This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in his book : Practical Accounting -Business Administration and Accounting -. What Inamori said is quoted with “”.
“Even with the most advanced accounting processes are implemented, if there is the slightest accounting process that is not based on the principle of one-to-one correspondence, the system cannot accurately reflect the current financial state of the company.”
Mr. Inamori talks about accounting systems and ethical business conducts.
The points he highlighted are as follows.
1. Fairness & legitimacy delivered by the leader
2. Pay attention to staffs’ subliminal mind
3. Developing a simple checking system
Let me explain one by one.
1. Fairness & legitimacy delivered by the leader
“In order to eliminate fraud, managers must first have a strict management philosophy to govern themselves and must share this philosophy with their employees. We must create a corporate culture in which fairness and justice are most respected, and then create an accounting system where simple principles such as one-on-one correspondence are certainly conducted. If we follow this, most corporate scandals will be prevented.”
→Although our company is still small, I must be careful not to do anything fraudulent or anything that could be suspected of being fraudulent, to be honest and sincere to other staff members. For example, if you are taking half a day off for private reasons, be sure to submit the approval beforehand. Be sure to clearly distinguish any personal expenses from those of business expenses. We remain committed to paying taxes properly and do not neglect necessary approvals and license renewals. Don’t forgive people who don’t follow the right business conducts. I occasionally talk to staff about the accounting system of how expenses and revenue are recognized. By keeping such attitudes, the good corporate culture will be maintained.
2. Pay attention to staffs’ subliminal mind
“If you find some unreasonable behavior among your employees, in light of the fair and appropriate business conducts, the necessary measures must immediately be taken. However, your corporate culture allows for people’s negligence, unethical behavior, or discourages staff from making anonymous reports against fraud, and top leaders can never detect unethical behaviors. “
→ Recently, our company suffered a serious betrayal from a subcontractor. The people around me, including myself, had trusted her and believed that she knew what the right thing to do is as a human being. Looking back at our communication, her behavior was seen as somehow unethical. What I regret most is her attendance at philosophy workshops. I told her that participation in a philosophy workshop is mandatory to get training at our company. In other words, having experience in our company, she had to get involved in philosophy learning. She participated in the philosophy sessions a few times, and several times she was unable to attend due to contingencies such as electricity breaking down and PC troubles. Considering how subliminal minds work, subliminal minds cause contingencies to justify her absence. For example, if a child doesn’t want to go to school, he suddenly gets a high fever or becomes ill. Even adults, when the subconscious mind is afraid to have some exposure, their physical conditions change to give them a good excuse to escape from the exposure. Even if she repeated philosophy verbally, she was not able to hide her subconscious mind.
I now understand the phrases
‘pursue profits fairly’
‘dedicate yourself to others’
‘be honest and sincere’
were statements that irritated her subconscious mind. I must pay attention to what exactly happened in our real world.
3. Developing a simple checking system
“Kyocera has applied one-on-one correspondence as a principle to all forms of transaction processing, including sales and procurements. We have never made major issues in business operations. However, as a matter of fact, this does not mean that we have had no frauds or misconduct.”
→I feel that accuracy in accounting and precise correspondence must be maintained instead of rough or ambiguous accounting attitudes. Such an accounting system for sure helps to save time and effort if we implement such a system in an early stage. We must interact with the tax advisor to secure the accurate implementation of those systems.
In summary, humans are weak and easily tempted, so we pay attention to the subconscious minds of each staff member, business partner, and subcontractor, and create an accounting system that allows for one-on-one correspondence even if your company is small. The top leader’s mindset to keep fairness may drive this corporate culture.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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