This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in Kyocera philosophy.
What Inamori said is quoted with “”.
“ The reason why I am spending so much time to talk about this (creative work) is because I want you guys to understand that a company can grow as much as they want, if leaders become creative. Some people may think that Kyocera is special, but this is not true. Anyone can do it. “
Inamori repeatedly emphasizes the importance of ingenuity and creativity in work for the following reasons:
1. Prepare for the contingency
2. Push ourselves harder
3. Fulfill others
Let me elaborate one by one.
1. Prepare for the contingency
“ What would have happened if Kyocera had remained content with producing cathode ray tube parts for Matsushita Electronics, believing that ‘we are making a profit even from single-item production’? After a while, all vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors and disappeared from the market….
If we had not sought other products to be sold, we might have been forced to look for another industry where we can survive, just looking back on those good days and thinking, ‘Those were our golden era indeed.’ “
→ I think most people around the world thought, “It would never happen that people all over the world are unable to leave their own countries, unable to travel, and no airlines are operated.” However, the spread of COVID-19 has caused this “unbelievable” situation to occur.
It is very risky to rely on one product or service or to have extreme concentration on several customers. There is no end to assuming the unexpected conditions. However, rather than just worrying, I think it would be much more meaningful to spend the time in looking for new customers and finding other ways to utilize more your current technology by doing creative work, thinking up other approaches you can do with this technology.
2. Push ourselves harder
“ I didn’t have any specialized knowledge to begin with. I also didn’t foresee any technological changes, such as the disappearance of vacuum tubes as the age of transistors arrived. However, Kyocera had never been satisfied with the status quo, and we have continued to innovate in everything we did, and boldly took on new fields, all those efforts have made Kyocera as of today. “
→ The final of the judo team competition at the Paris Olympics was a showdown between Japan and the host country, France. Abe Hifumi faced a player in a heavier weight class than himself, and unfortunately lost. As is often the case at overseas Olympics, there were some questionable points in the judo judging, and there were also scenes that showed the dishonesty of the host country.
Nevertheless, Abe said, “I will become so strong that people all over the world will be surprised. I live by the motto, ‘Only hard training can create genius.’” I think this is the attitude that Japanese must demonstrate. I would like to continue working hard and making something better, no matter what era we live in.
3. Fulfill others
“ At that time, synthetic fibers like nylon had just appeared in the textile industry. Nylon is very strong, and the threads run at an incredible speed during the manufacturing process, so the metal used in the parts where the threads run quickly wore out and became unusable. I thought that this problem could be solved by using ceramic parts instead of metal and started developing the ceramic product. This is how ceramic parts came to be used in textile machines. “
→ People complain and grumble when they encounter difficulties, get tired of simple tasks, or have something they don’t like. Even if you don’t have such complaints or grumbles yourself, merely hearing those complaints from others can make you feel depressed and uncomfortable. However, in fact, these complaints and grumbles contain many hints for ingenuity and for developing new products.
When you think, “Oh, this person is having trouble with this and doesn’t like it,” it gives you a clue to think about how to improve the process or to solve the problem. There must be a technology that can solve this inconvenience or aversion. Findings always drive ingenuity and creativity. I believe that our real estate work must also begin with a pure desire to eagerly help people around the world with their problems.
So to sum up, it is very important for small and medium-sized enterprises to do creative work. This is because it prepares us for the contingency, drives us work harder, and allows us to create products and services that benefit the world and people. I realized that, from different angles, I need to review what we have done in real estate appraisal and consulting.
* Mr. Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera, KDDI (one of the top tele communication companies in Japan) and the top of revitalization project of JAL. As a well-known Japanese entrepreneur, he has been sharing his experiences and management know-how with managements of small to middle companies in Japan.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
News Letter subscription is here
