An Anaheim University graduate and public service employee was so convinced of the benefits of an MBA for government workers, he decided to publish a book to persuade them.

Mr. Hiroshi Koyama, who gained his MBA from Anaheim University in 2006, has worked for the city government of Arakawa ward in Tokyo, Japan, for 25 years, and currently serves as supervisor in the nursing care insurance section.

With this extensive public service background, he said he wanted to introduce the idea of an MBA to Japanese civil workers and promote the efficiency and effectiveness of Japanese local government.

To accomplish this, Mr. Koyama began writing a serial in Toseisimpou, a Japanese newspaper for public employees. After the serial ended, a Toseisimpou editor suggested he turn it into a book. About six months later, the 317-page “Koumuin mo MBA” (MBA for Public Officers) was finished and last year was published by Toseisimpou-sha in Japan.

“The main target of this book is public service officials, especially in local government in Japan. While the content of the book is arranged for readers who have little knowledge of an MBA, I think it is also useful for scholars in public policies because it introduces the reality of local government based on facts,” he said.

To make the book's content more interesting and persuasive, Mr. Koyama arranged it as a dialogue between MBA holders and non-holders. In the dialogue, the non-MBA holders, who are skeptical about an MBA, ask questions and present negative opinions. In response, MBA holders answer the questions and explain how useful an MBA is.

The dialogues are set in the context of two stories. In the first story, a retired public officer starts his own Ramen noodle restaurant which then teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. His friend, an MBA holder and business consultant, helps him.

In the other story, a taskforce in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) is working on a new administrative reform campaign. The taskforce consists of four members: an MBA holder, a conservative, a reformist, and a freshman. They discuss how to manage the TMG from different points of view.

Mr. Koyama had the opportunity to work at TMG for two years and contributed to compiling a general plan of the TMG.

He said he was inspired to write his book because he felt public officials and local government could learn from the lessons of an MBA.

“While the world is changing rapidly and the private sector is making tremendous efforts to survive, the public sector is reluctant to make such efforts and is getting obsolete year by year. People complain that the government system is insufficient/ineffective and insist that the public sector needs to learn from the way the private sector is doing like an MBA.

“I think there are two main reasons that public workers are reluctant to learn from the idea of an MBA. Firstly, they insist that there are crucial differences between the public sector and the private one. Secondly, they think they can keep their jobs forever without change because government is actually a kind of 100% monopolizing company and has no competitors.

“However from the viewpoint of an MBA, such ideas are not always correct,” he said.

In particular, Mr. Koyama noted that there are many common features between government and private companies because they both are organizations, and they both must run organizations effectively and efficiently.

He added: “Secondly, the trend in the world is privatization of the public sector functions. If government remains obsolete and does not meet the needs of citizens, the pressure of privatization will be much stronger.”

Mr. Koyama believes that ideas gained in an MBA can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sectors. “If they make much of the fruits of the MBA idea, government employees can keep their job while improving customers' satisfaction,” he added.

Did Mr. Koyama's experiences at Anaheim University help in writing the book?

“Absolutely YES,” he said. “For example, I have learned the importance and difficulties about making changes through many case studies through Anaheim MBA courses. As I mentioned, in the public sector, employees from the top to the rank and file altogether are reluctant to changes. So I think I was able to provide several persuasive cases in my book to convince readers of the necessity of changes in the private sector.”

Mr. Koyama is continuing his interest in the publishing field by currently working on a translation of a book about local government management, written by UK scholars under the supervision of a professor of Waseda University in Japan.

Mr. Koyama's book, Koumuin mo MBA, which is written in Japanese and under the pen name of Isamu Sera, is available at large bookstores in Japan or through Amazon.com Japan. The price is 1,890 yen (tax included) and the ISBN number is 978-4-88614-157-6.