Share your policies firmly & transparently : Philosophy “Maintain the transparent system 1 Clear & fair management policies to be shared”

This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in his book : Practical Accounting -Business Administration and Accounting -. What Inamori said is quoted with “”.

“Since Kyocera’s foundation, I have strived to manage it based on the established strong trust with employees. For Kyocera, which was a small company, to survive under the fierce competition, the vertical and horizontal integration by sharing business philosophy was essential. For the trust building, leaders  must openly communicate the status-quo of the company to employees. Thus, I have implemented a transparent management system that allows all employees to understand Kyocera’s business status. Furthermore, since Kyocera went public, we have completed the full disclosure to build the trust with investors as well. I believe that it is the most important for corporate management to conduct all the business practices in a fair, honest and sincere manner. To ensure this motto, I have kept management transparent to the everyone.”

Here, Mr. Inamori explained the importance of the transparency, First he highlighted the following two details in conducting this motto.

Let me elaborate one by one. 

1. Clear and fair accounting

“We must share the idea :the accounting department, which handles money and process accounting transactions , is thoroughly clear and fair. Therefore, people in the accounting department should always act in a fair and honest manner and do sensible practices. Also, create an atmosphere within the accounting department where unclear (unfair)attitudes and behavior are never accepted, and they must remain the respected whistleblowers within the company. However, even if the accounting department makes every effort to ensure that all accounting procedures and settlement reports are accurate and that conservative accounting procedures are maintained, it is still difficult to conduct transparent management. Ultimately, creating corporate culture depends on the business philosophy of the top management.” 

→I think this is a very important. It’s difficult to monitor yourself unless you harshly criticize yourself. Following the rules strictly, even for small expenses, and making a clear distinction between work and private items are not always done. Top leaders also need to manage their time properly. Probably, psychological approach may work.  I would like to thoroughly bring my thoughts of cheating into the conscious mind and avoid cheating unconsciously. Desire to showing off comes from a sense of inferiority. It comes from the fear towards the loneliness: employees or partners leave you alone. I want to be careful to always be honest.

2. Communication within the company

“ Communication has been another important topic to be considered in conducting transparent business operations. In other words, messages are accurately and clearly delivered to employees, especially what the top management is thinking and aiming for. For example, Kyocera’s management policy is communicated to each employee with great effort. At the beginning of the year, the management policies are announced directly to mid-level executives and above in the company’s head office, but they are also simultaneously broadcasted by satellite to factories around the country. After listening to the president’s management policies, executives share them with managers of their subdivisions, then those managers cascade the contents within their teams. After that, everyone in the workplace takes turns listening to the president’s video speech. In this way, all employees get familiar with the management policies.”

→ In this technology era, I think it will become possible for many people to immediately share one person’s thoughts, opinions, atmosphere, passion, etc. When sharing things like this, I believe that top leaders must convince the colleagues as the leader resonates with staff and open up their minds and hearts. I think the only what the top management must do in communicating with his staff is carefully listening to them and keeping his efforts to convey his idea while feeling each staffs emotional parts. This is not an easy task. But I may have to keep endeavors to improve my communication skills as the top management. 

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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