How did Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani acquire business skills? The entrepreneurial tools he gained f...
📅 Mar 03, 2026GLOBIS学び放題×知見録9 MIN1323 VIEWS15 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
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About this video
Yoshito Hori, Dean of the Graduate School of Management at Globis University, asks five questions (skill development, challenges, trials, colleagues, and ambition) to Japan's leading business leaders and uncovers their life philosophies. Our sixth guest is Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc. We ask him about how he has developed his skills, the background behind Rakuten's founding, the values he holds dear, and more.
Guest: Hi...
Questions asked in this interview
5
2:46If you had to name two or three things you gained during those two years, what would they be?
Welcome to Leaders' Challenge. In this program, I invite the leaders I respect most as guests and explore their life philosophies through five keywords. Today, we have Hiroshi Mikitani, Representative Director, Chairman, and CEO of Rakuten. Mikitani-san, please.
Let me introduce Mikitani-san. He joined the Industrial Bank of Japan in 1988. In 1993, he obtained an MBA from Harvard University. In 1996, he established the consulting firm Crimson Group, and the following year, in 1997, he established MDM Inc., now Rakuten Inc., and became its Representative Director. In 2004, he became the owner of the J-League club Vissel Kobe. That same year, he entered professional baseball and created the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the first new team in 50 years. In 2012, he became the Representative Director of the New Economy Alliance. First, I'd like to ask about the first keyword, capability development. Please tell us what you learned or experienced at Harvard Business School.
Well, basically, I think there are three types of ability: actual ability, capability, and potential. I think everyone's potential is really high, but they aren't fully utilizing it. What you're actually doing now is your actual ability, so the question is how to bring out your current capability to the fullest. I think what goes beyond your capability is your potential. Of course, there are many things you can't do alone, so if you solidify the foundation, you can see your ability gradually increasing while doing business. I think there are various abilities like judgment, execution, analysis, and leadership. Due to my position, I had to do those things, and the industry is one where new technologies are constantly emerging, which is very exciting. While honing myself in that environment, I feel I've acquired the ability to conduct business, though I'm not sure if Mikitani-san would evaluate it that way.
I graduated from Harvard Business School the year you entered. If you had to name two or three things you gained during those two years, what would they be?
One is that there are business frameworks. Like in golf, baseball, or tennis, there's a form, and while everyone's form is different, you develop from that form. So, I acquired the fundamental ways of thinking for the best business practices, such as marketing, strategy, human resource management, or production management. That's one thing. The second is that my network expanded. In fact, the person who worked with me on this Rakuten business model was my classmate from Harvard Business School, who is now the president of Northeastern University. He's retiring this December. He's a very good friend, and I get suggestions from him, like 'maybe you should do this in your business.' I think that network is really significant.
Also, the ability to make decisions, think, analyze, strategize, and create action plans, and the ability to discuss these things, I feel I've acquired those skills. How do you feel about that, Mikitani-san? Is the CEO position quite lonely?
8 more exchanges in this transcript
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Mikitani, H. (2026, March 3). How did Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani acquire business skills? The entrepreneurial tools he gained f... [Interview transcript]. GLOBIS学び放題×知見録. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/741467/
MLA
Hiroshi Mikitani. "How did Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani acquire business skills? The entrepreneurial tools he gained f...." GLOBIS学び放題×知見録, 3 Mar. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/741467/.
BibTeX
@misc{mikitani2026_741467,
author = {Hiroshi Mikitani},
title = {How did Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani acquire business skills? The entrepreneurial tools he gained f...},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, GLOBIS学び放題×知見録. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {mar},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/741467/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
