVV.
The Donation Drive will help to keep ICS going into the future, and also support several of the new initiatives the school has launched. Yoshi also explained that although the “ICS Alumni Donation Drive” was a one-month campaign, the “ICS Donation Drive” is a year-round initiative. We invite everyone to join this fundraising drive and help build ICS’s future together.