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The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

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Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#11

Post by cgio »

Amorymeltzer wrote: post #3

Say what you will, but >After taking the CEO role without pay, he printed a small book for each staff member on his philosophies, which declared that the company was devoted to their growth. >"Company leaders should seek to make all their employees happy, both materially and intellectually," Inamori said. I'd take a pay cut to work at a place like that. Enjoying your work, feeling like you will be taken care of, and…

> His turnaround also cut roughly a third of the airline’s workforce, about 16,000 people.

Your feeling like you will be taken care of might not be warranted.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#12

Post by PhasmaFelis »

harryh wrote: post #5

This seems like a pretty clear false dichotomy. The best companies tend to be great for both employees and shareholders.

You rarely hear complaints of companies that have neglected their shareholders in favor of their employees, while the reverse is endemic. When the scales are overbalanced this badly, you need to give them a firm shove, not carefully add equal weights to both side.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#13

Post by eloff »

harryh wrote: post #5

This seems like a pretty clear false dichotomy. The best companies tend to be great for both employees and shareholders.

He says exactly that if you read the article. His point is that you must take care of the employees because they produce the value. If you make short sighted decisions in favor of the shareholders, you could be killing the hen that lays the eggs, to use his metaphor. I don't see any reason why taking care of employees is in contrast to making a healthy profit. If employees are happy they will be more efficient and that will spill over into profits.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#14

Post by swamp40 »

Amorymeltzer wrote: post #3

Say what you will, but >After taking the CEO role without pay, he printed a small book for each staff member on his philosophies, which declared that the company was devoted to their growth. >"Company leaders should seek to make all their employees happy, both materially and intellectually," Inamori said. I'd take a pay cut to work at a place like that. Enjoying your work, feeling like you will be taken care of, and…

So, was it the small philosophy book that turned the airline around and made it profitable, or was it the cutting of 16,000 employees?

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#15

Post by hugh4 »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #12
harryh wrote: post #5

This seems like a pretty clear false dichotomy. The best companies tend to be great for both employees and shareholders.

You rarely hear complaints of companies that have neglected their shareholders in favor of their employees, while the reverse is endemic. When the scales are overbalanced this badly, you need to give them a firm shove, not carefully add equal weights to both side.

The fact that you don't hear about it is largely because employees tend to be better at whining to the media when they don't get their way than shareholders.

The American landscape is littered with many large companies which have gone bankrupt by giving in to all their employees' demands at the cost of profitability. The big airlines, for instance. And the carmakers.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#16

Post by PhasmaFelis »

hugh4 wrote: post #15
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You rarely hear complaints of companies that have neglected their shareholders in favor of their employees, while the reverse is endemic. When the scales are overbalanced this badly, you need to give them a firm shove, not carefully add equal weights to both side.

The fact that you don't hear about it is largely because employees tend to be better at whining to the media when they don't get their way than shareholders. The American landscape is littered with many large companies which have gone bankrupt by giving in to all their employees' demands at the cost of profitability. The big airlines, for instance. And the carmakers.

> The fact that you don't hear about it is largely because employees tend to be better at whining to the media when they don't get their way than shareholders.

That would seem to violate everything we know about public relations, i.e. it's a whole lot easier to get your voice heard when you have money.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#17

Post by vidarh »

beedyg wrote: post #8
percept wrote: post #6

“If you want eggs, take care of the hen,” Inamori said in an interview on Oct. 23. “If you bully or kill the hen, it’s not going to work.”

> His turnaround also cut roughly a third of the airline’s workforce, about 16,000 people. At first glance that looks an awful lot like bullying the hen

He also returned the company to profitability, and brought it back out of bankruptcy, without which it's very much possible that all of the staff rather than "just" 1/3 would have had to find new jobs.

It's perfectly possible he could have managed without, or with fewer, redundancies, but pointing to redundancies as evidence he's not thinking of staff is short-sighted.

It sucks to have people lose jobs, but the solution to that is not to have companies hold on to unsustainable amounts of staff to the extent where they are at risk of failing.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#18

Post by j2bax »

beedyg wrote: post #8
percept wrote: post #6

“If you want eggs, take care of the hen,” Inamori said in an interview on Oct. 23. “If you bully or kill the hen, it’s not going to work.”

> His turnaround also cut roughly a third of the airline’s workforce, about 16,000 people. At first glance that looks an awful lot like bullying the hen

Or is it killing the hen to ensure the other hens can continue eating and being happy?

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#19

Post by hugh4 »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #16
hugh4 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you don't hear about it is largely because employees tend to be better at whining to the media when they don't get their way than shareholders. The American landscape is littered with many large companies which have gone bankrupt by giving in to all their employees' demands at the cost of profitability. The big airlines, for instance. And the carmakers.

> The fact that you don't hear about it is largely because employees tend to be better at whining to the media when they don't get their way than shareholders. That would seem to violate everything we know about public relations, i.e. it's a whole lot easier to get your voice heard when you have money.

Not at all, you need money and a good sob story. Nobody cares about the sob story of the rich hedge fund which isn't making as much money as it could be, they want sob stories with blue-collar workers sitting at a kitchen table looking balefully into the camera.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#20

Post by ddellacosta »

Forget it, says Kazuo Inamori, entrepreneur, management guru and Buddhist priest. Spend your time making staff happy instead.

Huh...and here I thought Kyocera had a reputation in Japan for being a terrible place to work.

(sorry, no luck finding links in English, but search for 京セラブラック企業) and you get a fair number of links.

https://www.google.com/search?q=京セラブラック企業

EDIT: (ブラック企業 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Company_%28Japanese_term...)

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