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 Here, some 300 or so aspiring leaders - split about evenly between
company insiders and entrepreneurs from outside - brainstorm ideas
and vie to catch Son's eye, with a chance he'll offer them a job or
invest in their company, or even choose them as his "heir" to run
Japan's second most valuable listed company.
The Academia, set up by Son four years ago, meets once or twice a
month in the 25th floor cafeteria of SoftBank's Tokyo headquarters.
In what sounds like an episode from business-reality TV show "The
Apprentice", the budding leaders play business-themed board games
and compete with 5-minute business proposals that are judged by
their peers. The winners get to meet Son; the losers hear, "You're
fired!"
The Academia is ostensibly seeking someone to carry on the business
from Son, Japan's best known entrepreneur who built a small software
distributor into a near-$90 billion internet media empire. Son, 56,
has said he wants to retire in his 60s.
But the program is also helping SoftBank scout and train talent to
run its hundreds of ventures, in fields from internet services to
robotics and renewable energy, in a country where MBA-type business
schools and venture capital firms are rare.
"People say Son's thinking is: you guys may not be able to be my
actual successor, but you definitely have what it takes to become
head of a subsidiary," said one participant, who asked not to be
named. The contents of the program are not made public and
participants are explicitly told not to discuss the sessions with
people outside the program.
SoftBank, Japan's third-largest mobile operator, is an aggressive
acquirer that last year bought No.3 U.S. wireless company Sprint
Corp, and is in talks to buy fourth-ranked T-Mobile US Inc. It is
also a significant shareholder in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba
Group, and has stakes in mobile game companies Supercell and Gungho
Online Entertainment Inc. It plans to amass 5,000 companies within
its empire by 2040, up from nearly 900 now.
Son, who now faces a counterbid for T-Mobile US from French firm
Iliad SA, has acknowledged that the lack of a successor poses one of
the leading risks to SoftBank's future.
"If you say, 'Son's successor', that's going to get people excited.
I don't know whether this is true or not, but I heard that if Son's
stock went to his successor, it would be worth around 10 billion yen
($100 million)," said the Academia participant.
STAR-STRUCK
About 4,000 applied to the Academia when it was launched, with just
300 accepted - a tougher acceptance rate than Princeton University
or Tokyo University, Japan's most prestigious school.
The bottom performing 20 percent are routinely culled from the
program, making room for fresh applicants while keeping the total
number of participants steady. Participants, aged 20-45, are
selected by the human resources department on the basis of a CV, an
essay and two 5-minute presentations - the hallmark of the program.
Another participant said that some of those who apply are drawn by
the promise of meeting Son, while others treat it more as an
MBA-type school. Son insists that everyone should be able to speak
English, so they could at least conduct business overseas.
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Yasuyuki Genda, director of SoftBank's HR development department,
said about 20 participants, half of whom were from outside the
company, had been selected for special appointments or promotions
inside the company.
"It's not a recruiting operation, so we're certainly not going to
them saying, 'Hey, come on over,' but they do end up coming into
contact with SoftBank's operations, even if not at the front lines,"
he said.
Genda said the Academia was not intended as a vehicle through which
SoftBank could identify potential start-up acquisitions, though this
could one day be part of its legacy.
"There have been no cases when such an acquisition actually
occurred, and that's not our objective," he said. "While not our
objective, though, some (companies) could end up becoming part of
the SoftBank group as part of the whole process."
Participants say there have been occasions when Son, impressed by a
proposal in one of the sessions such as a solar power project, made
an offer on the spot to invest several billion yen (tens of millions
of dollars) in the idea.
Other suggestions have later emerged as rumored deals being
negotiated by SoftBank, including a proposal by one participant that
Sprint acquire T-Mobile, months before media reports revealed
SoftBank was in private discussions about such a deal.
Participants interviewed for this story said they do not know
whether Son followed through on his offers, and Genda said no
proposals presented in the Academia had led to actual investments or
management decisions, although on occasion they had "stimulated
debate" within SoftBank.
But with board game sessions that can last up to seven hours without
toilet breaks and sudden cancellations to accommodate Son's busy
schedule, this is not a typical business school.
"Son is one of the world's top executives, so he's of course very
busy," said the first participant. "But we get to meet him
personally maybe four times a year ... at close range, and we play
games with him and stuff."
(Editing by Edmund Klamann and Ian Geoghegan)
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