Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 111 posts

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#61

Post by mbrock »

geomark wrote: post #48

What is a Buddhist "priest"? It certainly isn't a Buddhist monk. While Buddhism may be a big part of his life, using some made up title like that seems like just an attempt to make him seem somehow larger.

Japanese Buddhism has many "priests," who are noncelibate, typically married. They are trained in various rites and may officiate weddings and funerals and tend to temples. I don't know what this man does in his priestly capacities, but you don't seem to be very well informed about Japanese Buddhism. The translation "priest" is very common.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#62

Post by 212d1d »

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 adressing employees satisfaction.

Have you never worked in a company that's on those lists? It's highly encouraged (wink, wink) that you help them out with high marks.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#63

Post by oxryly1 »

jjulius wrote: post #32
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…

I manage a crew of about 15 people, and we have an internal company directory. I was asked to list off my job responsibilities for my page, and the first thing I wrote was, "Ensure that my employees are happy." There is a stark contrast in the morale, work ethic and quality of work that my crew has compared to most other areas in my company. Treating my employees like people, being empathetic, supportive, open-minded…

What you've written is a glowing self assessment. While it may be entirely accurate, it'd be enlightening to see what kind of feedback the employees in question would give you on the subject.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#64

Post by patio11 »

Nadya wrote: post #22
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…

To be fair, a lot can change in a decade, which seems to be what most results are centered around (a whistle blower from 1999 who wrote a book). But it isn't exactly ranked high by employees [0]. Also may want to explain what ブラック企業 means. I can take an educated guess but I'm not 100% certain I'm right. [0] https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://...

A "black company" is one which abuses employees in such a manner as to shock the conscience of a Japanese salaryman.

Normal company: Work Monday to Saturday, Sunday off. Black company: two Sundays a month off... but you have to work on them anyhow

Normal company: 70 hour workweek involving 20+ hours of paid overtime. Black company: the overtime is uncompensated ("service" overtime)/

Normal company: underperforming employees are ostracized or criticized. Black company: underperforming employees, or performing employees, are subjected to "power harassment" or physical violence.

Incidentally, salaryman loyalty counsels that one's own company is never a black company... I mean sure, there might be some disreputable firms in Tokyo, but we are just going through a crunch period, Tanaka-buchou is well-known to be demanding, that project is over budget so sacrifices must be made, etc.

Many Japanese salarymen of my acquaintance would identify the core underlying sin as "failing to uphold the company's end of the bargain all of us know we're making" and would say "It's mostly a thing at tiny SMBs who don't have the economic resources to consistently treat employees correctly."

If it isn't completely obvious, I have strong reservations about salarymanhood as a system and how the discourse of "black companies" is designed to and functions as insulation for that system.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#65

Post by oxryly1 »

scotty79 wrote: post #29

Shares are just tokens that can appreciate and depreciate in value (not unlike bitcoin). Price of shares usually has nothing to do with condition or more importantly future of the company. It depends solely on whim of people who have too much money and time and noting better to do with those. Idea that the company should be managed in a way that would raise the price of shares is silly. Trading shares is a game and w…

I agree, to an extent. But I did get burned by this mindset...

I owned a non-trivial amount of MSFT back in the 90s, and they had never paid dividends. Instead, their share price seemed to be linked to the tech bubble and their own popularity. I bought as part of that herd mentality. Eventually, though, I realized that their share price was really not bound by anything concrete, so I sold. A month later, they paid out a big dividend. I missed out on a decent payday.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#66

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

JackFr wrote: post #38

This is utter nonsense. He simply is an excellent manager. He cut 1/3 of the workforce and began tracking hourly efficiency (presumably to the benefit of the company). That he's a Buddhist priest is not central to the story.

It's the corporate version of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism

It was very popular in the 70s when Japanese business was totally a thing.

The Japanese are probably reading something loosely related about Tim Cook and the shareholder-indifferent culture at Apple.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#67

Post by geomark »

mbrock wrote: post #61
geomark wrote: post #48

What is a Buddhist "priest"? It certainly isn't a Buddhist monk. While Buddhism may be a big part of his life, using some made up title like that seems like just an attempt to make him seem somehow larger.

Japanese Buddhism has many "priests," who are noncelibate, typically married. They are trained in various rites and may officiate weddings and funerals and tend to temples. I don't know what this man does in his priestly capacities, but you don't seem to be very well informed about Japanese Buddhism. The translation "priest" is very common.

I am not well informed about Japanese Buddhism. My knowledge of Buddhism comes from having been a monk myself, ordained in the Theravada tradition.

I do know about these "priests" having wives. That means they are not monks since celibacy is one of the foremost precepts of Buddhism. Other aspects of being a "householder" also preclude Inamori from being a monk.

Based on your description it seems like the priest title is imported from other religions.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#68

Post by euske »

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's worth noting that the term ブラック企業 is now a kind of buzzword and a general slander that carries little meaning. I can see why people like using it because the sound it makes in Japanese is mildly shocking and tarnishing.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#69

Post by mbrock »

geomark wrote: post #67
mbrock wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese Buddhism has many "priests," who are noncelibate, typically married. They are trained in various rites and may officiate weddings and funerals and tend to temples. I don't know what this man does in his priestly capacities, but you don't seem to be very well informed about Japanese Buddhism. The translation "priest" is very common.

I am not well informed about Japanese Buddhism. My knowledge of Buddhism comes from having been a monk myself, ordained in the Theravada tradition. I do know about these "priests" having wives. That means they are not monks since celibacy is one of the foremost precepts of Buddhism. Other aspects of being a "householder" also preclude Inamori from being a monk. Based on your description it seems like the priest title…

It's an imported title because it's a translation. I don't know the Japanese word. Yes, he is not a monk, and nobody has claimed that he is. I don't really understand your point in saying that his religious status is "made up" because he's not a celibate monastic.

Re: The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors

#70

Post by fisk »

So his way to take care of the hen is to track its efficiency, give it a book telling it to be humble, and to fire it?

Well, possibly that was the semi-subtle point of the article -- that he says one thing, but here's a read-between-the-lines lack of evidence that it's more than talk.

Post reply on HN