Yamashita plays two roles - he leads SYPartners, a consultancy that works with CEOs and their executive teams to design the future of their organizations at times of significant change. Over the past 20 years he's worked with leadership teams at Apple, IBM, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, eBay, Nike, The World Bank, PBS, Gap Inc. among others. He also holds the post of The Charles and Ray Eames Brand Fellow at IBM - a three-year post that is dedicated to help IBM in its quest to be a great company.

Yamashita is a frequent teacher and speaker on leadership, aspiration, greatness, systems thinking, innovation, and design. He's taught at The Stanford Business School and The Yale School of Management. Yamashita has published several books, articles, and papers on those topics. He holds a bachelor's degree in quantitative economics and a master degree in organizational behavior from Stanford University.