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Hiro
Hiro, on the left, is one of our friends from Kyodai. Although he looks good enough in a suit to be a Salaryman, he's decided to become an entrepreneur instead. Quite rare in Japan. We visited Kyocera for the innovation class: you probably use some of their products, even if you don't know of it. The name - derived from "Kyoto Ceramics" - actually describes what the company does, but it's not ceramics as you usually think of them. These are products that are highly technological - everything from LCD technology to turbochargers in cars to kitchen knives. Silicon is considered a ceramic. Anyway, when we went there, I think we stumbled upon one of these world-domination corporations.
But before I can go into Kyocera, I should talk a little bit about Japanese business. Most of what follows is pretty much a combination of rumor, hearsay, and valid Japanese business analyses we've studied, but it agrees well with what I've seen, and I've no reason to doubt it. Anyway, in Japanese companies, many employees start out as "Salarymen" which is basically the stereotypical "working stiff." These are guys who live in their suits, go to work at 5 a.m. and come home at 10 or 11 at night (they also form the majority of our trains when we come back from partying at dawn on the weekends - when they relax, they relax hard). College in Japan isn't the same as the U.S. - colleges here are pretty much a name on a resume, albeit the most important name since it is often the single biggest factor in hiring. Most people don't learn very much in college (although they've worked very hard to get there - getting into a college is EXTREMELY difficult), and most training for a job is done at the workplace. A salaryman has most of his life activities subsumed by the company. Often there are company calisthenics, company dorms, and an exclusively within-company social network. The line between work and relaxation is very blurry, and key business deals are often conducted at fine dinners / bars / karaoke. Nonetheless, there a couple of characteristics that the Japanese business system favors: dedication (traditional Japanese companies have lifelong employment, and absurdly long hours are the norm) and self-confidence (Japanese business models typically seem to be authoritative in nature, which favors self-assurance and confident successes).
So imagine a man who rises to the top of a global company based in Japan. The ex-CEO of Kyocera met us on Monday.
His deliberate speech is metered with determination. He wears his glance with authority. When he spoke, announcing that "Kyocera creates value" my first thought was not "this man just said a phrase that means nothing," but instead was overcome by a desire to invest in his company. Value? I want value! Visions of vast profit from a small seed of capital floated through my head.
Like at the hospital, we were treated like royalty, with young attractive attendants in neatly pressed uniforms leading us around (the twenty feet from the entrance to the elevator, then the twenty feet from the elevator to the presentation room). They gave us orange juice during the presentation and little gifts afterwards (nice pen, information booklets, pictures). The whole building is made of beautiful white marble with extremely tall ceilings, thick walls, and minimalist decorating. It brought to mind a phrase from art history class: that Roman basilicas were chosen for ecclesiastical use because "the apparent size appropriately put man in his place and forced him to reflect upon things grander than himself." Incidentally, there's an art museum on the bottom floor of Kyocera with real Picassos.
We were met by the ex-CEO who subsequently gave us a presentation in Japanese, but only after spending ten minutes discussing how regretful it was that the weather was poor and rainy. He then went on to mention how ultimately it was good, though, because it enabled the beautiful green foliage that we enjoy so much. And so forth, for minutes on end. Twice - once in weighty Japanese, and then once in perfect English by the impeccably groomed Japanese translator beside him. This is one of the lessons we learned in Japanese class, in a way remarkably similar to the South I'm from, you never simply broach a subject directly. He gave us time to get acquainted, be served orange juice in our carved glasses, collect our thoughts, grow comfortable in our chairs, and then pay attention before he ever mentioned the company (although he delightfully concluded with "But since I'm short on time, I'll go right into what we would like to discuss").
It was informative and interesting, but the highlights definitely were the way we were treated, and being able to ask such an important Japanese businessman detailed questions about how to effectively run organizations.
~Danny
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