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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

#41

Post by sdrothrock »

ddellacosta wrote: post #20

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_C…

It does have a terrible reputation.

"happy" is being used unconventionally.

> [Inamori's] brand of happiness comes from working harder than anyone else. It’s infused with the Buddhist idea of “shojin,” elevating the soul through devotion to a task.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#42

Post by eCa »

DanBC wrote: post #28
mmanfrin wrote: post #23

Is Kyocera really doing well? I see less and less of Kyocera these days, and an amazon search shows knives and one budget Android phone. Are they big in Japan?

$12bn revenue isn't doing really well?

Revenue in itself does not answer that question.

Blackberry (formerly known as RIM) has a revenue of $3+bn. Not doing really well.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#43

Post by HaloZero »

jpatokal wrote: post #39

> From Kyocera’s headquarters overlooking the hills and temples of the ancient capital of Kyoto... Ah yes, that old trope. This is what people think Kyoto looks like: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02657/kyoto_2657... But it's a city of 1.5m, and this is what it actually looks like: http://nward.com/myworld/places/japan/214.jpg

I imagine Kyoto has some kinda large park like Tokyo has in Harujuku or like NYC has Central Park? I can only imagine that's what they refer to.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#44

Post by Nadya »

jpatokal wrote: post #39

> From Kyocera’s headquarters overlooking the hills and temples of the ancient capital of Kyoto... Ah yes, that old trope. This is what people think Kyoto looks like: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02657/kyoto_2657... But it's a city of 1.5m, and this is what it actually looks like: http://nward.com/myworld/places/japan/214.jpg

Hey now, don't forget the view from Kiyomizu! :P

As far as the "old trope" they aren't entirely wrong. From top floor of HQ you should be able to see the hills and temples above the city.

[0] http://youinjapan.net/kyoto/higashiyama/kiyomizudera_night_h...

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#45

Post by jackvalentine »

rl3 wrote: post #21
anpk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a 2004 book on his philosophy, he questioned Japanese people’s increasing tendency to value leisure time. That makes one of us.

To further expand on this: > When Inamori talks about making employees happy, he doesn’t mean they’ll be putting their feet up. His brand of happiness comes from working harder than anyone else. It’s infused with the Buddhist idea of “shojin,” elevating the soul through devotion to a task. That's nice and all, but not if it comes at the expense of employee leisure time or pay.

Does shojin conflict with a modern office job in which you have many tasks and many responsibilities?

I can instinctively understand the idea if I were cutting wood or doing some other manual task, but I am having trouble picturing myself at work being able to get in to the right mindset if I have multiple moving pieces in every hour of the day.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#46

Post by Amorymeltzer »

jqm wrote: post #40
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…

"Regarding the cutting of 16,000 jobs, yeah, not grand" Ya see, Buddhism is all about losing the non-essential. Everything is an illusion, everything is impermanent. Especially your job security. Upon receiving their pink slips, many were enlightened.

Without commenting on the content of this comment, the framing of that last sentence reminded me of hacker koans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_koan

See also git koans: http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/04/git-koans/

Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5511863

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#47

Post by mahranch »

ekianjo wrote: post #10
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…

Im really doubtful whether employees are actually happy working there. Never heard of Kyocera being anywhere nesr tge top of Best Places to Work surveys adressing employees satisfaction. This sounds like a big PR piece with no fact to support any claim.

> Never heard of Kyocera being anywhere nesr tge top of Best Places to Work surveys

I've never seen one of those surveys that were actually legit, though. They use completely subjective factors to measure & determine happiness or "best". To me, the whole thing is a lot like the Academy Awards where it's basically a fake award without any scientific rigor.

I remember one year, I think it was 2005 or 06? Verizon Wireless was one of the "happiest" places to work. The reason they were rated so high? Because the researchers weighted one factor more than any of the others. That factor was how the company treats mothers, and expectant mothers (maternity leave). They weighed that particular metric insanely heavy. Basically, if you weren't catering to mothers even slightly during that particular year, the survey would have completely ignored your company even if you had the happiest workers.

It's all nonsense. As far as I know, there hasn't been a single, actual scientific study to determine "happiest/best company". It's all hogwash. I think this piece has more scientific rigor behind it than those "best places to work" surveys because his results are actually measurable and quantifiable. On the other hand, you can't quantify something as subjective as happiness anyways, by definition. Everyone has their own opinion of what happiness is....

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#49

Post by hardwaresofton »

ddellacosta wrote: post #20

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_C…

So I don't think Kyocera is one of the top "black companies".

At the very least, anecdotally, they haven't made the lists mentioned by some of my friends. Generally I found that the "black"est companies in Japan happen to be the ones that pay the most (that aren't foreign held).

IMHO, most "pure-bred" Japanese companies vary from a shade of gray to black. A lot of the things that are part of work life there would be probably pretty off-putting to us, starting from recruitment (during college).

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#50

Post by hardwaresofton »

smegel wrote: post #31
ni-hil wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? What social and/or cultural aspects do you see as roadblocks? And in which countries?

Japanese people actually practice integrity. If they find a wallet on the street, they will make every effort to return it to its owner - with the cash still inside. If you let small groups of employees "do their own thing" it might actually result in increased productivity and improved moral rather than disintegration and widespread corruption. Japanese culturally enforce and reward conformity to this modality. > An…

Generalizations are risky as always. I don't think it's clear that splitting employees into small, self-sufficient groups correlates to a dip in productivity regardless of whether any/all of the employees have "integrity" or not (if I understood you correctly, you're stating that splitting into small groups may not work if "integrity" is not present).

I put integrity in quotes because the very concept is pretty nebulous, especially when crossing country boundaries. But, I can concede there's at least a general understanding of the word, and I can't say that's what motivates people to do good work/be productive.

At the very least, it's not the only carrot, and you're completely forgetting the stick (which of course, is discouraged these days, but it definitely has it's uses).

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