Not strategy but philosophy, for our business growth

I started my career in a Japanese consulting firm. After a 12 years of career, I quitted that company, studied abroad, then came back to Japan to join a non-Japanese investment bank. Around that time, in Japanese business practice, ethical mindset and attitudes were highly valued to be a good Japanese businessperson. On the other hand, what I learned from MBA in Europe as well as in the US, logical and strategic approaches were at most important to be a good business leader.

The reasons why Inamori mentioned above were as follows;

Let me show you what Inamori said for each one.

1 to be accepted by generation Z

When Inamori was in his twenty and working for Shofu Co.,Ltd, which produced ceramic products. In 1960s’, Mr. Yoshi, the top management of the trading house M, one of the top trading houses in Japan, approached to Inamori, invited him for a dinner, and asked “Well, Professor Ully, who is your menter in Kagoshima Univ, has always been telling me about you, Inamori. Ully said you are quite brilliant, capable, energetic and have strong leadership. Thus our company has decided to rescue Shofu Co.,Lts. Nevertheless, I’m not trusting at all the current management who lead the current bad performance, and therefore, I would really like to listen to you. What do you think of the company, how would you like us to rescue Shofu, what are the bottlenecks of its business, please tell me, Inamori… ”

Later on, Inamori recalled that first meeting with Yoshi and said, “Professor Yoshi had always remained humble, even for a young man like me, Yoshi showed his respect and never got arrogant. I really respect him and shared all the ideas that I came up with for improving the company’s performance. “

Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, had always been open to the opinions or advice raised by young people. I feel this is quite important. As long as the leader remains humble with business philosophy, the bridge to the new generation is built. For the as-is management to service, he should be obedient to young staff and always open to them.

2 to get ready for business diversification

Inamori said ,“Sometimes people say ,-what if I could do far more exciting work than the one that I have been involved in. – or -I have heard business strategy from a well successful business leader- Nothing looks wrong. However, what I would like to tell them is to work hard, devote themselves to the work that has come before them. Tender their jobs and bring all of their efforts to complete the work in front of them, even those assignments look quite boring. They would be able to train themself to manage all businesses established under other categories as well. “

>>> I strongly agree with Inamori and I believe that such an attitude spontaneously develops our skills to work proactively by anticipating future markets and customers’ demand.

3 to be proactive under VULCA environment

“When I started a new telecom business with KDDI, all the capital amount that I collected were exactly the same amount which covers the initial running cost. We were able to survive with those capital until KDDI started recording steady revenue. It was magic or rather scary as I made a quite good wild guess.”

>>> I feel this indicates the capability of viewing things as simply as possible. People tend to get biased, or obsessed with a lot of concerns and anxieties, which lead to distrust or doubts.  Thus they tend to miss simple but important things.

4 to enjoy our works

Inamori said, “people sometimes tell me –Well, you worked very hard and have overcome obstacles and difficulties for you to develop your company Kyocera-, but actually, I have never thought of it. I have never felt it is challenging or difficult for me to conduct business management. All I have done so far is just enjoying my work. I have always done activities that I love. ”

>>> Our company Abrils has completed a big deal. This was an investment project for an overseas investor to invest in real estate in Japan. There have been some obstacles which look challenging, however, I think I could repeat the same workload without any hesitation.

I had to work to fit into the different time zones but I had always been comfortable to build trust with them and enjoyed our mental communication. Now, I can say that I have never felt it was really tough, or challenging. I have not experienced so-called hardship that much, for sure.

I felt Inamori wanted to tell us philosophy always allowed us to enjoy our works and assignments which look very tough for people without philosophy.

Thus we need to have a philosophy for sure, this is simply due to the following reasons.

Among them ,No 2,” to get ready for business diversification” seems to be the most important.

This is simple but hard to conduct in daily lives.

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

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