Research Presentations (session 4 of 5) - Han, Matsui and Wakabayashi

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Zhao Han, PetroChina, "The Development of American Oil Retail – Analysis of the Competitive Strategy in China"

The first gas stations were built in the early 1900s.  Having experienced rapid growth, brand integration, rising costs, model innovation and trans-boundary competition in developed countries like the United States, the gas station industry matured towards the end of the 20th century.  Around the year 2000, international oil companies gradually began to withdraw from the gas station market in developed countries.  During this time, convenience stores became the leader of the market with gasoline being one of the products of the convenience store.

With the development of mobile internet technology and the practice of the big data theory, the information authority has been broken.  The business model of traditional industries, such as the gas station industry, will change as well.  Gas stations will transform from the traditional E-station to E-platform.  In his research, Han argues that the business model of gas stations will turn from merchandise sales to customer service, and then to resource integration and platform management.

Yasunori Matsui, Mitsubishi Corporation, "How to Develop Effective Leadership Skills:  A Study Comparing Silicon Valley Companies"

In most Japanese companies, leadership skills are lacking.  From his experience, Matsui believes this problem exists at a higher level than the organization, as leadership skills are only developed for select people within the organization.  Additionally, he believes there is a high correlation between leadership effectiveness and the results that leaders produce.  Developing an adequate cadre of leaders to perpetuate their organization is essential to Japanese companies.  Unfortunately, the concept of leadership continues to be shrouded in misunderstanding.  In his research, Matsui compares leadership styles in Silicon Valley to those of Japanese companies.  Matsui asks the question as to whether leadership personnel training is possible in Japanese companies and discusses some possible solutions to this problem.

Ryo Wakabayashi, Sumitomo Corporation, "Trends of the American Entertainment Video Industry"

Wakabayashi’s research discusses the entertainment video industry trends in the United States, in particular, the influence of emerging Over-the-Top (OTT) markets in existing entertainment video industry.  Over the past few years, online video streaming services, called “Over-the-Top”, have rapidly become popular and have deprived the subscribers from existing Pay-TV companies.  The reasons why OTT services have taken advantage of existing markets are 1) the infrastructures for their services have drastically improved -- faster internet access speeds and various devices such as smartphones, tablets, and Set-Top-Boxes that are suitable for watching video being released and becoming popular; 2) subscription fees for services are about six times less than the fees for existing Pay TV services like cable TV or satellite TV; and 3) OTT markets have attractive content such as movies, dramas, TV shows, and animated videos and have started producing their own original, high-quality content.  As a result of the growth of the OTT market, Wakabayashi discusses three big trends that are emerging in the video industry in the United States – 1) Video streaming providers are becoming the “New Network”, 2) Large consolidations are emerging and 3) Existing media companies are going toward OTT markets.