
The Buddhist Priest Who Became a Billionaire Snubbing Investors - PhasmaFelis
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-04/the-no-1-business-rule-of-this-billionaire-and-buddhist-priest
======
Amorymeltzer
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 being able to grow and develop are huge
"benefits" that aren't easy to find in many jobs.

ETA: Regarding the cutting of 16,000 jobs, yeah, not grand. But the article
isn't clear on _why_ , and if anything it's implied they were efficiency cuts.
Man does it suck to lose your job, but 33% is better than 100% and companies
_really_ shouldn't have that much bloat.

~~~
ekianjo
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.

~~~
mahranch
> 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....

~~~
cdf
I work for a best place to work company and hr really go all out to address
any concern that may hurt the survey. That said, best place to work doesn't
mean your job is automatically awesome.

------
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](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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Company_%28Japanese_term%29))

~~~
sdrothrock
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.

~~~
sdrothrock
Also, since it's too late to edit: Kyoto has a reputation (anecdotally, a
well-deserved one) for having a large number of black companies.

------
JackFr
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.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
It's the corporate version of this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism](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.

------
scotty79
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 what company does after making
shares available for purchase serves only as random seed for share price.

There are two parts to stock market. One is providing capital to companies.
Selling shares is a way to do that. But not many people would buy shares
because growing companies is risky and slow business. It would be only as
attractive as buying shares just for the dividend. Thus we need a twist to
make things more interesting so that people will act against their own
interest. Proven thing that makes people part with their money is a lottery so
we change shares into sort of token that players can trade between themselves.
Heard behaviors provides the necessary randomness and the thrill. And that's
how and why of stock market.

Attempts to further sync the game with the reality are stupid, harmful and
unnecessary.

~~~
oxryly1
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.

~~~
nicholas73
No you didn't. The dividend cash would just be subtracted from the market cap
(roughly) the next day when the market opens.

~~~
oxryly1
Are you suggesting that any time a dividend is paid on a single share, that
share's price drops by exactly the dividend payment amount?

~~~
nicholas73
Yes, among many other factors that affect share price. In some forms of stock
(e.g. MLP units) the daily share price change is even adjusted for subtracting
the distribution.

------
smegel
> split staff into often tiny units that make their own plans

The problem is this just doesn't work in some countries. It is as much about
Japanese society and culture than the CEO that even makes this possible to
begin with.

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

~~~
smegel
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.

> And in which countries?

Well I'm not sure there are many countries that can compare to Japan's
homogeneous cultural ethic, it really is unique in many ways.

~~~
mahranch
But is that ethic and morality something that is impossible for other cultures
to emulate or adopt? If so, why? I think "culture" is a dynamic thing, it's
changeable. I think the evidence of this is abundant & widespread (See: most
countries adopting western/hollywood culture since the 1920s).

I often see a similar argument from gun nuts. You show them that Japan has a
ban on guns and that they have zero hand-gun related deaths annually, show
them that they have among the lowest crime rate in the world, and they use the
excuse of "Oh, it's a different culture. It's not comparable". That's nonsense
logic to me. All it means is we _also_ need to change our culture too, then.
Sure, it's another factor to consider, but that's all. It's not a roadblock.

------
bharath28
I wish the article shed more light on actual practices within the company and
measures they took to make employees happy. Without the details, the claim
seems to be somewhat unsubstantiated.

------
jpatokal
> _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...](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02657/kyoto_2657285b.jpg)

But it's a city of 1.5m, and this is what it actually looks like:
[http://nward.com/myworld/places/japan/214.jpg](http://nward.com/myworld/places/japan/214.jpg)

~~~
mahranch
My buddy took this picture of his trip to Kyoto:

[https://tokyokawaiietc.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/kyoto-
sce...](https://tokyokawaiietc.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/kyoto-scenery5.jpg)

I would assume Kyoto is just like any city. However, my buddy did say he was
amazed by the cleanliness of the city, so I think your picture is slightly
exaggerating what Kyoto actually looks like.

~~~
jpatokal
Yeah, that's Sannenzaka slope near Kiyomizudera. The reason your buddy took
the picture and I can tell exactly where it came from is because that's just
about the only place in Kyoto that looks like that. (Plus a few flatter bits
around Gion/Pontocho that have been tarted up for tourists.)

------
geomark
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.

~~~
mbrock
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.

~~~
geomark
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.

~~~
mbrock
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.

~~~
geomark
My misunderstanding. It sounded to me like the story was trying to make him
larger than life by throwing in the title of Buddhist priest. I wasn't aware
of that title - I thought they were implying he is monk. That's what I was
reacting to.

~~~
mbrock
I have friends/acquaintances who are "Buddhist priests" in Zen traditions
outside of Japan. They are semi-householder-ish, definitely not monks.
However, they dedicate their lives to Buddhist service. They don't have
children, but some are married or in relationships, mostly together with other
"serious practitioners." They very definitely are not billionaires or CEOs --
and I am a little surprised at this story, which could definitely be clearer
about what his priesthood actually involves.

Possibly interesting article by an American Zen priest:

[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildfoxzen/2010/08/what-the-
hec...](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildfoxzen/2010/08/what-the-heck-is-a-
zen-priest.html)

------
mironathetin
"It’s a view that carries weight because of Inamori’s success."

This bloomberg sentence fits well to my understanding of many businesses:
their leaders don't use their brains, they follow the crowd. The author does a
puzzling thing: he asks us to follow the good example but then wants to point
out the special approach of Inamori. What is the advice? Follow Inamori and do
what too many businesses do (follow, don't think)? Or do something original
(and don't care about what everybody does)?

And what about statistics? Here is a report about one single success that
worked and its leader tried to make his employees happy (perhaps both things
are unrelated, tbp). That does not carry any weight, until there is a
meaningful statistics about the success of leaders who did it like this.
Currently, it is just another success story.

Even the hen-egg example is broken and the author did not see it. Take it
literally: do we care for hens? No, we torture them until they die early, take
all their eggs and make a good profit. The hen is dead? Get another one,
she'll lay eggs too. The farmers who care for their hens are the ones in
trouble: they have to compete with much cheaper eggs. And who really
understands or pays for quality? A minority!

------
percept
“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.”

~~~
beedyg
> 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

~~~
vidarh
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.

~~~
beedyg
If one assumes that the 1/3 job losses were 'trimming the fat', I'd still
argue that enforced liposuction constitutes bullying (if not outright
assault).

The decision to cut the workforce may have been the right one but since the
thrust of the article was the effectiveness of his philosophy I think it's
only fair to highlight how it was applied.

------
anigbrowl
_Seth Fischer, chief investment officer at [an investment fund], says this is
an outmoded way of thinking and ignores the risk that KDDI’s business may
founder._

You get paid a dividend as your risk premium, and you're free to express your
apprehensions by shorting the stock if you don't buy into the CEO's strategy,
or simply selling it and buying something else. What gives you the right to
demand any particular level of return on a stock?

------
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.

------
mmanfrin
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?

~~~
DanBC
$12bn revenue isn't doing really well?

~~~
eCa
Revenue in itself does not answer that question.

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

------
ommunist
Never heard of a company where every employee works only when he or she wants,
enjoys dividends, has a yacht in the Caribbean, and allows spouse unlimited
shopping in Dubai.

------
dismal2
sounds like the ravings of an egomaniac

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

~~~
PhasmaFelis
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.

~~~
hugh4
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.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _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.

~~~
hugh4
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.

------
gotchange
The guy looks like a fraud to me.

The employees should be accountable to the management, and the management in
turn should be accountable to the board which in turn they should be
accountable to shareholders and believe it or not the General Assembly of
shareholders can push for a vote of no confidence for the management and kick
them out and elect a new board.

That's how accountability, transparency and good corporate governance work. If
you see any reluctance, hesitation, or outright objections from management,
that's a sign that there's something wrong with them and they're hiding
something.

Also, his anti-shareholder rhetoric could jeopardize his mission as a CEO of
the corporations he presides over as it would limit his option of raising
capital on the open market esp in times of need because if you treat your
shareholders like that and someday you that you need to finance a new project
by tapping the equity market through issuing new shares, rest assured the
existing shareholders will make you pay for every bad word you said about them
while potential ones would be very skeptical of your intentions and ability to
deliver due to your awful politics.

