Faces Of Leadership

"What inspired me to co-found Cross Labs, is to reach an understanding of the fundamental principles of intelligence. My way to do it is constantly translating between the languages of information sciences: information science, machine learning, philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, and my favorite of all, artificial life, which studies "life as it could be."

"From this multiple-facet theory of what intelligence means, our lab helps foster genuine innovation in the technology industry, especially in businesses in East Asia gravitating around AI company Cross Compass Ltd., based in Tokyo. Our strength at this day is we have created a successful bridge between fundamental academic research and industrial applications.

"My big focus is currently to build a novel AI as a distributed hive mind. Why communicate? Why do scientists bother talking to each other? Nowadays, anyone connected to the Web web has access to all the information they need to conduct research. So, in theory, we could all work alone, with no interaction needed. Yet, there seems to be a huge intrinsic value to exchanging ideas with peers. Through repeated transfers from mind to mind, concepts seem to converge towards new concepts, paradigms, and, ultimately, scientific theories. What is true in nature, is true in AI: intelligence emerges in collectives. At Cross Labs, we found ways to concretize this idea."

"It is one of the missions of the United Nations – to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom – that constantly inspires my work. I launched a scholarship program for young female scientists from developing countries because science, technology, and innovation are key drivers for sustainable development. Yet, currently, too few women in developing countries are involved in this important work.

"There were countless challenges to launch this program – particularly fundraising – but I learned that by always trying to live up to the mission, you could involve many other like-minded people with your passion and inexhaustible ideas. For me, being a leader means serving people who are in need of using all her/his capabilities to promote social progress. As an international civil servant at the United Nations, I want to shape a better world by listening to the voices of people facing challenges and by offering all the professional expertise I have to help address them."

“In the past three decades, we have faced tough challenges, and the solutions took time to translate into reality. However, we have always managed to find a way. I have never looked at anything as a failure. I truly believe every challenge is an opportunity that will lead to an interesting solution. It may take a while to achieve it, but the journey will be very educational.

"The biggest lesson I learned through all my years is that an inclusive process brings about successful results. Engaging in a process wholeheartedly is far more important than the product, and once you ensure that community well-being is the central focus of your approach, you cannot go wrong. Follow your passion with your heart and strive to overcome challenges. Maintain a healthy lifestyle and ensure that your body and mind are in sync, so they work in your favor and not against you. This will help you in achieving your dreams. Even after 27 years, I get an adrenaline boost to work every day, the same energy that I always had.”

“I played a significant role in creating a public university in Hakodate and a national science museum in Tokyo. The trigger for me to dive into this field was a computer science undergraduate, I implemented the educational programming language “Logo” for Japanese PCs, which became the first Logo running in Japanese. Since then, I have focused on promoting learning, communication, and networking in science, technology, and art.

"One of my books is titled 'An Encouragement of Rikejo-ish Life.' The word 'Rikei' means scientific mind, and the word 'Joshi' means women who are the people that know how to get people involved, always respectful to each other, and be able to enjoy in anything. The word 'Rikejo-ish' can be an important lifestyle or attitude for any people. The essence of being Rikejo-ish is finding what you want to do for society, get people involved in it, and live happily together. RIKEJO stands for respectful, investigative, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, joyful, and open.”

“Every day, the leader confronts many challenges from all sides, around every corner, and most importantly from within. I am always on the treadmill to achieve results. Honing effectiveness, inspiring others, leading a team, and guiding change - these challenges exist, but once the vision is clear, scaling them is easier! The most important challenge in the social sector is managing stakeholders, i.e., expectations of NGO partners, government agencies, communities, and donors. Building shared values and having acceptable metrics for performance measurement and governance is a humongous task.

“Challenges in the social sector have multiplied post-COVID-19. The pandemic has shaken the world like never before in our lifetime. This is a litmus test for leaders in the social sector to be resilient in action. These difficult times can only be driven by anchoring ourselves in the strength of core values. A post-COVID-19 world calls for greater activism, deeper engagement on the ground, and lesser optics.”

“What inspires me is being part of the tribe leveraging technological changes to solve the problem of social injustice and information asymmetry. One challenge I face is working under extremely different conditions in terms of the status quo of the users using mobile phones, their learning levels, the infrastructure, and operations. At Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions, it was the most challenging period for me, but it helped me dive deep and understand problem-solving techniques first hand.

"For me, leadership is about approaching a problem or an opportunity through a strategy. The future will be uncomfortable. Hence as a future leader, I would aspire to have the ability to change, learn, embrace the new, and be very, very comfortable with the uncertainties and discomfort. I want technology to reach the masses, building upon the culture of thinking beyond and a gender-equal workplace without losing out on the essential quality of being humane.”

“I grew up between Japan and Germany, between very different ways of learning and teaching. I always felt the need to build bridges, connect, meditate and find common ground. I am always inspired by people who are creative in not just connecting but also transcending established categories through which we perceive our environment. There is a strong tendency today to perceive our world in a binary way, through mutually exclusive conditions: north vs. south; urban vs rural; analog vs digital; protest vs compliance; top-down vs bottom-up; private vs public; 'zero' vs 'one.' This prevents us from understanding often complex and contradictory situations and I strive to overcome this challenge on a daily basis. I myself decided to do that through urban space and designing strategies in which it can develop and evolve. I hope to inspire others by transgressing disciplinary, cultural, and national boundaries and to work with various tools and concepts towards multiple possible futures.”

“I research and write at the biggest financial newspaper in India. The reach that the platform provides to my ideas is what inspires me the most. While I track companies and trends, the areas that I am passionate about is gender empowerment, health care and corporate social responsibility. My biggest challenge is to raise policy issues through my writing and making it relevant and interesting for the readers. My work is focused towards creating impact through my writing. To me a 'leader - current or future' is someone who is able to grow while taking everyone along. A good leader is someone who creates more effective leaders from the people around her. I would like to emerge as a thought leader who has been able to influence people's thoughts and actions through my writing.”

“The famous phrase written in Politics by Aristotle, ‘Men come together in cities in order to live, but they remain together in order to live the good life,’ has always been a compass for my work life. I am interested in sustainability of cities, not only in my specialty which is urban design and development point of view, but also in economic and cultural activities which forms a person’s life in total. In order to pursue sustainability of cities, one of my challenges is to cultivate an innovation ecosystem by supporting Japanese tech-startups. At the same time, I am also challenging to restructure the traditional industries such as textile weaving in Japan which has been an important part of our culture and craftmanship. Being a future leader means to me to add up small but practical things and create a new world yourself."

“I have been researching and developing a device called Ontenna, which can feel sounds for the Hearing Impaired. Ontenna converts the loudness of sound into vibrations and light intensity in real time. It then conveys sound characteristics such as rhythm and pattern to the user. Currently, Ontenna is used in 80% of schools for the deaf in Japan. I always get inspiration from the users. Basing their input, I look for the best answers about the shape and experience when using the product. My biggest challenge has been the social implementation of my personal research. With the support of many people, including engineers, designers, marketers, and the hearing impaired, I was able to finally achieve productization. I think a good leader is someone who can empathize with many people and make their ideas come true. That's why, I am determined to continuously using design and technology to create more smiles in the world and be this kind of leader that they could look up to.”