In the spring of 2020, we enrolled at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration (KBS) with the aim of acquiring the knowledge and perspectives required to thrive in a rapidly changing environment. However, the pandemic occurred around the same time, further accelerated the speed of environmental change, and extraordinary changes and events began to become the norm everywhere in our lives, in the pursuit of infection prevention. Information was tangled and conflicting, no one knew what was right and what was wrong, and we spent our days just thinking about how to adapt. In addition, we live with a certain level of psychological anxiety that the lives of ourselves and our loved ones may be threatened by the increasing level of infections.
Meanwhile, KBS’s “Visionary” class has become a place where friends from diverse backgrounds gather. Shaking off various constraints and biases, and using common sense, we continue to paint a picture of a desirable future that is good for the Earth, and this has enabled breakthrough thinking that shatters the sense of blockage in the real world.
The 52 Executive MBA students, the class of 2020, who studied together during this change in thinking, choose to create the future we want, rather than simply accepting “business as usual”. We seek to create a new ideal relationship between all living beings and the Earth that could not have existed in the past. The “future with a cause” that we envision may seem unrealistic; however, by drawing an ideal future and back-casting, we plan to solve various real-world problems to create the future we want.
For two years, I have been searching for a world where everyone is needed, where everyone accepts each other in a heartfelt way and lives hand in hand, and where our true selves, rather than our egos, are in harmony.
The on-going culmination of this work is described here, so please read and enjoy.
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