Mr. Takahiro Kitte, Partner, Ernst & Young

“Pursuing a tireless interest in what connects us with the present”

Mr. Takahiro Kitte, a graduate of the School of Human Sciences, is a Partner at Ernst & Young Italy, one of the world’s largest international professional services firms. He deals with cross border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), working for clients that include Japanese and global mega corporations, so it’s no exaggeration to say that Mr. Kitte is at the forefront of global business.

Same industry, same job, huge differences in management

Upon graduation from Osaka University, Mr. Kitte entered a Japanese mega business firm and was soon transferred to its subsidiary in Spain. While working in Spain, he obtained his MBA from Universitas Nebrissensis, and after briefly returning to Japan, he began working at a global company in Italy, where he has been living for almost 30 years.

With such experiences working in multiple companies with different histories and cultures, Mr. Kitte found huge differences in doing businesses and their management styles, but at the same time he found “we are the same - human beings after all”. All this may have served as the impetus for him to examine “what it means to be human.”

Indispensable traits for global success

Given Mr. Kitte’s rich experience and abilities in global firms, he considers three traits to be especially essential for working and living in a global community: the ability to communicate, the ability to think about and lead solutions by oneself, and having a tireless interest in history, culture, arts, and humanity.. Thus, Mr. Kitte claims that the issue common to those three traits is the “human aspect,” i.e. one’s interest and curiosity in others, questions about others’ public and private life, and the foundations on which those people stand.

“Today we are living in a world of unprecedent changes. We all know that Digital disruptions, AI, Quantum computer, etc. could have huge impacts on our life but we do not really know what to come and where to go.” – he says and continues “In such an uncertainty, our questioning what it means to “be human” would make much more sense.”

It’s clear that Mr. Kitte has been deeply examining this question ever since his four-year stay at OU’s School of Human Sciences.

Text: Saori Obayashi/Edit: Christopher Bubb