Shinya Yamamoto is an executive coach and learning manager who helps Japanese companies cut through corporate inertia. And yet, year after year, he keeps coming back to Lausanne for OWP, IMD’s signature program. On his own dime.
Why?
“First of all, it’s fun,” he says. “Where else do you get this kind of diversity? I’ve done programs in the US — but even those, they’re mostly American. IMD isn’t Swiss, isn’t British, isn’t American — it’s international.”
For Yamamoto, that’s gold. “In Japan, business is still very local. We know products, we know brands — but the culture? The thinking? Still very much mono. You can read about global business, but that’s nothing like sitting across from someone who runs a bank in Nigeria or a logistics company in Brazil.”
It’s not just top-tier networking – it’s a crash course in fresh perspectives. “At OWP, you don’t just sit and listen,” says Yamamoto. “You argue. You get challenged. You realize your way of thinking isn’t the only way.”
IMD professors don’t sound like academics
Yamamoto has an MBA. He’s sat through enough business school lectures to know the drill. But he says IMD is a unique learning partner.
“Most business school professors are pure academics. They know the theories, but they’ve never run a business. IMD? These guys get business.”
That changes everything. “When I ask a question, they don’t just spit out a model from a textbook,” says Yamamoto. “They say: ‘Here’s how this played out at a Fortune 500 company last year.’ It’s like talking to a really sharp CEO, not a professor.”
That matters when you need to bring ideas back to a company that doesn’t want to hear about theories. As Yamamoto says, “If I walk into a Japanese boardroom and say, ‘There’s a great framework for this,’ they’ll tune out. But if I say, ‘Here’s what a major European manufacturer did and the results they got,’ now they’re listening.”
Different conversations, every year
The business world doesn’t sit still – and nor does OWP.
“Every time I come back, I hear from the same professors, but what they’re talking about is completely different,” says Yamamoto. “Because the world is different.”
One year, he sat in on a session with IMD Professor of Strategy and Digital Michael Wade and Professor of AI, Analytics, and Marketing Strategy Amit Joshi about AI’s future in business. “They made predictions,” recalls Yamamoto. “I came back a year later, and they were already updating them because things had moved so fast.”
It’s not just the faculty offering actionable insights; it’s the mix of participants and executive coaches in the room. “Even if I take a session I’ve done before, the discussions are different because the participants are different. That’s why you could come every year and never feel like you’re repeating yourself,” Yamamoto says.
Real lessons, not just ideas
His job is to get traditional Japanese companies to change. This is not easy when, he says, they’ve spent decades saying they want to change but never do. Stability, hierarchy, and long-term planning often rule the game.
He’s taken a lot from OWP and put it straight into practice. One example? Digital transformation.
“I read Digital Vortex by Michael Wade, and I took his course at OWP,” says Yamamoto. “One thing stuck with me: digital transformation isn’t about tech – it’s about leadership. The best digital leaders aren’t the ones who know the most. They’re the ones humble enough to let information flow up to them, so they can make the right decisions.”
That was new.
“When I worked with a big Japanese company on change management, that’s what I focused on,” he continues. “The leaders were used to telling people what to do. They weren’t used to listening. But their employees had ideas that the leaders never even considered.”
He pushed them to listen rather than delegate.
“It changed everything,” explains Yamamoto. “They realized their teams had insights they’d been ignoring for years. The whole decision-making process shifted.”
He has been to OWP on multiple occasions. This is his pitch to other executives.
“If you want to sit in a room with people who don’t think like you, and get smarter because of it, come to OWP.”
That’s why Yamamoto keeps paying to come back, year after year.
