The unorthodox excuse that 'if it's not interesting, it's not management studies.'

Potential benefits you might gain from reading this article: What should a management studies class at a university be like? I believe it should be 'thoroughly interesting.' However, if the students don't find it interesting, it's just self-satisfaction. In the first place, one could argue that 'aiming to be interesting' is wrong in itself. I have been struggling with this Zen riddle on my own, but I have tried to find an answer.

University classes are also marketing

Yesterday, I mentioned that elections are marketing, but when you think about it, my job—teaching university classes—is also marketing.

However, the target, meaning the students who take the course, changes every time.

There are students who show up and those who don't, the students enrolled change between the first and second semesters, and the faces change every year.

Since the enrollees are ultimately determined, you could say they are the target, but since students' moods are not the same every time, it can be said that the characteristics of the target, which are important in marketing, are difficult to grasp.

Therefore, as a teacher, I must grasp the general characteristics of the enrollees, consider their mood for the day, and provide a class that is the product (service).

Why a class on professional wrestling?

It has been over 25 years since I started lecturing at a university, but at first, I wasn't thinking about marketing at all.

'Huh, how am I supposed to teach an introduction to management studies at a university?' I was in the midst of such confusion.

I was teaching a normal class, explaining the assigned textbook and copying points onto the blackboard, but at some point, I began to feel 'fear'.

That was the fear of the reality that 'most students aren't listening'.

This fear was a challenge to my own sense of purpose, and my baseless confidence that 'there's no way this class of mine wouldn't be interesting' was beginning to crumble.

Thinking in terms of marketing, it was simply because I hadn't grasped the characteristics of the target, and the class, which is the product delivered to the students who are the customers, was not what they were looking for.

So, I hypothesized that what the students wanted was 'something interesting, easy to understand, fun, and timely', stopped tracing the textbook entirely, created my own text, and shifted to content centered on video.

Although I was supposed to teach the history of management studies, the subjects I used were sports, anime, entertainment, and current events, with professional wrestling as the main focus, mobilizing everything that might make students turn their heads.

What I paid particular attention to was timely topics.

Real-time subject matter is the strongest material for 'change,' which is the true essence of management studies, and students are also more engaged.

The day after the 'Agony of Doha' in soccer, I edited the game I had recorded the previous day and rushed to create an explanatory text, so I even pulled an all-nighter.

I also summarized the news of Namie Amuro's divorce into a class the next day.

For entertainment, I cunningly picked themes while watching the students' reactions.

In the chapter on the American Cola Wars, Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola, I even had students experience a blind taste test to see which one they thought tasted better.

When I did a Tiger Mask cosplay, I remember the students taking pictures with their cameras as hard as they could.

Since teaching history seriously isn't interesting, I used entertaining subjects, mainly professional wrestling, and used them as metaphors (associating different things) to overlay onto the history of management studies.

I also rewrote all the textbook descriptions in my own materials using easy-to-understand language.

In the end, it was just self-satisfaction.

No, I have absolutely no intention of saying that pandering to students in a sense, and making the class fun and funny on the surface, is the correct answer.

Looking back now, this unorthodox approach was just me giving in to 'that fear'.

The shock of not being listened to by students is what led me to choose the unorthodox path.

The class centered on professional wrestling drew a response, with newspapers coming to cover it, and even a book titled 'The Economics of Professional Wrestling' was born from it.

However, the unorthodox path is unorthodox no matter how far you go, and it is doubtful whether it was useful for the students' management education.

How should university management classes be?

But, everyone, having students not listen to you is an experience intense enough to cause PTSD.

It would be fine if I could just resign myself to the fact that the students here are at this level and can't keep up with my high-minded lectures, but as a naive and thin-skinned person, I simply couldn't endure it.

However, now, a convenient feeling of self-affirmation is also welling up inside me, thinking, ' Wasn't that fine?.'

That is because my own definition of management studies has changed.

My definition of management studies 25 years ago was, 'Management studies is everything written in management textbooks.'

My current definition of management studies has changed to,
'Management studies is something interesting.'

Management studies is creating interesting products, services, things, and items, this is my current belief.

Therefore, classes also always need new and interesting methods, and teachers must also be unprecedented and interesting beings; the way of presenting things is the same.

I realize that by saying this, I may be criticized for simply pandering to students, but I believe that the educational effectiveness of management studies depends on the appropriateness of how one uses the 'metaphors' I mentioned earlier.

When it comes to professional wrestling, if you consider that there is an organization, a strategy, and people who need to be moved, it is exactly the same as any other organization or company.

Rather than a metaphor, it is exactly the same thing, and the example of professional wrestling is sometimes easier to understand than those of other industries, though only for professional wrestling fans.

The reason I used professional wrestling was that it was still a boom at the time, and by coincidence, most of the class were professional wrestling fans.

In that sense, the students were controlling the class.

Management education can be made much more interesting.

I am the only one who is running off in a strange direction.

It is the direction of seeking the potential of interesting management studies.

No, perhaps I am not seeking it, but searching for it.

Management studies is an infinitely interesting field, yet it has not been fully explored.

This is especially true when it comes to bringing Japanese management studies onto the international stage.

Speaking of domestic classes, I cannot use professional wrestling now because it is not popular.

What I am using now is, as I introduced the other day with 'University Judo Club vs. Robbers,'management education using martial arts.

It can be done at Japanese universities, but I am currently assembling content for lectures at overseas universities.

I have already demonstrated a prototype at universities in the United States, Europe, and China, but I want to turn this into a solid system and spread it to the world.

I show demonstrations of karate, aikido, and bojutsu, which I am skilled in, involve the students, have them physically experience the principles of martial arts through techniques, and prove the fusion of Bushido and management studies; to put it abstractly, that is what it is like.

By next March, the paper is scheduled to be completed in both English and Japanese, so I am making plans to use that as a promotional tool to enter universities, companies, and organizations around the world.

Once again, I have discovered that management studies is an interesting thing.

No, I might as well just affirm myself.

Unable to bear the fear of being ignored, I resorted to the heresy of the economics of professional wrestling.

But, that's okay.

Yes, the devil inside me is whispering right now.

Come to think of it, this note might be the same.

I want to smash forms, authority, and common sense, which is why I'm saying that Shinjiro-style syntax is good.

I have digressed quite a bit from the title 'Management studies is also marketing,' which is truly Shinjiro-style syntax; my apologies.

Ichiro Noro
Professor at Seiwa University