Business-Do

HIROSHI “MICKEY” MIKITANI is founder and CEO of Rakuten, selected by Forbes as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for the past six years. Known throughout the world as a leader in e-commerce, he is a recipient of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award and author of The Power To Compete and Marketplace 3.0.

• Introduction xiiiChapter 0 Clean Your Space 1Chapter 1 The 10 Core Principles 501 All concepts are relative 602 Believe in the power of the moonshot 703 Learn the difference between a group and a team 904 Think about your mindset, skills, and knowledge 1105 Question yourself 1406 A brand is a flag 1607 The internet transformation continues 1808 The internet will curate the world’s knowledge and data, but the human touch will still be key 2009 Taking action leads to deeper thinking 2210 Continuously improve by a fraction. It’s the key to what others call “good luck” 25Chapter 2 Personal Development 2911 Push yourself like a professional (athlete) does 2912 Play catch between your left and right brain 3113 Plan forward from birth or backward from death 3314 Create an objective personality when you’re in the hot seat 3515 Never stop learning. Ever 3716 Build self-confidence through small successes 3917 Always be curious and ambitious 4018 Find a partner to play intellectual “catch” with 4219 Set clear goals for your actions 4420 Remember that great information can come from surprising places 4621 Don’t rationalize your behavior as others do 4822 Interrogate your intuition with hard numbers 4923 Aim to understand the framework 5124 Create solutions that break down barriers and reveal new challenges 5325 Identify your weaknesses. Fix them or find workarounds 5526 Never let your mental energy levels drop 57Chapter 3 The Value of Relationships 5927 Offer value-added services. Anything less is meaningless 6028 Put yourself in their shoes 6129 See the essence of things 6330 Size up risk by quantifying it 6531 Seek out best practices all around you 6732 Listen especially closely to people you disagree with 6933 Value the balance between cooperation and competition 7234 Teaching others will help you grow 7335 Develop win-win relationships 7536 Start with good footwork 7737 Report, contact, and consult 7938 Analyze the situation from all angles 8139 Know who and what works, even in tight spots 8340 Be courageous 85Chapter 4 Get Your Organization Moving 8741 Numbers give clarity, so set KPIs 8742 Pay close attention to resource allocation 8943 Lead by teaching 9144 Leverage the organization to move faster 9345 Harness the power of competition 9546 Share the sense of accomplishment 9747 Find the bottlenecks 9948 Create your own turning point 10149 Meet and revive in the morning 10250 Think like a manager 10351 Create and share a template for success 10552 Earn trust within your company 10653 Establish symbolic rituals 10754 Successful organizations combine pressure and excitement 10955 Know that there are two types of speed: velocity and agility 11056 Divide into small groups to improve transparency 112Chapter 5 Win Every Battle 11557 Analyze and execute with an eye on the future 11558 Hypothesize, then create shikumi 11859 Get things done 11960 Examine the facts from every angle 12161 Keep your eyes on what’s at your feet and what lies ahead 12262 Factorize 12463 Lean operations generate innovation and growth 12664 Think about both vertical and horizontal competition 12865 The Mikitani Curve: Quality depends on a 0.5 percent difference in effort 13066 Identify what is core and what is missioncritical 13267 Deciding not to do something can be the most important thing to do 13468 Companies are sumo rings. They need wrestlers 13569 Master the timeline 13670 The devil is in the details 13871 Success is born of failure. Never hesitate to improve 13972 Find trends in the numbers 14073 Think about value chains 14274 To win, close the gaps and add originality 14475 No business is special 14576 Boost profits by using assets in multiple ways 14677 Strategy, execution, and operation 14878 No single path leads to success 15079 Generate the largest cost advantage to win 15180 Create shikumi that will keep generating value 153Chapter 6 Nurture a Global Mindset 15581 The essence of e-commerce is communication 15582 Seek information beyond your borders 15783 Your network is your best news source; media come second 15984 The internet will eliminate national borders. Think global 16185 Learn from the world’s best practices 16286 Thinking globally will make you stronger locally 16387 Thoroughly and humbly analyze past successes 16588 It’s never too late 166Acknowledgments 169Index 171