Legendary CEO shared -leadership development-

Mr. Inamori talked about leadership development with the title of “Find a way out”. The words in brackets are what Inamori said.

“No one can guarantee our future. For us to keep performing, each one of us must do our best to fulfill his role in his position. We should not wait for someone to help us, but proactively find a way out. The profit we get today is the outcome of the efforts we have done so far and our endeavor promises the future. Every one of us must understand we should always seek and find a way out.”

I feel this is how to create a management board who demonstrates leadership next to the top leader. The two points of how to train board members are as follows.

1 Get a staff involved as a top management

2 Encourage a staff to work for the team

Let me explain one by one.

1 Get a staff involved as a top management

“An entrepreneur understands what he does to survive. Actually, no one helps you when you find yourself in times of trouble. Top leaders are always ready for survival. On the other hand, management boards or deputy directors are not so serious about finding a way out as they totally rely on the top leader. They fundamentally believe that they are not the ones who are responsible for the outcome of the businesses. They feel, at the end of the day, the top must find the solution. Those guys are not suitable for the management board. Such companies don’t perform well over the long term. Kyocera has adopted a method called the amoeba management system, in which the organization is divided into small units called “ameba” and each leader takes responsibility for the management. Those leaders, just like the entrepreneur, will learn how to find a way out through the management experience.”

→Inamori was aware of how important it is to change the mindset of people under the top leader. Management skills cannot be obtained through the books or seminars, but only through the actual working experiences. Thus, staff need to learn management from day one. Ameba system was developed with such a desire of the top leader; how come the management board can have the same mindset as does the CEO. Inamori reached out to this system and every staff member can experience the leadership from the early stage of their work.

2 Encourage to work for the team

“In Amoeba Management, we do not give bonuses for good performance, or cut wages for poor performance. If a staff member gets a lot of bonuses, of course, that person will work hard. However, good results aren’t guaranteed forever. If your performance gets worse and your bonus and salary are reduced, you’re sure to be unhappy. I don’t want to make people feel like that. Even for those who did not do well, we do not make a big difference with bonuses. Therefore, I brought Ameba, Under the Ameba system, by which we can measure how much value an employee or a team added to the company, people are encouraged to work for the team, rather than focusing on the individual performance. “

→ This demonstrates the Kyocera culture; those who work for the team should be the most valued. People work hard not to highlight their stand play but to help others and to contribute to the team. Thus, as Inamori repeated, sharing a corporate philosophy is very important to support this evaluation system based on the Ameba. This ultimately leads to developing management skills among staff. Furthermore, Inamori mentioned how the top leader should train the management board who acts as if they were the leader to operate the organization.

“It is very important to make employees feel like owners and managers. If all employees in a company shared the leadership which a top leader demonstrates that company is going to be quite strong. To become such a company, I have repeatedly engaged in dialogue with our employees and have always given my all heart and soul into developing their leadership spirits. ”

→ I thought that bringing all the spirits and energies to train staff is quite important. Not keeping the distance between the top and the staff but sitting together and talking together like a family to feel them is the most important in training staff. I wanted to be open more and interact with the staff. I would like to move forward every day while bringing such tips that I learned from Inamori on the actual business scenes.

So to sum up, to train your right arms, give them leadership experiences at an early stage, encourage team work spirit, and transmit your energies, spirits and souls to them.