Every time I read Inamori’s words, I find how powerful the gratitude is. Especially, over the JAL revival episode, Inamori shared his story: how gratitude worked to drive JAL’s miracle recovery. The gratitude can be fallen into the following five directions.
1 Gratitude for our lives
2 Gratitude for others (altruism)
3 Gratitude for clients
4 Gratitude for partners
5 Gratitude for changing our lives
1 Gratitude for our lives
“When disasters come to us, we tend to become pessimistic and start complaining to others. We become vulnerable and make us victims. However, JAL’s staff have demonstrated completely different attitudes. Even after the bankruptcy, we at least can continue our works, and challenge again, so why don’t we start from the scratch. Staff those who chose to stay with JAL were people who had a right and noble mindset even under the disaster. I believe such a mindset is exactly the right one and pleased God who blessed us with miracles.“
Inamori told this to his staff and shared with Seiwajuku workshop members. I realized that the gratitude is really powerful to bring about all the spirals of positive events.
2 Gratitude for others (altruism)
Inamori also shared episode about Seiwajuku students.
“Seiwajuku members, the presidents of middle to small size businesses in Japan, were very much encouraged with my rescue project towards JAL. They started a supportive champaign, by which each one of them collected hundreds of supporters and actually encouraged JAL staffs to challenge again. Supporting team decided to choose JAL as their frequent carrier, wrote pieces of card to cheer up cabin attendants and handed them to cabin crews. They also made up many sets of ‘thousand origami cranes’ and sent them to JAL’s work place so that staff could realize how many people were with them. You guys, Seiwajuku members, had learned from me and had gratitude towards me as you realized successful management due to lessons learned from Seiwajuku. You guys worked hard to give all of those benefits back to me. I found your thoughts to be very precious and beautiful. ”
I feel people demonstrate strong power when they help others. JAL’s episode was exactly the demonstration of this story.
3 Gratitude for clients
By looking at paper origami cranes, JAL staff had gradually got energized and deeply encouraged , and they devoted themselves to delivering the highest level of service to customers. They certainly felt that they were the ones who should lead the recovery project of their own company. Thus, the highest quality of service, which is the most important service of the transportation service, was ready to deliver to customers.”
From the very beginning of the JAL revitalization project, Inamori had been telling the staff that delivering the highest service is the only one thing that can drive your revenue growth again.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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- Tags
- gratitude, JAL, Kasuo Inamori, Kyocera, Philosophy
