The New-Era Entrepreneurial Leader

On New Year’s Day 2001 my father died suddenly. I had joined the chemical company he founded in 1957 just one year before. Although I had earned a Masters in Business Education (MBA) from a graduate school in the U.S. and had worked for major companies in both the U.S. and Japan, I certainly didn’t have firsthand knowledge of business management. The different managerial theories I learned through the MBA program and my early business experience were surely helpful, but it is impossible to truly master business management simply from textbooks. So because of my youth and lack of experience, I ended up facing a variety of difficulties soon after assuming the position of president.

It may sound a little argumentative, but in the process of tackling my newfound difficulties and problems, I came to the conclusion that “self-denial” was the solution to many of the issues. The “self” is established over years while experiencing various biases. It is like the self is gathering good and bad moss throughout daily life. This is not a problem if the self gathers only good moss, but there is always an element of biased moss that clouds the eye. Those are subjective views filled with bias, meaningless comparison and jealousy towards others. It is the biased boss that becomes a great problem for business leaders.

In Japan, this biased thinking begins early with the childhood education system. Japan’s future is not bright if this problem remains unsolved. Generally speaking, the Japanese education system adopts a relative evaluation process based on points. In this system, students constantly feel pressured to prove how good they are compared to other students and are evaluated by test scores, performance records and which schools they advance to. Unconsciously, and gradually, students begin to focus on comparing themselves with others, setting standards not based on themselves but upon others. In the U.S. it becomes very similar to Asia from the perspective that parents urge their kids to score very high with standardized tests such as SAT and ACT. GPAs are such a great measurement to enter colleges that I hear complaints from teachers that parents often become monster parents. When such an environment exists, students become afraid to disclose their own weaknesses to others.

This fear of divulging weaknesses continues well after the students enter the workplace. It becomes important for them to prove how they can perform better than others. In order to prove this they choose to work longer hours, yet in doing so, get in each other’s way. To compete in such a rat race one needs to gain knowledge and skills but a judgmental standard should be based on the individuals themselves rather than one based on the people around them. But in reality, both in school and the corporate system, people are judged based on whether they are superior to others. This system prepares individuals to wear psychological shields to protect themselves which results in individuals only communicating with others through these shields. To put it simply, people act like they get along with each other on the surface but actually they constantly compare themselves with others thus they become annoyed by the small or big differences in others.

Successful business leaders should behave in a completely opposite way. A leader should not focus on him or her self. It is important for a leader to forget self; even deny self. Once an individual denies self he/she can remove the aforementioned biased moss and filter through psychological shields.

When I became a business owner in January 2001 after the sudden death of my father, I was very anxious. I believe my employees were also anxious. However, I came out of my shell and overcame the September 11 attacks (which happened soon after assuming the position), the Dot-com Bubble burst, the Lehman Brothers’ collapse and the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as the Fukushima nuclear disaster (our plant is located in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture).

I do not claim that my self-fulfillment and ego led to my success in overcoming these crises. I believe that the keys to success are simple: Know your limits, trust your employees, delegate tasks and gain the trust and support of your employees. It may take time to gain the trust of your employees but when you do, together you will be more able to overcome the variety of challenges you are likely to encounter in an ever-changing environment.

My company has had to overcome numerous difficulties since I took over in 2001 yet because of this philosophy I am proud to note that as of the spring of 2016, the company is maintaining a record of the highest sales and profit for six consecutive years. And while I expect that we will be faced with more challenges in the future, I am confident that as a business leader I will stay open-minded and continue to overcome them.