Kazuo Inamori: Forced out of business in Japan

In the Japanese business community, there is a "management four sage", they are Panasonic Konosuke Matsushita, SONY Akio Morita, Honda Soichiro, and Kyocera Group Kazuo Inamori. These are the four most prominent entrepreneurs of Japan's postwar economic rise, and Inamori is the only one still alive. He is known as the "modern Konosuke Matsushita".

On January 19, 2010, Asia's largest airline, 57-year-old JAL, declared bankruptcy. Saving JAL quickly became a central topic in Japan. In late January, Inamori was chosen by Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's prime minister, to be the Caesar to save JAL.

The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has struggled to bring back Kazuo Inamori, the "sage of management" who has been a Buddhist monk for 13 years. The Hatoyama cabinet has visited the past three times, with Japan s Corporate Regeneration Support Agency persuading the government, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara personally inviting the government, and Prime Minister Hatoyama personally pleading with the government.

Despite the Hatoyama administration's gift, Kazuo Inamori promised to take over as JAL's new chairman and chief executive on February 1st, the day he turned 78.

Inamori's decision to return has been widely welcomed in Japan. Kyocera's stock jumped more than 200 yen the day the news was announced. In a show of support for Mr. Inamori, "Sanwajuku" Osaka called on all employees to take JAL instead of Shinkansen when traveling from Osaka to Tokyo. However, the "management of the holy" said Inamori and O, really can pull the waves in both down?

Beat tuberculosis

Kazuo Inamori was born in 1932 in Kagoshima, Japan, into a poor and devout Buddhist family. My father was a printer, and his salary of one dollar a day was not enough to support the family. He had to do some sideline work and was busy until midnight every day.

Because his parents were busy making a living, Inamori was often neglected as a child, and a "three-hour cry" became a scene in his childhood. When rice sheng timid, dare not go out alone, always follow the brother behind to catch some fish and shrimp supplement home, so that the primary school or brother's follower. Unfortunately, the naive life was not long, and bad luck soon visited him.

In 1945, after failing to apply for Kagoshima No. 1 Middle School, Inamori, unfortunately, contracted tuberculosis. There was no cure for tuberculosis and the death rate was high. Inao's aunt and uncle died of tuberculosis. Inao sheng in fever low mood to the extreme, and the neighbor aunt to inspire him to live, gave him a book called "the true meaning of life".

Kazuo Inamori read voraciously. From this book, he saw the term "disastrous mental phase" that would later influence his life (so much so that it became a theme in his later autobiography, "Living Law"). "The True Meaning of Life" on the "disaster heart phase" can be said to be a bright light: "disaster is caused by oneself because there is a magnet to attract disaster in my heart. The way to avoid disaster is to remove the magnet, not to complain to others." "It is wrong to describe the pain as misfortune. People should know how important it is to the growth of the soul." To Rice Sheng, who is beginning to think about life, these words are like sweet dew to seedlings after a long drought.

A spirit of detachment began to sprout in Inamori Kazuo. During his life of poverty, and the daily displacement of 1945 to avoid the bombing of the United States, his tuberculosis faded, and then miraculously recovered.

I almost went into the underworld

Because of the disease-affected study, Inamori and Fukao Middle School later failed to enroll twice. In the end, he was lucky enough to attend the private Kagoshima High School. But Inamori failed the college entrance exam again and had to enroll in the Engineering Department of Kagoshima University, a barely college-able prefectural university, where he specialized in applied chemistry.

As graduation approached and finding a job became a challenge, many companies closed their doors to Inao. With so many students competing and so few admitted, someone always gets in the way. In a fit of righteous indignation, Inamori wanders several times in front of a yakuza dojo. Japan, he thought, would not thrive if poor children did not have equal opportunities and companies did not employ talent more equitably. He wanted to be a mob boss and take down the bad guys.

In the end, Inamori gave up on the absurd idea. On the recommendation of his university professor, he entered a failing company, Dongfeng Industries, which was being held in trust by a bank.

At first, Inamori wasn't comfortable with his first job. He and a fellow college student had passed the examination for membership in the National Militia and were ready to join the army, but his hukou was not around to go through the formalities. Instead of sending him an ID card, his brother Reze severely admonished him: "If you quit like this, you will be the same wherever you go."

Yes, in such a company to do a little achievement, to a good company and what can do? The chipper nature of the Kagoshima countryside rescues Inamori and gives him a strong desire to change his disaster mentality. He moved POTS and pans into the lab and threw himself into his work. While others were on strike, he was thinking about how to cut the factory's losses. He thinks there is no point in going on strike and venting his dissatisfaction with the company. Even if he goes on strike to vent his dissatisfaction, his salary will not go up. He would rather try to do his target research well and put the research results into production. Therefore, others scold him as a "thief", "the company's lackey".

That same year, Inamori developed a new ceramic material called "U-shaped insulation," which generated so many orders for the nearly bankrupt factory that he became head of the production at the newly formed Tetauke, which became the only profitable division of the company.

In 1956, a head of operations for the First Bank of Japan went to work at Dongfeng Industries and marveled at the presence of such a highly motivated team as Tetako in a sleepy factory. The executive also treated Mr. Inamori to a special meal at the hotel. In his conversation with 24-year-old Kazuo Inamori, he heard not only about the future of the electronics industry but also about how to effectively utilize and energize talent. "You have your Philosophy," the executive enthused. At that time, Inamori did not know English, but the word Philosophy remained in his heart.

It can be said that in an environment where there is no vitality and no way out, Richeng holds up a piece of the sky.

To create two Fortune 500 companies

However, it was not long before the young and energetic Kazuo Inamori was forced to resign by his incompetent boss because of the family politics and chaotic management of Dongfeng Industries.

Mr. Inaori had no idea that when he resigned, a large group of technicians and employees, including Masaji Aoyama, 56, the head of the company's ceramics department, would leave with him and follow him. With the help of Aoyama, Kazuo Inamori raised 3 million yen from celebrities such as Nishida Kazue and Miyagi Electronics and incorporated Kyoto Ceramics, the predecessor of today's Kyocera, in 1959.

In the early days of Kyocera, Inamori, the company's manager, and technical leader, worked until after noon every day, but he failed to turn around the company, which was in dire straits and almost went bankrupt. Under the situation, rice Sheng can only sell blood several times to pay workers but still can not stop workers who have resigned. Fortunately, however, in desperation, Inao did not give up and used a staggering amount of shares as leverage to retain the last of the workers and turn Kyocera into a profitable company a year later.

Subsequently, Kyocera gradually expanded into electronic parts processing and communication equipment manufacturing, and soon became a large comprehensive high-tech enterprise in Japan.

More than a decade later, Kyocera successful restructuring mergers and acquisitions "Mita industry", "Sebastian", "elegant west card" and other well-known enterprises, become now owns 189 companies, businesses across the electronics and machinery, medical equipment, solar technology, machine tools, jewelry application products, services and network, and other fields, more than 60000 employees of super large enterprise groups.

If Inamori's first venture was infinitely difficult, his second venture seems to be going smoothly because of his extensive business experience over the years.

When Japan's communications reforms in 1984 allowed private companies to enter the sector, the sensitive Inamori saw a God-given opportunity. At the age of 52, he set up DDI, a communications company, to challenge NTT, a state-owned giant that had dominated the Japanese telecommunications market for more than 100 years, at a time when many people were not happy about it. What is even more surprising is that such an underdog company would eventually grow into Japan's second-largest telecommunications company, KDDI.

Today Kyocera and KDDI have become the pride of the Japanese people, both of which are among the world's top 500 companies. To match, Inamori also won the respect and love of the Japanese people. In Japan, there is a term for "managing the four Sages". They are Konosuke Matsushita, Akio Morita, Soichiro Honda, and Kazuo Inamori. Of the four, Kazuo Inamori is the youngest and only living sage to have founded two Fortune 500 companies.