Earlier this month, I had an opportunity to visit a company called Ina Food Industry Co., Ltd. in Nagano prefecture, Japan.
It is 3 hours distance from Tokyo, set in a deep forestry area of Nagano.
It is an independent company of agar processing and has a domestic market share of approximately 80% and a global share of 15%.
With only 600 employees, the company makes 18.3 billion yen annually.
The company has a visitor friendly open garden facility that attracts 400 thousand visitors every year where you can learn the making of the products which its manufacturing process is exhibited through a plant tour.
The company is not listed on a stock exchange.
In 2008, the company achieved 48 years of increased sales and profits since its foundation and was featured in various media.
The company is often praised and deemed as a model of management studies, companies as Toyota, Teijin, and many other major corporations come to learn how the management is run.
It is not just its methods to achieve such successful sales and profit figures in all these years, those companies hope to find secrets of.
But it is the corporate work ethic everyone wants to learn and introduce to their companies.
Here are a few of the findings from the presentation made by GM on the day we visited.
- The corporate slogan is to “create a good company”.
- The company doesn’t set annual sales/profit budget.
- Employees are all entitled to join cancer insurance plan (1.5 million yen) with many more health concerning insurances.
- Employees are naturally eager to work for the company to a level that they would get up early in the weekend mornings, come to the company to clean the site.
- There has been no leaver from the company in last 20 years with a reason that he/she didn’t like the company.
- The company hosts once in two years company trips to foreign countries (before the Covid) or cities in Japan and they would stay at the best hotels in the region, so that they enjoy themselves with highest standards and also so that employees would get to know what a best standard is by experiencing it.
- The company does’t do market research. “Like Steve Jobs, we should know what a good product is and we believe what we employees want is what market wants.”
- Since entering of the company salary increases every year, with 2.8% average.
- The company is not aiming to sell more but sell properly with enough care of customers.
- Basically every employee is in love with their workplace and this attitude is well connected with their corporate culture.
- The company is visited almost everyday by companies from all over Japan so that they could study such corporate culture.
Frankly I was gobsmacked. I don’t think I have ever come across any company with such devotion integrated into its culture.
What is formerly known “What is good for GM is also good for the country”, is “What is good for the company is good for its employees” with this company.
The main factor behind forming such high level corporate culture owe to one man, former CEO of the corporation, Mr. Hiroshi Tsukakoshi.
It was only just a small food company set in rural Japan when he succeeded but through his management, came to make huge transition now that everyone in the business scene looks up to him and his establishment.
Mr. Tsukakoshi’s goal was to create a good company for its employees, putting its employees FIRST.
Not the sales figures, not the customers, but the happiness of his employees to be the prime he made sure, and set the purpose of the company accordingly.
After the presentation of the corporate culture, followed a Q&A session.
Q: I understand you don’t set a figure goals for sales or profit. But how is then a target set, if not number?
A: You’re right, we don’t have target figure. Of course there are some employees who are eager to surpass the previous year’s figure but that is of his or her personal ambition and never a departmental one. Instead we focus on what our customers are saying about our products, and listen to what they are thinking about our company and products. That becomes our target if there is a room to improve.
Q: You explained your corporate purpose is to “create a a good company”. What then is a good company to you?
A: There is no one definition of what constitutes a good company. But again we find out by asking our stakeholders how we are doing as a company and by our products. And those stakeholders are not just our customers or distributors but our neighbors living near our plants and offices. If there is some improvement to be made then we focus on that rather than sales figures.
Q: We heard this company is one of the most sought after place to work in Nagano prefecture with its culture known to young graduates. Do you have a set of guidelines when it comes to recruit people?
A: There is no such guideline when it comes to recruiting. If I’m to come up with something, maybe it is that we ask ourselves when interviewing those candidates if we really want to work with them.
Q: It seems you have a great corporate culture that everyone is so selflessly wanting to work FOR the company. And it seemed to us it is also very strong force psychologically. How do you think about employee’s individuality? Do you allow them to nurture?
A: Yes it is true we value cooperativeness at the highest value and we educate them to follow once they enter the company. But it is not to say we don’t have respect for the individuality. Especially with R&D Department, employees need to come up with creative products to introduce into the market.
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Having written down what I learned from the visit to this company, there are tons of lessons.
Indeed it is an ideal company-employee relationship established. A workers’ paradise on earth, one might even push to call it.
But then I think about the corporate culture.
Is it something that can be planned or is it something naturally exuded?
Sometimes it is seemingly hard to discern the fine line between natural and made cooperativity at the workforce.
Doesn’t the notion of ideal and best work place depend on individual worker’s thinking? Is it supposed to be this unifiable?
Almost too good to believe…
Obliviously there is no denying the greatness this company achieved, the corporate culture established should be praised, I have absolutely no doubt.
But if freedom to discuss and a little room to define what ideal work place should be is missing, can we still call it the workers’ paradise on earth?
Corporate culture is, in my mind, like a farm.
It has to be cultivated constantly otherwise the crop out of that farm is going to be weakened.
Then I was reminded these thoughts and discussion points incurred are the best of learning crops we brought back from the trip to beautiful Nagano prefecture and this very interesting company.
All in all, our deepest appreciation for Ina Food Industry Co., Ltd.
Thank you very much for welcoming us and offering such a great learning experiences.
I’d love to visit again for further studies in the future.
