I have been doing this philosophy marathon for about two years. Now I have realized that Mr. Inamori has always precisely found what the root cause is for each one of managerial decisions. Why could he do this? This is simply because he understands well, what kind of value standard each one of us has maintained. In other words, this is the question of “Do I use my compass, or others? “ He immediately has found which compass a guy in front of him has tendered so far. Mr. Inamori has also captured where the compass comes from, which means altruism or egoism?

For instance, if a top management of a restaurant chain decides to close a store, he said, “To secure employment, I decided to do this.” However, Mr. Inamori overlooks the mind of that guy. “No, you are not honest to your mind. You just followed the social mood, and you just simply wanted to protect your reputation as a manager. ”

 

In Kyocera philosophy, he reiterated many times that he established his own compass as a top management and that compass is always based on “the right things as human being”

The tips to develop your own compass are as follows.

Fair, Find Fear, move Forward and Follow

1 Conduct your ethical standard check: what is right thing as a human being :Fair

2 Develop your own analytical thinking (identify what is the fundamental cause of your anxiety): Find Fear

3 Get used to compare, choose, decide and act: move Forward,

4 Get well-determined to accept all the result come from your decisions: Follow

Let me explain three and four

 

3 Get used to compare, choose, decide and act, move Forward

Inamori shared the episode of developing an amorphous silicon drum.

At the Kyocera factory, the R&D team had no research result even after nearly 10 years. Mr. Inamori said this was simply because the researchers did not pay attention to the research work.

“… I instinctively slapped the person in charge and gathered researchers to raise their attention again. However, no matter how hard I tried to induce my passion they looked so exhausted, almost no soul and spirit there. I decided to send all the equipment to the factory in Shiga prefecture, and re-organize the R&D team there. Within half a year, the team succeeded in the development.

 

Thus, what I want to tell you is that we need tremendous concentration and experiments still require an eye for observation. Through experiments, we must look closely at objects, discover fundamental principles, and get a sort of “enlightenment”. I would like all of you who are developing research technology to understand that it is important to proceed with your work with a tremendous amount of concentration so that you can extract your conviction. Also, since I am doing experiments and research with such seriousness and tremendous concentration, I am confident that I can solve issues by ourselves. On the contrary, those who are not doing research or business with great concentration are not confident in themselves.

 

For example, people who are vague, even though they have successfully developed with proper experimental data, are not confident in the results because they are not doing their works seriously. They just left success as just luck. On the other hand, those who are serious and focused on their work are confident in themselves, so if they got one success, they would think “Yes, we’ve done that, we are getting very close to the goal!!.”  In fact, it’s just a coincidence, but since I’m looking at it seriously and with a great deal of focus, I can reproduce the process and succeed.

→ The person who lives on other’s compass is the former.

They work while thinking following

I don’t really want to do this, but for some reason I’m forced to do this.

I was told I have to do it, so I’m reluctant to do it.

I have nothing else to do

Finding another job looks annoying.

I should do this because I can only be given this kind of ability.

I can’t do other things because my ability is inferior …

They are those who are looking for a reason to be forced to do this job.

 

People living on other’s compass can hardly deliver tremendous concentration as their attitudes are passive, they always look reserved.

 

What Mr. Inamori says is to live on his own compass.

I have a lot of options and among them I choose this one.

I cherish my life myself.

So, let’s make this job very interesting and meaningful.

Take good care of myself.

People with this kind of mindset have different concentration.

As Mr. Inamori said, human power and abilities are infinite.

If you can use your unconscious abilities, you can bring out this tremendous amount of concentration. I think Mr. Inamori wanted to share this.

 

4 Get well-determined to accept all the result come from your decisions

There is a book called “A Boy’s Dream,” which is also a biography of Mr. Inamori and Kyocera. Katsumi Kato, a journalist who wrote this book based on a great deal of interviews, shared his episode.

 

“After a boy’s dream came out, there was a seminar hosted by an institution called ” Management School “in Tokyo. After my presentation, everyone looked unhappy. In short, I found out that everyone was looking for management know-how. I realized that they wanted to know a sort of business strategic technique by which Kyocera increased sales and profits. After that, I gave lectures here and there. But everyone wanted the know-how of success, not philosophy. ”

 

→ Success “know-how” is a sort of textbooks, manuals, and formulas. In other words, they are looking outside for their own judgment criteria as management.

He may have thought.

If I fail in business administration, this would not be my fault.

This is simply due to this manual, it was not my fault because I’m not responsible, I didn’t want to be a president.

I did management because I had nothing else to do.

I did management because I couldn’t refuse.

I did that because this is the mood of the society.

So I had no choice but to run a business.

In this way, many managers seek the excuse as a compass developed by others.

Not only management but life itself, we can find a lot of excuses and look for compasses developed by others. We can alternatively use them until we develop our own compasses, even though we could not do that in this life.

At the time of JAL’s rebirth, when talking about American or Delta Air Lines, Mr. Inamori said this.

“I want you to go back to the point of what is right as a human being and discuss it thoroughly again. So if you still want to work with Delta, I wouldn’t object. As a result. I take all responsibility for management. ”

Alex, the owner, says, “I’m prepared for the destiny given to me,” but he had never decided by himself as he had been relying on others’ compass. That’s why he joined Seiwajyuku and asked for the opinion of Mr.Inamori.

My compass is to decide that I will take responsibility for myself. No matter what happens, I will take all the outcomes as caused by myself. This is something we call “determination”. This is in a sense, to live my own life not others. Mr. Inamori established his own compass and put his judgment criteria right as a human.

Now, let’s write the points to live on your own compass again.

 

1 Conduct your ethical standard check: what is right thing as a human being

2 Develop your own analytical thinking (identify what is the fundamental cause of your anxiety)

3 Get used to compare, choose, decide and act

4 Get well-determined to accept all the result come from your decisions

 

Looking at the world in COVID pandemic, I think that most people in the world probably live on others’ compass.

Because the media said this…,

As my friends/ parents think that…..,

As you will be attacked by others…,

Criticism will come….

To follow the common sense, otherwise…etc.,

All of these are standards of others.

I think that politicians, government offices, and the media are not aware of what is right as a human being, because they care about the eyes of the world and the so-called “air.”

As an entrepreneur, I don’t want to care about either employees ‘eyes, the eyes of the world, the eyes of customers, or the pride of myself.

I would just simply like to keep the right thing as a person based on my own compass.

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

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