Unrivaled goods and services: Philosophy “ Pursue perfectionism.”

This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in Kyocera philosophy.

What Inamori said is quoted with “”.

“ When a work or project achieves 90% completion, people often compromise and think, `This looks enough’. However, such people will never be able to create a perfect product or service. As long as you believe your small mistakes can be amended, you will never be able to achieve results that will truly satisfy you and those around you.

Whether it’s sales or manufacturing, sometimes we lose orders or produce defective products because we neglect the last 1% of our efforts. To make your own efforts even more fruitful, you must always strive for perfection in your work. ”

The reasons why Mr. Inamori had stressed this motto of perfectionism are as follows:

Let me explain one by one.

1 To be unrivaled

“ Schlumberger aims for the best. Kyocera aims for the perfect. Best means “better than others’ or “the best thing, but I believe that `from the manufacturing position, even if it is the best thing, a small deficit can ruin everything. That’s why it must be perfect,’ and the debate continued into the night about best vs. perfect. Mr. Jean Riboud finally agreed with my opinion and said, `Yes, you’re right. From now on, we’re going to stop using bests and change our motto to deliver the perfect.’

In fact, even though we call ourselves perfectionists, we are human, and there is no way we can be perfect. However, it is important to keep trying and be conscious of being a perfectionist. ”

→ The quality of our goods and services improves because we aim for perfection. This is different from the attitude of aiming for something better. If all employees demonstrate this attitude in manufacturing, I believe that the quality of the products they produce will be incomparably better than those of other competitors.

2 To keep delivering something better

” In other words, as a manufacturer, we know and have experienced enough how even a small error, even a fraction of a percentage, can destroy the process. You must aim for perfection with all your souls and spirits. This is the world of manufacturing.

(In the past, the last mistake ruined the process and we missed the delivery deadline.) Our client got upset and even said `We may end up in a difficult position due to your sloppy job.’ As we have experienced such hardships, we know that even the slightest mistake can lead to serious problems. Therefore, Kyocera has continued to pursue perfectionism in the production. ”

→ Based on this experience, we have made a lot of improvements in maintaining perfectionism to keep the consciousness and physical condition of workers, and the system for reviewing processes. By doing so, you will naturally create better products. Efforts and improvements are made toward perfection. I believe that by doing this, we will be able to continually improve our products and services.

3 To demonstrate the maximum concentration

“ …..If this were a manufacturing process, all the products would have gone bad. Accounting people write the numbers with a pencil so they can erase them later, and if they make a mistake, they can erase it with an eraser and rewrite it. That’s why I was furious and told that accounting guy that his mindset has caused such mistakes. Unless he changes his mindset, we can’t eliminate such careless mistakes.

In other words, there are items that can not be erased and rewritten. In all work, you must work so seriously that you realize that if you make even the slightest mistake, it will be irreparable. That’s why I demanded perfectionism for my administrative staff as well, not allowing them to think that making ends meet is all what they must deliver. ”

→ To prevent mistakes, we need to improve our concentration and memory. However, before that happens, it is important to make a resolution to yourself not to make mistakes and to change your behavior.

It is important to create an environment and awareness that allow employees to maximize their concentration on work. It is necessary to learn about the mechanisms that sustain concentration and the mechanisms that demonstrate human concentration. We incorporate those systems into our work processes.

* Mr. Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera, KDDI (one of the top tele communication companies in Japan) and the top of revitalization project of JAL. As a well-known Japanese entrepreneur, he has been sharing his experiences and management know-how with managements of small to middle companies in Japan.

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

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