Japanese work environment is so intense to the extent that people the 1970s invented karoshi, a word that can be translated literally as "overwork death" in Japanese and represents occupational sudden mortality. The major medical cause of karoshi deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress, a starvation diet, and long work hours. Korashi also involves employees committing suicides due to overwork.

The first case of karoshi was registered in 1969 when a 29-year-old male working in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper company died after suffering from a stroke. It wasn't until 1978 that pattern of people suffering from fatal strokes and heart failure attributed to overwork was brought to light. The term was brought into public usage in 1982 when it was used on a book dealing with the issue.

The term korashi emerged into Japanese public life during the mid-80s "Bubble Economy" when several high-ranking business executives in their prime years suffered from a sudden death without any previous sign of illness. It was then that the phenomenon started to be seen as a serious menace for people in the workforce, which prompted the Japanese Ministry of Labour to start publishing statistics on karoshi in 1987.

Although the initiative was meant to decrease the number of karoshi cases, another employee death due to overwork took place in July 2013. 31-year-old journalist Miwa Sado died of heart failure after logging 159 hours of overtime in one month at the news network NHK. Her death, however, wasn't registered as a karoshi case until October 2017.

Meanwhile, in 2015, a 24-year-old employee of Japanese advertising behemoth Dentsu jumped to her death off a balcony in a company dorm room where she lived after working more than 100 hours in the month leading up to her suicide. Dentsu's president and CEO, Tadashi Ishii, resigned a month after the horrible event.

Japanese work culture

The concept of karoshi can be traced back to the aftermath of World War II. With a war-torn country, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida prioritised fostering Japan's economy. One of his initiatives was to prompt major corporations to offer their employees lifelong job security in exchange for workers' loyalty.

Although the plan worked to boost Japan's economy, turning a war-torn country into the largest economy in the world, Japanese workers had to give up work life balance. Within a decade of the start of Yoshida's plan, karoshi cases started to take place. With the purpose of making good impressions on their bosses and due to their loyalty ties with the company, workers started to sacrifice their personal time in favour of their jobs.

The long hours in the office, sleep deprivation and the burden of meeting with their employers' demands started to take a toll in Japanese workers, prompting a number of them to suicide or suffer strokes and heart attacks. These fatalities were recognised as being job-related and the phenomenon was known as "occupation sudden death."

Despite the population and government's awareness of this ailment, work-life balance in Japan is not much better today. After surveying 10,000 Japanese workers in 2016, a report focused on karoshi cases found that 20% of the respondents worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month. Half of the workers who took part in the survey admitted that they don't take paid vacations. According to the report, 20% of Japanese workers work an overage of 49 hours or longer each week.

Although karoshi used to affect mostly the male force, female case of karoshi are increasingly being reported. Young employees are usually expected to work long hours to climb up the corporate ladder. Some bosses expect employees to arrive early and leave late, which is the case of Takehiro Onuki, a 31-year-old salesman who regularly starts at 8 a.m. and finishes at midnight. The same happens to many other Japanese employees who work in white-collar jobs where hierarchies are quite rigid. Advancement is earned through great strenuous effort. It is not common for workers to leave their jobs, even if they are unhappy or overworked, because starting a new job means starting from scratch and not at the level they left. This leads to a generation of workers who seem to be devoted to their work.

One thousand three hundred students from every corner of the United States flocked to Pasadena, California, to talk about businesses they had set up. This is not an influx of young entrepreneurs and new startups in the world, as the businesses are completely virtual. Therefore, their products and services are not real and only virtual money is exchanged.

Organised by Virtual Enterprises International, the conference resembled a trade show, housing numerous virtual businesses offering products such as communications technology or food. The New York City-based group says it helps high school students learn modern business skills such as problem solving, communication and technology. The group stated that the project was inspired by the European tradition of apprenticeships in which students learn from people already working in a business or trade.

During the event, students from Miguel Contreras Business and Tourism School in Los Angeles tried to get customers for their virtual business, Big City Tours. The creators, who got some help from their teacher Darrel Iki, said that their business stands out for providing virtual tours to different parts of Los Angeles, providing customers with a a great guide to the city's ethnic heritage, take them to see high-end fashion or visit stores.

Meanwhile, students from Century High School in Santa Ana, California, were selling a translation device designed for travellers. According to students and teachers, the experience of creating a business feels very realistic. Students start with a business plan, then they establish a hierarchy and, according to Iki, they learn to "work together, having a common goal in a potentially successful business."

Nick Chapman, president and national program director for Virtual Enterprises International, said that students soon realise that operating a business takes a lot of effort and time. "They're running meetings, they're networking, they're meeting with professionals, they're working with mentors, all of the things that are really going to set them apart when they get into college and then move on into their careers," he stated.

Chapman also said that Virtual Enterprise International program welcomes 13,000 students each year. Students seem quite content with this experience and have declared that working on creating their own business will help them in the future when they enter the real world.

One of the students from Century High School, Miguel Santin, stated that while creating this company, it takes strong communication skills to run a company. He also said that he now understands the pressure of running a company. Working in a virtual company called Taste of the World, he was tasked with overseeing employment and digital media for the virtual company.This virtual company was conceived as a subscription service and it sends samples to customers through the mail.

One of the students from Century High School, Miguel Santin, stated that while creating this company, it takes strong communication skills to run a company. He also said that he now understands the pressure of running a company. Working in a virtual company called Taste of the World, he was tasked with overseeing employment and digital media for the virtual company.This virtual company was conceived as a subscription service and it sends samples to customers through the mail.

"You really need to be hands on with your employees and make sure you guys have strong communication. Otherwise the company just won't prosper as much as you would expect."

Teacher Alan Gerston, who helped set up Taste of the World, explained, "You sign up for three months, six months, a year, and you receive a snack box with trinkets and information about the company every single month throughout your subscription time."

"You would pay within our virtual economy," Gerston said, "using virtual money in a web-based simulated bank system," he explained. "All the kids in the program have bank accounts…so when they buy something, we give them a receipt," he added.

Stephen Jarvis, from the Elizabeth Learning Centre in Cudahy, California, told VOA that there is a lot to learn. He added, "It isn't just selling something. It's all the things that go on behind the scenes – creating documents, figuring out if you're making money or losing money."

Catalina Garcia, a senior who received financial assistance to become a doctor, is a student entrepreneur with the Big City Tours project, and she admitted, "It's helped me a lot because when I was trying to get the scholarship, I went to the interviews, and being in this company has helped me really prepare my presentation skills and be able to talk to other people."

Despite of what she does in the future and even though she will become a doctor rather than an entrepreneur, Garcia is sure that the skills she has gained creating the virtual project will help her in the future.

Alexa Dell is the daughter of Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, who is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of nearly $24 billion. Despite being the daughter of a computer industry pioneer, the 24-year old didn't expect to work someday in tech. Considering her family business and the environment she grew up in, however, her journey into the app space seemed inevitable.

According to Alexa, she grew up "having a front seat to the master class" headed by her father in the 90s. She said her father's work and the work of his "for a lock of a better word, his friends" in making the world more connected through personal computers and the World Wide Web.

"The idea that if we can make the world a smaller place with technology, we can really exponentially expand the boundaries of innovation and what's possible within the world," Dell said. "That movement was incredibly intriguing to me, and I wanted to be part of that."

Alexa has many interests

Alexa Dell told Business Insider at the SXSW film festival that her parents, Michael and Susan, encouraged her and her siblings to explore their interests to widen their scope of possibilities and discover their real passion. During her high school years, Alexa Dell worked at fashion houses in New York City every summer.

Despite having a large range of interests, from photography, fashion and editorial, Alexa Dell ended up pursuing a career in tech. Back in 2013, she dropped out of Columbia University to try her luck in the tech industry. Upon leaving college, she started working at a dating app company and the experience allowed her to get a glimpse into life at a startup, an environment where, according to Alexa, a person's good ideas mattered more than their age, status, or gender. This is because startups are constantly evolving and are trying to grow.

"I could much faster and much more efficiently present and execute on my ideas," Dell said, adding: "I knew the space would be best-fitting for the change I wanted to have."

Hard work is key to success

Her efforts have paid off and now she runs a business consulting firm and works as an adviser to dating app company Bumble. Dell believes that it is hard work what leads to success. Accordingly, as a child, she often visited the headquarters of her father's company in Round Rock, Texas.

From the front seat, she watched her father Michael Dell build a multinational corporation out of a startup that was based Michael Dell's freshman year door room. It was during the time Michael Dell was a student at University of Texas at Austin, that he launched the company that once was PC's Limited with only $1,000 family loan.

What she has learnt from her father, according to Alexa, is that you have to dedicate to your business in order to make it. She said, "The advice that he's given me is that hard work is really the foundation of success." She has also learned from Michael Dell, she said in an interview with Nextshark is that "no matter how successful you are, success means nothing unless it's shared. I really admire him and my mom for all the work they've done through the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and I'm so appreciative to have grown up with this mentality."

Active Lifestyle

According to Alexa, having an active lifestyle is the key to happiness. "Both my parents are very active," she said, and she learned from them that having a healthy lifestyle can foster productivity at work. Alexa Dell, for instance, prefers to take her conference calls from a treadmill desk located in her home office.

"It's great because your blood is circulating and you can think better, you can think more clearly," Alexa Dell said. "That's something I kind of learned from them (her parents)."

Alexa Dell also enjoys nature and exercising as a hobby. In an interview with Nextshark, she said, "I love going for a hike with one or two close friends. There are so many trails in LA, and if they're dog friendly I'll bring along my French bulldog Colette! If I have a long weekend, I'll definitely be travelling! I love experiencing new cultures and am inspired by all corners of the world."

Digital transformation is the change associated with the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, deeply changing how it operates and delivers value to customers. What it means by transformation is that digital adoption enables new types of innovation and creativity in a certain domain, rather than simply enhancing and supporting traditional methods. According to author Greg Verdino, digital transformation "closes the gap between what digital customers already expect and what analog businesses actually deliver."

Digital transformation also entails a cultural change, requiring organisations to constantly challenge the status quo, experience, and get comfortable with failure. Sometimes this means steering the boat away from long-standing business process that companies were built upon to try new practices that are still being tested. Therefore, digital transformation entails questioning traditional methods in favour to new revolutionary practices.

Whether a business is small or a leading corporate, digital transformation (DT) is essential for its survival this day and age. Every study, keynote, panel discussion and report related to how businesses can remain competitive and relevant as the world becomes increasingly digital agrees with this statement, that digital transformation is vital for a business to stay afloat.

Why is digital transformation important?

The most important reason for a business to undergo digital transformation is to survive in the current market. In a contributed article for The Guardian, Howard King said, "Businesses don't transform by choice because it is expensive and risky. Businesses go through transformation when they have failed to evolve,"

Meanwhile, CIO of Vanguard, points out, "Just look at the S&P 500. In 1958, U.S. corporations remained on that index for an average of 61 years, according to the American Enterprise Foundation. By 2011, it was 18 years. Today, companies are being replaced on the S&P approximately every two weeks. Technology has driven this shift, and companies that want to succeed must understand how to merge technology with strategy."

The IDC research "FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2018 Predictions" stated, "By the end of 2019, digital transformation (DX) spending will reach $1.7 trillion worldwide, a 42 percent increase from 2017." This won't be that easy, however, as IDC's predictions for CIOs in 2018 report, "Through 2019, dragged down by conflicting digital transformation imperatives, ineffective technology innovation, cloud infrastructure transition, and underfunded end-of-life core systems, 75 percent of CIOs and their enterprises will fail to meet all their digital objectives."

What drives digital transformation?

Technology is the main factor propelling digital transformation forward. However, this process also involves ridding the company of outdated processes and legacy technology. In the healthcare industry, for instance, in spite of the popularity of mobile devices among healthcare providers, "close to 80 percent of clinicians continue to use hospital-provided pages and 49 percent of those clinicians report they receive patient care-related messages most commonly by pager."

According to research from Forrester, CIOs spend two thirds of their budgets on existing IT concerns, while only one third goes to new projects and innovation. For businesses to evolve this day and age, they must adopt technologies that allow them to boost efficiency. Automation technologies may also enable IT organisations to gain speed and reduce technical debt.

HR and business leaders plea for digital inclusivity

The controversy that has stemmed from Facebook mishandling personal data over the past few years has prompted HR and business leaders to plea organisations to ensure the digital revolution is both inclusive and ethical.

After revelations concerning the alleged misuse of up to 30 million individuals' profiles fuelled an ongoing debate about digitalisation, CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese we are witnessing a fourth industrial revolution that brought with it new responsibilities. He added he things Facebook personal data issue has triggered a moment that "made us realise we need to read the T&Cs and know what's what."

According to Cheese, there is a large number of the global population are playing out their whole lives on social media without thinking about the consequences. "Regulation has a role to play but it will never solve the problem on its own," he added.

Chief executive of Business in the Community said, "My plea for digital inclusivity is that we should all fervently pursue humanity in the face of advancing technology."

Cheese agreed that the digital revolution has changed many jobs and stripped the humanity our of business. He said, "I strongly believe that we can design jobs that make the best of things for people… that we can upskill and reskill them so that people don't get excluded."