Sanpo-yoshi Communication
Sanpo-yoshi Communication
President's Column] Dam-style management
We had a large conference room on the second floor of the printing plant we built five years ago. The room was large enough to accommodate 100 people for the first presentation of the management policy for the fiscal year,
We used to use it for monthly sales and factory meetings, for various internal workshops, and for open house seminars for our customers. Some of our customers may remember this. It was equipped with a large projector, video conferencing system, and sound system, but there was no way people could get together in this Corona, and it had become useless.
In March, we drastically downsized that main conference room. What has replaced it is the Web Production Department. In addition to receiving many requests for web-related work at Corona Disaster, we also have to produce and manage our own various websites.
Our staff continues to grow and we have become overcrowded in our previous location. A new company building is being planned, but it will not be ready in time. We considered using a nearby company's vacant office building, but the rent was more expensive than we expected, and we came to the conclusion that rather than cash out on the Corona disaster, we would rather destroy the unused main conference room. At the same time, we moved the materials from the area that had been used as a materials storage area in the factory to a nearby outside warehouse, and installed new production equipment in the vacant space.
There was considerable opposition, but because of the emergency situation of the Corona disaster, we foolishly followed the "maximization of the contribution of marginal profit to fixed costs," which I had learned as a "foundation of management" at Kenichi Ohmae's school when I was in my 30s. However, although we managed to overcome the emergency this time, there was nowhere left to put in production facilities.
The other day I read a book written by Mr. Oyama, Chairman of Iris Oyama, who said that Iris Oyama always leaves more than 30% leeway in its factories and was able to quickly increase production of masks and other products in the face of the Corona disaster. Compared to this, I was greatly reminded of the lack of a long-term perspective in my own management. A "30% leeway" is easier said than done, but it requires a great deal of courage to actually do it because it is akin to over-investment. I think this story has something in common with the "dam-style management" of Konosuke Matsushita. In his lectures, Konosuke also said
When asked by one of the audience members how he could manage his business in a dam-style, he replied, "I don't know either, but you have to have a strong desire to build a dam. The audience laughed out loud, but Kyocera's Mr. Inamori, who was listening to the lecture, was shocked. In his books and speeches, Mr. Inamori has repeatedly stated the importance of "desire.
Be courageous and make the hiring and investments you can afford. I would like to take up the challenge.