アントレプレナーシップ意識改革を通じたイノベーション推進

抄録

When I think of "entrepreneurship", I recall my days in Silicon Valley when I stayed at Stanford University as a visiting research associate from 1980 to 1982. The technologies/products that emerged around this period have become the foundation of the internet era of today - it really was an exciting time and place to be.

After returning to Toshiba Japan, I, together with colleagues from various fields, created a concept of what is now called FPGA. However, due to the company's strategy to focus on DRAMs, we abandoned to pursue the business opportunity of FPGA. It was unfortunately a not-so-uncommon attitude to innovation during that time in Japan.

I then stayed in England in the early 90's to establish the Toshiba Cambridge Research Centre in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. The region was called Silicon Fen, which also had a culture that valued entrepreneurship.

I have developed my points of view on entrepreneurship through my experiences above, and I point out the importance of a "social innovation system" which would enable people to feel less burden when changing career.