How to create avatars of the top leader Part 2

Kyocera management staff are the ones who joined Kyocera at a very early stage. They were well trained by Mr. Inamori and after their retirements, and all of them, with no exception, say that they were very happy, and their career as well as private lives had been very much fulfilled. This time, I would like to highlight the story of Joe, who described how Mr.Inamori had trained him. Mr. Inamori’s motto was making CEO’s avatars as many as possible. Thus, the story implies how to make avatars who understand the CEO’s mind and conduct the leadership on behalf of the top leader.

from 6-11 will be explained.

6 Set a sublime mission

Joe had an experience where the production was finally convinced to produce a product, when Joe demonstrated the mold which his client could not complete and for which that client asked Kyocera’s help. That mold looked very difficult to complete. However, taking into account the client’s desire the production committed themselves to finalizing the product. This is simply due to staff’s desire to satisfy the client. Mr. Inamori had always told the staff that having the sublime mission and vision is very important for them to survive under harsh competition as well as under the economic downturn.

7 Maintain leader’s self-confidence

This means that the leader needs to create his own avatar. He can trust his avatar as this is the reflection of himself. Thus, in other words, creating avatar means that the top leader should trust himself and be confident of himself. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the leader can be arrogant. As long as the leader remains humble and diligent and also completes his mission, God would eventually help him to achieve one step higher.

8 Create the entrance path

Joe said that Inamori, every time Kyocera starts a new business, had always taken the strong initiative to get a ball rolling. He demonstrated how to promote, instructed and trained the sales force and handed over the almost developed business cycle to the team leader. I feel that the leader’s role is cutting the bush and creating a narrow entrance path and geting himself prepared to take all the responsibility under the worst-case scenario.

9 Tender a challenge-driven culture

Joe said that under Kyocera’s corporate culture, those who have neither challenged nor got scolded are the least respected ones. Thus, everyone got used to spontaneously maintaining and demonstrating their challenge spirits. Inamori also told Joe that there is no failure, even though Joe’s attempt immediately doesn’t work, that challenge would eventually lead to a breakthrough in some other area. So Inamori encouraged his staff not to be afraid of failure.

Nowadays, challenge has been considered as a “taboo “in the most of Japanese large corporations. This attitude never brings innovation and now we have to think bout how lucky we are as we have survived under the VULCA world with such very conservative attitudes.

10 Convince with senses and reasons

Joe sometimes had to apologize against the clients’ complaints and also tried to convince clients. However, Joe said, for the most problematic case, we relied on Inamori. He had never created any trouble with Kyocera clients when he dealt with complaints. This is because Inamori understands well the counterpart’s position, their logical background and what they really and fundamentally wanted. Joe learned from Inamori analytical skills, problem solving approaches, which means patiently talking with the client based on sensible, reasonable, and understandable logic.

11 Desire to fulfill staff

Joe, with his colleagues, sometimes talk each other that they are the ones who are really lucky. As business persons, they completed a fruitful career and they are very happy with them. This is simply because Inamori put staff’s fulfillment as Kyocera’s corporate mission. As Inamori desired it under his subliminal mind, he achieved such a great goal.

Thus, to summarize the key to create the CEO’s avatar, we can highlight those 11 points.

No 11, the last one is the most important. Joe and Ivan, the Inamori’s successor, demonstrate the similar atmosphere: soft, humble, gentle, diligent, trustworthy, and warm hearted. Those features are something inherited from Inamori through the decades of training. In other words, sharing Inamori’s life with his staff, Inamori has changed the lives of his people. In that sense, Inamori successfully created his avatars necessary for the corporate growth. No other Japanese companies have successfully developed avatars of top management as has done Kyocera.

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

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