1 Big picture and details－ Zoom in and out－
2 No excuse but 100 percent achievement
3 Reconciliation in numbers
Let me explain one by one.
1 Big picture and details－ Zoom in and out－
“Top leaders cannot deliver the perfect performance unless they fully understand every single work process in their company while capturing big pictures. The founder or the president usually knows everything in detail in every small work process in the company. However, in many cases, the successors―the second or third generations―do not know the details of each department. Even though they develop business strategies, they are not familiar with every single process of their daily operations: front, middle and the back office. If a leader is unfamiliar with the detail process on the production site, or the front office, he should be heavily involved in the process to get himself familiar. Otherwise, he won’t be able to manage the company in a way he desires. Again, the top leaders must be familiar with the details of each single department while envisaging the big picture. Otherwise, they can’t review the daily and monthly financial statements coming from each department. “
→I sometimes leave most of the assignments to the staff. We must be careful when we leave all the processes to someone. We, especially for small to middle size companies, must manage the work process in case a team member takes sick-leave. Especially for small companies, everyone can cover the assignment allocated to other team members. I feel I must humbly ask staff to instruct me how to complete their job to get myself prepared under the contingency.
2 No excuse but 100 percent achievement
“Some people may think that a few mistakes are acceptable. However, in business administration, if there is even the slightest error in calculating the financial figures, it ultimately leads to wrong management decisions. Therefore, if you are serious about managing the business, not only in the research and development, operation, or sales departments, but also in the administrative departments, (middle or back offices) no mistakes are acceptable. When I say 100%, that means the absolute 100%. When it comes to the target setting, I don’t accept the excuse of `We didn’t reach 100%, but we achieved 95%, so please evaluate what we achieved.’ I have always demanded perfect execution in terms of performance against targets in manufacturing and sales, as well as accuracy in development schedules and management tasks.”
→ I have found this perfectionism to be one of my weaknesses. I must thoroughly pursue the reasons why tasks didn’t complete and what kind of alternative actions should have been taken. I must reflect on my daily performance and humbly keep doing my best to deliver a slight but continuous improvement.
3 Reconciliation in numbers
“When I carefully look at figures and numbers in the documents, I spontaneously find inconsistencies between the numbers and understand where those irrational figures come from. This looks as if those problematic numbers pop up in front of my eyes. I could even hear them screaming and asking for my help. On the other hand, if all the numbers have been thoroughly checked in advance, no matter how carefully I look at them, I don’t find any issues. Careful and highly concentrated reviews allow you to detect the issues. If both document creators and reviewers have the same attention towards figures, I think perfectionism can be established as a corporate culture within a company.”
→In looking into figures or numbers, we must bring our full attention to what we are dealing with. Those who manipulate numbers or end up leaving a sloppy output usually fail to concentrate on what they are doing. Inamori understands this because he had always been serious in working on numbers. I think I must bring my fullest efforts to everything I do.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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