This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in Kyocera philosophy.
What Inamori said is quoted with “”.
“ (During the bubble period) Many people approached me with such lucrative business plans. However, I thought, ‘There is no way such a business can sustain over the long term. Even if we can luckily find, something must be wrong. If you could earn money so easily, everyone would not keep working, and the world would not be sustainable.
Even if it went well and I made a temporary profit, my life would surely be a mess after that, and I turned them all down. No matter how many times I was shown that ‘you can make so much money,’ something had to be wrong, and I believed that our world would not be maintained with such speculations. “
The following three points may indicate if the business is too speculative or not.
1. Are you justifying your egoism with noble objectives?
2. Are you relying on so-called common sense for your judgement?
3. Is it a win-win situation for everyone?
Let me elaborate one by one.
1. Are you justifying your egoism with noble objectives?
“ After the bubble burst, many companies, especially financial institutions, fell into financial difficulties. Most of these companies were those that had made investments during the bubble, lured by the profit-making schemes of buying real estate or stocks.
Some people may say, “Our company never touched those lucrative schemes,” but that may just be because they did not have enough money. If they had money, I think they would have been trapped with such lucrative schemes and would have ruined their companies by now. “
→ Mr. Inamori called intellectuals who are cunning and sly “pseudo-intellectuals.” There are people who say they are doing something for the good of others or that it is unavoidable, but in reality they are doing it for their own benefit and ultimately for their own gain. I would like to humbly reflect on what I have been doing.
2. Are you relying on so-called common sense for your judgement?
“ When you start thinking about things with altruism, you can easily figure out situations where people around you get trapped into Ponzi schemes. You can clearly see the selfish and self-centered people running around trying to make a profit for themselves…
We don’t rely on what is called common sense in management. We shouldn’t make hasty decisions based on common sense like, ‘this is how most companies have done.’ “
→ During the bubble era, the reason people invested in real estate was because other companies (other top leaders) were all investing in real estate. Japanese people especially value similarity and we are not doing anything different from others. I think this comes from the Japanese agricultural culture and the fact that Japan has experienced war in the past.
But I feel we still do the same thing today. Are we spending money on open AI or SDGs investment simply because other companies have been doing it? We should ask ourselves. I think we need to think about whether we can achieve the “win-win” situation over the long term before deciding.
3. Is it a win-win situation for everyone?
“ For this reason, it is very important to have an altruistic mind. As I mentioned earlier, you should not do business with the egoistic mind, but rather think about what it means for the people around you and what it means for the people you are doing business with, and make a deal only when you reach the conclusion that it is good for everyone. “
→ If the SDGs investment or Open AI investment do not generate profits, it is not good for your company. If you continue those businesses in the long term, it may cause loss to your company, other companies, or your customers.
In the United States, since businesses launched with SDG investments are not profitable, arrangers may turn the stocks of those businesses into financial products as an exit strategy and sell to institutional investors in other countries. You need to seriously consider whether what your company is about to do is good for everyone in the long term or not.
In summary, if you have altruism as a criterion for judgment, you will not get caught up in speculative schemes. I think due to egoism, top leaders justify their profit seeking actions by using noble objectives, are influenced with so-called common senses, and lose sight of what is good for everyone, leading them to lose everything. I need to think about how important altruism is. For the lucrative business, I must think about “something is wrong.”
* 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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