Editor's note:Japan's "Saint of Management" Kazuo Inamori has created several outstanding companies, and his business philosophy of "respecting heaven and loving people" has far-reaching influence. The article we are going to recommend today comes from Kazuo Inamori’s autobiography.

"Management can only be a projection of the operator's personality." From the continued prosperity of Kyocera and KDDI to the comeback of JAL, and even the progress of thousands of Seiwajuku companies, all these confirm Kazuo Inamori's business philosophy.

While Kazuo Inamori's "Respecting Heaven and Lovers: The Challenge from Scratch" is republished, let's study it systematically.

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One and three important principles

In February 2010, when I was nearly 80 years old, I accepted the invitation from the Japanese government to serve as the chairman of Japan Airlines (JAL), which had been rebuilt from bankruptcy.

Before this, I founded Kyocera and KDDI, two companies in different industries. The sales of these two companies reached 5 trillion yen. Although I had the experience to grow these two companies, I was completely new to the air transportation industry. Therefore, no one expressed approval for becoming the chairman of JAL. "You are old, don't do it anymore." Everyone advised me in unison.

However, I think there are three major implications for the reconstruction of JAL, which are three great principles.

Item 1, Impact on Japan’s Economy

JAL is one of Japan’s representative companies. If JAL fails to rebuild and goes bankrupt for the second time, it will have a huge impact on the Japanese economy. But if the reconstruction is successful, people will say: "If JAL, which is in difficulty, can be successfully reconstructed, there is no reason why the Japanese economy cannot be reborn." So I think this is an opportunity for the Japanese people to regain their confidence.

Item 2: Preserve the jobs of JAL’s remaining employees

In order to rebuild successfully, it is very regrettable that a certain number of employees have to resign. However, if the company goes bankrupt for the second time, all employees will lose their jobs. I consider that, at all costs, we must ensure that the remaining employees do not lose their jobs again.

Item 3: Fulfill responsibilities to citizens, that is, to passengers

If JAL goes bankrupt and disappears, there will be only one major domestic airline in Japan, the principle of competition will not be able to work, air ticket freight will rise, and service levels will decline, which will definitely be detrimental to the people. Only under the conditions of fair competition and two or more airline companies working together can they provide passengers with low-cost and high-quality services.

Considering these three great righteousnesses, a thought similar to chivalry arises in my heart.Since then, I have decided to overestimate my capabilities and become the chairman of the board of directors, and do my best to rebuild JAL.

2. The eyes of the cadres have changed

However, I have absolutely no knowledge or experience regarding the air transportation business. In order to rebuild JAL, I can bring only two weapons: one is my management philosophy, which can be said to be the "original point" for me to found and cultivate Kyocera; the other is the management system of "Amoeba Management."

I think we must first teach philosophy to the leaders and employees of JAL in order to change their ideology. Why? Because when I came to work at the JAL headquarters in Shinagawa, Tokyo, I encountered unexpected and surprising situations many times.

For example, when I asked the cadres "How is the current operating performance?", they were slow to come up with figures. When they finally got them, they were from a few months ago, and they were all very rough macro figures. When asked who is responsible for which revenue and expenditure, they cannot answer, and the responsibility system is very unclear.

At the same time, the headquarters and the field, the planning department and the execution department, the management cadres and ordinary employees, JAL itself and its subsidiaries all work independently and lack a sense of unity. Everyone acts according to their own convenience, and business leaders even avoid taking responsibility. At that time, I could not feel the enthusiasm of JAL officials and employees for reconstruction, unity, and desperate efforts.

In this case, in order to carry out "consciousness reform" of cadres, I ask everyone to "first of all truthfully accept the fact that JAL is bankrupt." I'll start by making this clear.

Because according to relevant laws, after applying for bankruptcy and reconstruction of the company, JAL continued sailing as before, so the officials did not have a personal feeling about the fact that the company had gone bankrupt. For this reason, I repeatedly emphasized: "We must admit the fact of bankruptcy, and then, why is it bankrupt? What is the problem at this stage? I hope everyone will sincerely reflect, have the courage, and invest in reforms!" At the same time, I also wrote a letter and sent it to all JAL Group cadres and employees, and the content of the letter contained the above purposes.

Going one step further, starting from June 2010, I convened 50 management cadres and spent one month conducting a thorough education for business leaders. Everyone is required to understand the attitude that business leaders should have and the way of thinking required to run a business.

Specifically, "maximizing sales and minimizing expenses" is the key to business; leaders must have excellent character worthy of the respect of their subordinates. At the same time, leaders must have a strong will to achieve the set goals no matter how the environment changes, etc. These are the "philosophies" that I have always emphasized on various occasions when I was running Kyocera and KDDI, that is, the principles and principles for running a company.

This kind of leadership education for learning philosophy is conducted in a centralized manner. I try my best to attend and explain it in person. And after the lecture, we have to have a discussion with them while drinking.

In this way, the eyes of the cadres who were initially resistant and uninterested in my business philosophy changed. They deepened their understanding of the philosophy and raised their level of consciousness as leaders. At the same time, as partners who received the same education, cadres developed feelings for each other.A strong sense of oneness. Also, many cadres feel that "such good and practical teachings should not only become their own, but also be passed on to their subordinates."

As a result, the section leaders and monitors at each site who heard the leaders’ reflections on their studies also made a request: “I would like to receive the same training.” In order to meet their request, I conducted training for section leaders and monitors using videos taken during the training for management officers. The number of people receiving training has now reached about 3,000.

After the education for leaders and section leaders, monthly meetings called "Performance Report Meetings" began in July in order to apply what they learned during the training in actual management. Nearly 100 leaders from various departments gathered together and spent three days asking each person in charge to express their respective business performance. Specifically, it is to publish the planned numbers and actual numbers according to each item of the income statement. If there is a difference between the two, the reasons must be explained. I will provide on-the-spot guidance as needed.

3. Carefully consider and formulate a new "corporate philosophy"

In this way, I conducted "philosophical" penetration into JAL's management cadres and class monitor levels. At the same time, starting from July 2010, we continued to expand downwards and started educating ordinary employees.

Employees who handle boarding matters at the airport, including flight attendants who serve passengers on the plane, captains and co-pilots who fly the plane and are responsible for safe navigation, and mechanics who are engaged in aircraft maintenance. I came to the work site of these employees and directly explained to them the way of thinking that employees in each position should have and how to do their jobs well.

In addition, starting from August, I will write the words of the yoga sage Mr. Tenfeng Nakamura that I mentioned in my speech when I took office as Chairman of JAL in early February as slogans and post them at various work sites: "High ambition, single-mindedness, perseverance, and resolute realization of new plans."

The meaning of this slogan is: In order to implement the company's reconstruction plan in a down-to-earth manner, no matter how the environment changes, it cannot be used as an excuse for failing to complete the plan. Every employee must have an attitude of ownership, work hard in the direction of achieving the goal, and there is no other way except to continue such efforts.

On the other hand, the content of the company newspaper issued every month has been significantly changed, and the company's operating status has been published in detail. Let employees on site know clearly what the current operating situation of JAL is and what direction their company will change in.

At the same time, I began to convene relevant cadres, centered on the president, to use my way of thinking as a reference. After repeated discussions, we determined the "corporate philosophy" of the new Japan Airlines, and officially announced it to the entire company in January 2011.

At the same time as the formulation of the "Corporate Philosophy", in order to realize this concept, the way of thinking and judgment standards that all employees should have were summarized into the "JALphilosopher" (JAL philosophy), a total of 40 items.

When formulating the "Corporate Philosophy" and "JAL Philosophy", I selected more than a dozen cadres from various departments. After more than 20 meetings and discussions, this was not enough. I heard that they even got together on holidays for repeated and thorough discussions.. In addition, in order to verify the results of these cadre discussions, I also listened to the opinions of 130 ordinary employees, mainly on-site backbones.

In order to make it easy for employees to carry and refer to it, we made the "JAL Philosophy" into a small manual and distributed it to all employees of the group in early January 2011.

Now, at each work site, we read it in turn every day during the morning meeting. I feel that based on this "JAL Philosophy", the thinking of all JAL employees is converging in the same direction. From now on, no matter what changes occur in the management system, JAL's management will move in the right direction.

4. Touching messages from guests

These business philosophies are changing the ideology of every JAL employee. As a result, the company's business structure has been strengthened and the reconstruction work has been more firmly guaranteed. JAL is gradually changing. JAL wants to become the most outstanding company in the world not in terms of scale, but in terms of the level of thinking of its employees.

The air transportation industry is generally considered to be a huge "installation industry" because it has expensive aircraft and various equipment necessary for shipping. It certainly has that side, but I would position aviation as the ultimate "service industry."

For example, when guests arrive at the airport, how they are received at the check-in counter, how the flight attendants serve the passengers after they board the plane, and what the captain says during the in-flight announcement can all reflect the true value of the airline.

That is to say, employees working at JAL must express heartfelt gratitude to the guests who come to fly, and this emotion and joy must be expressed in words and attitudes. For the air transport industry, this is the most important thing.

The behavior of employees who have direct contact with guests affects people's evaluation of the airline and determines the rise or fall of the airline. "You have to work hard and create an atmosphere in the company that satisfies customers and makes them want to fly JAL again." I earnestly tell these truths to my employees.

Before becoming the chairman of JAL, I actually hated JAL. Perhaps they think they are an airline representing the country of Japan. Their pride has led to an arrogant and indifferent attitude, and sometimes they even do not pay attention to their guests. In fact, many customers who were unhappy with Japan Airlines in the past chose to fly with other airlines.

The once disgusting company, workplace, and employees have changed bit by bit in the process of learning JAL philosophy and seeking consciousness reform.

The hard-working employees who stood on the front line understood what I said and worked hard to do their jobs in their respective positions. They also began to fall in love with JAL as a company. With the simple wish of "I hope customers will also fall in love with JAL", they sincerely served customers.

As a result, customers continued to send letters of appreciation. Especially when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit in 2011, every JAL employee returned to the origin of the air transportation business, dedicated themselves to serving customers, and did a lot of outstanding work.

For example, for passengers who were forced to stay in the plane for a long time, the flight attendants made fresh sushi for everyone; out of concern for the health of the guests who were closed in the lounge, JAL Moscow BranchThe company's employees spent their own money to buy chocolates for guests; the captain broadcast heart-warming condolences to the Japanese Red Cross rescue team who rushed to the disaster area, filling the plane with a whirlpool of emotion; some flight attendants took the initiative to keep the luggage of the rescue workers who rushed to the disaster area, and quietly and unnoticedly inserted cards with condolences and words of encouragement.

Thanks to the thoughtful care of the JAL crew, many guests sent touching letters. I once again realized that the source of employee behavior that evokes this kind of emotion is "philosopher", that is, management philosophy.

Book title: "Respecting Heaven and Loving People: The Challenge from Scratch" (Second Edition)

Author: [Japanese] Taosheng Kazuo

Publisher: Machinery Industry Press

Published: September 2016