Rakuten - Publications - Faculty & Research

devastates Kobe 1997 Founds Rakuten 2000 Rakuten IPO 2010 Institutes “Englishnization” at Rakuten 2012 Rakuten leads $100 million Pinterest... View Details

01 Sep 2013
News

One day in 2010 the CEO of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten announced that thousands of employees would soon conduct business in a tongue most of them knew nothing about: English. Within days all the signs at the Tokyo headquarters were... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; e-commerce; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

14 Jan 2022
News

Nohria’s Next Move

continue to play the role of teacher and mentor that is so meaningful to me.” (See the company’s announcement.) Nohria will remain engaged at Harvard University as the chair of the board of the Harvard Allston Land Company and teaching in some Executive Education short... View Details

01 Mar 2012
News

Speak English, Please!

proficient in English, or risk demotion. “I was simply astonished,” said one engineer interviewed after the announcement. “Many Rakuten employees are allergic to English.” At Rakuten, an online shopping mall that does not sell to... View Details

Keywords: Kim Girard; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

01 Mar 2012
News

Learning to Speak the Language of Business

Mikitani Main article: Where Innovation Rules Case study: Englishnization at Rakuten From Pinterest to Kobo, how Japan's Rakuten is building a global internet giant (Wired.co.uk) You might call Hiroshi... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; e-commerce; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

24 Apr 2014
News

Empowering Japan through e-commerce

hundreds of cases, a light clicked on. “It was in an HBS classroom that I first considered starting my own company,” he says. Rakuten operates e-commerce businesses in 13 countries, spearheaded a $100 million investment in Pinterest, and... View Details

10 Apr 2019
News

Rakuten’s Mikitani Bets $5.5 Billion To Shake Up Japan’s Telecom Industry

A recent feature in Forbes outlines Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani’s plan to disrupt Japan’s mobile phone market. Named Rakuten Mobile, the company hopes to build the network in “half the time and at a cost of... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information

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Mikitani's Rakuten Buys Viber for $900M

How did Rakuten change in 'English official language'

Language and Globalization: The Mandate to Speak English at Rakuten

In Japan, Red Sox Have a Championship Soul Mate

The Japanese company that ordered staff to speak English

Business in a Common Tongue

Global work orientation: A case study

Demand for non-Japanese engineers is growing, but know what you're in for before you apply

Rakuten’s English drive a case study of success, but wider adoption by Japan Inc. much slower going

The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

Network Effects Aren’t Enough