Join us for this breakfast session where you will meet other women from Wharton. This is an opportunity to cultivate a network of peers. It is also a chance to discuss the challenges and opportunities that women encounter in the business world. Learn from the wisdom of other alumnae, while making new friends and professional contacts. Please sign up for this event onsite at the Wharton Booth, located in the Sponsorship Expo area on the 4th Floor at the Palace Hotel!

According to the Population Reference Bureau, by 2055 Japan will have only 90 million inhabitants (down from 128 million now). Yet two-fifths (41%) of them will be over 65 years old, almost double the current percentage. How will the other three-fifths live while supporting the longer lives of the elderly? Continuing current practices and policies is clearly unsustainable. What can be done? Like global warming, this problem seems to be an inevitable challenge of life in the 21st Century. We can try to alter the trend, but learning how to live with the trend is also a wise option. This panel will bring together a group of experts to discuss challenges and opportunities relevant not only to Japan, but also to other countries that have aging populations or that will eventually face these same challenges. Wharton Professor Olivia S. Mitchell will moderate this panel discussion, which will include time for audience questions and participation.

Many manufacturing firms are re-examining the structure of their global supply chains and their associated sourcing strategy in response to the uncertainties and risks they face in these turbulent times. These adjustments are occurring against a backdrop of fundamental change to the environment in which global supply chains operate. For decades a dominant strategy in manufacturing has been to outsource to low cost global suppliers. This has led to the transfer of manufacturing jobs and development activities out of the US, Japan and Europe and into low labor cost countries such as China, India and Vietnam. Today this trend is being challenged by a movement by some companies to re-shore their manufacturing by bringing it back or at least moving it closer to their developed country market, i.e. by near-shoring. At the same time many firms continue to select offshore locations for outsourcing of material inputs and services. This panel will consider the current status of sourcing strategy from the perspective of major multi-national firms. The goal of the session is to bring a group of senior executives, from leading multi-national companies headquartered or operating in Japan, together to explore their current thinking and practices concerning global supply chain strategy and sourcing. The discussion will facilitate an exchange of ideas that will identify managerial challenges and concerns. It will also ascertain current practices and intentions of participating companies. Moderated by Wharton Professor Morris A. Cohen, the panel will focus on issues that include development of an understanding of the drivers of sourcing decisions as perceived by the participants in order to identify opportunities for improvement and barriers to implementation.

For more information on re-shoring, follow this link: Should Manufacturing Jobs Be `Re-Shored` to the U.S.?

This panel will focus on the leadership lessons that can be drawn from making tough decisions and leading change during crises. The panelists will each share their leadership experiences, within government, business and the non-profit sectors, throughout the 3/11 earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Common leadership themes and lessons will be drawn from the difficult challenges each confronted in the face of one of the world`s most severe natural/environmental disasters in recent times. The discussion will also highlight Japan`s heightened awareness for sustainable energy supply and explore the role of government and business in leading the nation`s recent public movement towards reevaluating the need for nuclear energy and exploring alternative renewable energy sources after 3/11. Wharton Professor Eric Orts will moderate this panel discussion, which will include time for audience questions and participation.

The business environment in Japan and around the world is changing at unprecedented speed and magnitude. Consider the increased importance of the empowered and skeptical consumers, the proliferation of media fueled by unparalleled advances in science and technology, the fragmentation of markets, and the emergence of the BRIC countries as the new giants. These changes have major implications to the nature and role of advertising. In fact, the very word "advertising" is being redefined to encompass the entire communications ecosystem with customers and clients. And this is turning management`s concepts of advertising and marketing on its head. In fact, advertising as we know it is changing.

The purpose of the session is to explore the implications of the findings of the Wharton study on `Advertising in the Year 2020` to advertising in Japan and around the world. Advertising 2020 is examining the views of over 200 of the world`s leading thought leaders including key Japanese experts, on two questions: (1) what advertising could / should look like in 2020? and (2) what should companies do now to get there?

This interactive session will review the findings of the Japanese entries, compare and contrast them to the views of the other global experts and focus on the short and long term implications of these findings to advertisers and their agencies. Participants in the session will be encouraged to assess their own advertising and marketing mental models and strategies against the emerging vision of Advertising 2020 and its implications to advertising and marketing today.

There is much discussion about strategy - and lack of strategy - in the popular topic of comparing Korean and Japanese corporations. In addition to a matter of national pride, the question is an important one because the evidence shows that a thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented strategy can create a distinct competitive advantage. This panel is comprised of both Korean and Japanese experts, who will dissect some of the drivers of, impediments to, consequences of and opportunities in corporate strategy. The panel will be moderated by Wharton Professor Nicolaj Siggelkow. Questions that the panel will address include: Is it painful to develop a strategy? Is it even more painful not to have a strategy? What are the barriers to develop a strategy? Can firms still succeed by just focusing on operational excellence? How do firms deal with tradeoffs? Does a strategy require top-down direction to be effective? Does bottom-up planning (at the division or departmental levels) hinder or enable the development of an integrated strategy? Come join this panel and add your thoughts and sparks to the discussion.

What lessons have been learned from the financial crisis? The question itself begs several more questions: which "financial crisis"? There have been many within the memories of people active today. Lessons learned by whom? Financial services professionals? The investing public? Regulators? Politicians? There is no question that this panel, populated with experienced professionals from three countries, will have plenty to discuss about a topic in which virtually everybody has an interest and an opinion. And who better to moderate the discussion than Wharton Professor Franklin Allen, the Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Economics as well as a perennial teaching award winner for the past thirty-three years? You can expect a free-for-all at this panel, with plenty of audience participation once the panelists get things started. You should not expect agreement, or even answers, but you can be assured of a lively conversation that will stimulate your thinking and probably cause you to revise some of your preconceptions. Come with an open mind and be prepared to be challenged and informed.