Ten years later, Kathy is neither a representative of the company nor an officer.
In the Seiwajuku workshop, a CEO, Kathy(pseudonym), showed her management experience. The company that she happened to work for has come to be subject to the Corporate Rehabilitation Law. As Kathy helped the procedure, she eventually became the representative of this company. The corporate debt can be repaid under her management and the company restarted. She shared that episode.
After the presentation, Mr. Inamori says, “Create a philosophy within yourself and make the company even better.” This implies that Kathy has been in her way to learn philosophy and she should keep learning. This sounds a bit harsh to her as she looked very much proud of her performance.
We could find in her presentation how and why Kathy lost her lucky charm.
I would like to demonstrate the keys as follows.
1 Believing herself as a victim.
2 Stubbornness
3 Egoism
4 Ignoring “Pricing is the management”
Let me explain 3 and 4
3 Egoism
“ To the founder of the company, I said “I will manage to rebuild the company you created, so please observe what I am doing now. When the right moment comes, please praise me and value my contribution.” Kathy told this. I feel she at least wanted to show off her presence to the founder. This may eventually turn to be an “apple polishing” to succeed the company’s management position.
Then Kathy became the representative of this company. She said.
“I had been feeling guilty, ‘Are you ambitious to become the president ?’At that time, I read Mr. Inamori’s book and said, “I can clearly say that this is not my egoism but altruism. Only altruism motivated me and I was never selfish.” In her presentation, she stated as above.
→ On the other hand, Mr. Inamori commented like this.
You are somehow aggressive and look very capable. With good luck, you have managed the company so far. However, I don’t know when and how you may lose your lucky charm. To avoid this, establish a philosophy in yourself. From now on, humbly follow that philosophy you established to be a better person. You said that you answered yes and yes when you saw my book called “Altruism or selfishness” at a bookstore. In ordinary days, everyone does like that. Everyone answers yes when they are asked, “What has motivated you, altruism or selfishness, altruism, right? ” But under the pressure or time of survival, we can’t always say yes to that question. People tend to be egoistic under the emergency. That’s the problem, and unless you put yourself under disciplines, you can’t say yes. This is the nature of human beings. Determination and mindfulness are not so easy things to acquire and deliver to our daily practice. You’ve had a lot of trouble coming to your life till now, but you have been very lucky to be the president of a great company. Don’t overestimate yourself, be always humble and polish your mentality and humanity values to obtain the respect from others. ”
Mr. Inamori perceived well the egoism underlying Kathy’s behavior.
4 Ignoring “Pricing is the management”
“Price is a sort of our corporate culture, and I think it is my mission to connect it to the future value and protect as well as nurture it as a product with long life, pride, and evidence.” Kathy mentioned above in the closing of her presentation. When I looked up word-of-mouth articles about this company’s products and employees’ engagement check on the Internet, there was an opinion that the weakness or lack of academic proof of the efficacy of the product was a bottleneck of this company. Of course, we don’t judge here which is right and which is not. There was also a comment about a company that has a family-owned culture and its board consists of family only. The company exists for that family’s prosperity.
From this point of view, I think it was necessary to think about the products and pricing of that product which the company has principally been promoting since it’s starting up.
I think it was necessary to think about this, “Are you offering a good product that you can sincerely recommend and selling it at the highest in a price range where your customer is willing to pay?” I have the doubt that before analyzing the fairness of pricing, Kathy could have spent time and resources to ensure the convincing and trustworthy evidence to prove the medical effect of the product. It is quite uncertain, Kathy could have charged the same price as she had done till then even after she found out the product has a little evidence of its medical effect.
So to sum up, the keys to lose “Lucky charm” are as follows.
1 Believing herself as a victim.
2 Stubbornness
3 Egoism
4 Ignoring “Pricing is the management”
This is the reason why Mr. Inamori repeatedly says that “heart and mindset” are two most important items in business administration.
What is more important than strategy and management theory is the management’s mind and mental issues.
Again, if Kathy had faced her internal mind when she got divorced, she might have had different results. If Kathy were to move away from the management and face herself, I think her future life would improve.
As Mr. Inamori said, Kathy was lucky and “even if she had a negative factor in her mindset,” Kathy became the president of a good company and was able to help it rebuild. I think it was up to her to decide whether to pass through her luck or to look at herself honestly.
I myself have found this episode as a warning to me.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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