Inamori Kazuo: How Should People Live?

Inamori Kazuo's leadership philosophy and management philosophy are very simple: what is right and should be done for a person?

I was born in Kagoshima. When I was 23 years old, I left my hometown and came to Kyoto. At the age of 27, I founded Kyoto ceramic company with 7 friends.

KYOCERA has now become a large company, with 14 thousand employees in Japan and 50 thousand employees in Shanghai.

However, before I was 27 years old, my life was full of frustrations.

The first setback was the failure of the junior high school entrance examination. In the second year, the same school failed again, and had to enter a "bottom" school.

After graduating from high school, I failed in my first volunteer exam. I only went to Kagoshima University in my hometown.

So I started to become willing to become a "knowledge wanderer" idea, rather than living in the jungle of an irrational society, than in the human nature of the triad society.

Thanks to a teacher, I can finally go to work in a company, but I am a bankrupt and losing money company. My salary is always delayed and there is no bonus.

Not long after, my colleagues resigned one after another, and I found him alone. In the end, I was left alone in the company alone.

I also considered the question of resignation very seriously, but my brother severely criticized me for persuaded me to put an end to this idea, when the whole family needed me to support financially, so I had to stay.

I often wonder why my life is not going well.

What an unfortunate man I am, I seem to be abandoned by heaven!

I decided to change my attitude, find the joy of work, and create a road in difficult circumstances.

I started working on it, and then I had some amazing results.

As the company has no outstanding talents, I am very outstanding.

The praise of my boss made me work harder and entered a virtuous circle.

Finally, through my unique method, I successfully synthesized and developed the precision ceramic material applied to the electron gun of TV pistors for the first time in Japan.

Later, I started the Kyocera Corp.

Life achievement = mode of thinking * passion * ability

How can a mediocre person achieve remarkable results?

Life achievement = mode of thinking * passion * ability

The result of life or work is the product calculated by the multiplication of these three elements. It is by no means an addition. This is the reality: if ordinary people work hard and have the right attitude and pursue the enthusiasm of success, they will be bigger than talented people or even genius.

The reason why I do not attach importance to talent is that the talent is often inclined to think about it today.

A talented person can predict the future with a high self - reliance. He can't help spending a day as slow as a tortoise, hoping to take a short cut like a rabbit.

However, it is easy to be too eager to succeed in an unexpected place.

So far, many outstanding and intelligent talents have entered the Kyocera Corp. It is precisely these talents who resigned that the company has no future, so all those left behind are unintelligent, ordinary, dull talents without job hopping.

However, these dull talents have been promoted to cadres or leaders of various departments in ten or twenty years.

What made them such ordinary people become extraordinary talents?

It is an indefatigable and silent effort, that is, the power to spend every day in a down-to-earth way is to persist in making ordinary things extraordinary.

Perhaps because I am a technical person, I have developed a habit of asking myself often: "is that ok?

Is there any better way? "

From this point of view, even with a trivial matter, there is much room for creativity.

For small things, those who try to improve and those who do not will have an astonishing gap in the long run.

Take the example of sweeping the floor. Every day, people who repeatedly think about how to sweep a cleaner and faster person may set up a contract cleaning company by themselves and act as general manager.

At the same time, those who muddle along and are too lazy to think of ways will continue to sweep the floor every day.

First of all, in most enterprises, no operator puts forward the question of "what is right as a human being".

The so-called philosophy I think is the answer to this question.

At the same time, this is also the most simple principle that parents and teachers taught in childhood. They should be honest, not cheat, lie and so on.

Is there anything else that needs to be said in the enterprise?

Perhaps some people are surprised, but it is because of the failure to comply with the above principle of being a natural person that all kinds of corporate scandals are created.

The second reason is that the so-called philosophy is used to show the purpose of an enterprise, that is, what kind of enterprise it should be built into.

At the same time, this philosophy also shows that what kind of way of thinking is needed to achieve the enterprise that we want?

At the time of the Kyocera Corp's birth, fewer than one hundred employees.

In the face of them, I repeatedly stressed that KYOCERA should be set up as the first enterprise in Xijing, the first in Beijing, the first in Kyoto, and the first in Japan.

But to tell you the truth, I have doubts in my heart when I say this dream.

But even so, I still describe my dream to my employees.

How employees should think and act, from the way of thinking to working methods should be specified.

That is to say, we must establish a philosophy of direction in the enterprise, and all staff will work together in this direction.

Therefore, in my philosophy, "setting up lofty goals, continuing to pay no less than anyone's efforts", "driving oneself to despair" and "living in earnest", can be seen everywhere.

Since I was young, I have been strongly aware of the need to establish ambitious goals. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we must have the strict attitude towards life advocated in philosophy and strive to practice so far.

The third reason is that philosophy can give an excellent company.

If we want to win the respect of foreigners, we must have a particularly outstanding personality, that is, virtue of being a man.

This "Virtue" goes beyond national boundaries and is universally applicable. It can not be governed by virtue, and can not be successful in the operation of overseas enterprises.

Good character can pcend the barriers of race, language, history and culture, and can touch people's hearts in different countries of the world.

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Three qualities of leaders

Chinese thinkers in the Ming Dynasty put forward that as leaders, submerging and introverting is the first qualification. Lei Hao Hsiung is the second class qualification, and his exposure is the third qualification.

That is to say, smart, competent, clever words, but third grade qualification.

Whether in the east or in the west, people with third talents in the world are chosen as leaders. This phenomenon is quite common. Of course, such officers will play a great role as employees, but do they possess the outstanding personality of leaders of the group?

I think that the reason why many enterprises in the world are deserted now is that the leaders of many groups only have the qualification of third. In order to make the society better, it is very important to lead the candidates with the first qualification.

But human personality is neither inherent nor permanent.

Personality changes with time. Innate personality may vary from person to person. Even with excellent personality, it is extremely difficult to maintain your excellent personality throughout your life.

For example, people who were industrious and modest were once arrogant and changed beyond recognition.

The other half of life is against the society, but after the storm, it is also possible to take something as an opportunity to repent and turn into an excellent personality.

Since it is changing, the benchmarks of selecting leaders can not be judged by his personality at this point. Therefore, when we choose leaders, we must also consider how to improve the personality and how to maintain a noble personality.

Washington's politicians and business leaders agree with me.

Mr. Abcha made a speech with Mr. George Washington as an example.

He said that United States of America's independence and rapid development were due to the great personality of George Washington as the first president of the United States.

At that time, the Congress of United States of America granted great power to Washington. If the enormous power was granted to the immature people, the consequences could not be imagined. But because of the excellent personality of George Washington, the Congress of the United States ruled out objections, and this article was written into the constitution of the United States in order to enable him to carry out his policy smoothly and grant the president great power.

The same is true of business operations.

In the enterprise, the operator is granted great power, but this power should be exercised in order to protect employees and create happiness for employees, but not to suppress employees, and can not be used to satisfy the individual desires of operators.

As an operator, he should take the lead in practicing this philosophy and constantly strive to improve his personality.

If this is done, enterprises will surely be able to grow and thrive for a long time.

Bear in mind "intentional attention"

One night I went to the scene to inspect and found that the researcher who was supposed to observe carefully was dozing off, so he decided to exchange blood for the leaders and staff of the Institute, and used many new employees to fundamentally change the organization that had been done for many years by the fixed members.

There is great risk in common sense, but the result is very successful.

The passion for one's work or product and the enthusiasm for careful observation at the scene is already lacking for the former employee, and then the employee will possess it, otherwise it will not be able to develop new products.

Such severity is essential when producing products.

There is a saying called "intentional attention". It means consciously paying attention and concentrating consciousness and nerves on objects.

In any case, it is "intentional" to condense their consciousness for any trivial matter.

When I was young, my liaison with my subordinates carried out in the way of conversation in the corridor. Later, there was a problem with this kind of coping style. My subordinates thought he did say it, and I didn't think I heard it at all. After several times, I canceled the way of reporting work in the corridor and other places.

The awl is a tool that can efficiently achieve its purpose by condensing power at the forefront.

The core of this function is "concentrating force". Whoever is concentrating all the strength on a target like a cone is sure to succeed.

Courage is the true source of leadership.

An American reporter asked me why Kyoto semiconductor was so successful.

I thought for a moment and answered, "because we never punish employees for failure."

Her face was full of doubts, so I explained it further.

If our employees accept a challenge for the company and fail, and cause considerable losses to the company, we will not impose any punishment on him.

Because if we accept that challenge for the interests of the company and its employees, and we have all paid sincere and selfless efforts, there is no reason for punishment.

Sometimes, when an employee fails in a project, we will still give him another task at once, which makes him quite surprised.

Although the previous plan failed, the employee learned a lot from it and could move forward with his past experience.

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Our company's motto is "respecting heaven and loving others", so long as it is right and sincere, why should we be afraid of it?

True strength has nothing to do with wealth, fame or physical ability, but the courage to do justice.

The boss of a small company is usually full of vigour - it can see business opportunities, excellence and prudence.

From many examples, they are also those who will never yield.

Most business operators can operate as long as they have talent and ability. However, these companies can not stand firm.

A small company's boss is brave enough to take risks and achieve goals by his ability.

But if you are tied up by your ability, even if you get a temporary success, the company will not grow steadily in the long run.

Just because we lack the strength of soul, we can easily become slaves to our talents.

Being a popular leader is not right?

When Kyoto semiconductor decided to set up a regional headquarters in all parts of the world, I told the top executives of all regions that they must be prepared for their disgusting minds.

I mean, just as parents must be strict with love to manage their children, supervisors will be faced with resistance when practicing "big love".

In a challenging global market, it is a luxury to want to be well received by employees.

We need crisis awareness at all times.

However, being popular is one thing, creating a harmonious atmosphere is another matter.

Even the most popular politicians are likely to plunge the country into war.

Japanese style management has attracted worldwide attention.

For the west, it is hard for them to understand why Japanese employees are so busy working for the company.

Therefore, many observers have come to the conclusion that Japan must be a magic management system.

Subordinates are very sensitive to leaders' weaknesses and are easy to detect.

If leaders are unjust or cowardly, they will not be able to inspire confidence.

When you try to communicate with your employees about your management philosophy, you must first fill in the generation gap that blocks the mutual understanding.

These generation gap may come from age, lifestyle and experience differences.

Maybe you want to be the same age group with your employees, so you have more in common with them.

Your lifestyle may be very similar, but as a manager, you can use the same background to guide employees, so that they can understand your ideas better.

But in real life, employees are usually more like your children - those who are separated from you.

Therefore, the more you rely on the traditions and values of your generation, the more easily your philosophy will be accepted by these "new new humans".

If you want young people to understand you, your idea must be universally applicable, and you can answer: "what is right and what is right for a person?"

In this way, even if employees have been with you for generations, they will agree.

Older people often lament young people's indolence.

But no matter who has the desire to realize their dreams.

If today's young people find their dreams, even the formidable challenges will not frighten them.

If this is a demand, they will agree with your philosophy.

It's rare to come back in this world. Is your life really valuable?

Anyway, I want to tell my young people the correct understanding of "work": understand the meaning of work, devote yourself to work, and you will have a happy life.

I hope they must understand that labor is a good cure for all diseases, and that work can overcome the hardships of life and let your destiny get a good opportunity.