Looking back on our own growth of the past 10 years

The MC Association (manager and chief association) is a brotherhood for our management team. We held a farewell and welcome party for Mr. I, who left, and for Mr. H and Mr. K, who joined the MC Association this year.

Mr. Shibata from Scholar Consult Co., who is attending a general meeting of stockholders tomorrow as an auditor, also joined the party.

After the meeting, there was a project like a lecture or dialog given by Mr. Shibata. This is becoming our tradition. Tomorrow's theme is "Growth of ISOWA over the past decade." So this time we made time for everyone to give a speech about their own growth over the past 10 years.

It was great, really great.


I was listening to the speeches and thinking about the results of our corporate culture reform, which is the sum total and multiplier effect of our executives' growth over the past decade.

Isowa, a managing director, made a strong declaration: "We at Hooper (ISOWA's affiliated company) will do our best. It might take a long time to be like ISOWA, but I would like you to support us."

Of course I will.

After the speeches of all the members, Mr. Shibata started telling us what didn't make sense. "It was so regrettable." I couldn't understand what he meant.

"Actually I forgot to bring a notebook and couldn't take notes during your amazing speeches. It was so regrettable that I couldn't memorize all of today's stories because much of the material for my talk is actually from ISOWA." Finally I understood what he wanted to say.

And then the organizer said, "Well, company executive Isowa will make a brief speech, finally, but before that …" The door opened and some cakes came into sight.

At first I just thought it was for the departing Mr. I, but to my surprise, the cakes were to celebrate my birthday, which is coming in two days.

I didn't know how they decided the number of candles, but anyway, I gave a puff to put out the candles. I easily blew out all the candles on the cake in front of me. And when I tried to put out the other candles on the other cakes, before I got out of breath, I lost my balance and almost stuck my head into a pot of shabu-shabu. That was close. I'm sorry. I think I have to write up an accident report.

By the way I heard that they prepared two cakes so everyone could have a piece.

They were delicious, indeed.
Thank you for celebrating my birthday.
Let's do our best for our next 10 years of growth, shall we?

Make it your favorite machine!

On the anniversary of placing the original order, we held the dedication ceremony for our new machine for 5-sided applications made by Okuma. In a traditional ritual, we all prayed for safe operation of this new equipment.

This past March we also purchased a vertical matching center, also made by Okuma. And we have decided to introduce more large-scale equipment next year. Our processing plant is very active.

Why do we invest so much in machine tools.

We’re doing it with very clear purposes and aims.

Furthermore, it is important for the whole company to understand these aims – not just the workers in that particular processing group.

We supply our customers with cardboard-manufacturing machines.

Even though we deliver the same machine, it may work differently for each customer.

Why is that?

We have to clear up any miscommunications, ensuring that we are knowledgeable about our newly bought equipment and well trained in its use. I don’t want the machines to lose efficiency due to any of those.

So I want all of our staff to understand the purpose of this introduction and to have the same answer to that question.

When we inaugurated our first machine for 5-sided applications four-and-a-half years ago, my late father pressed a button in the opening ceremony. He looked so nice. This time he was not able to do it.

The cardboard-manufacturing machines we supply as well as the machine tools we purchase are supposed to last over 20 years. During that whole time we should maintain them properly and make the best use of them. I hope that when the machine retires, she will think, “I’m so happy to have had nice operators in a nice company.”
That is what you should do for your favorite machine.

Mr. I and Mr. K are going to be in charge of this machine. I hope they will cherish and use the equipment for a long time and it will be their favorite machine.

A Hollywood Star

Twenty-five members of the Overseas Human Resources and Industry Development Association came to visit our company on a training program. They came from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Macedonia, Ghana, and Sudan. Their association used to be called the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship, but they just changed their name at the end of March.

There were a lot of people including staff from the local factories of Japanese companies, and some of those companies have over 5,000 employees such as Ajinomoto, Toray and Hitachi. What they all have in common is that they are in a position where they manage staff.

This was the fourth time we have hosted this tour. Why is that? It’s because we have received high evaluations the past three times.

This time it was more exciting than ever.

It started with a very lively talk by Mr. T from our management group.

I love his smile!

Hitomi gave an overview of our company.

Then we started on the Discover ISOWA Tour.

The first part was led by Mr. O of the construction section.

“The smile is a common expression throughout the world. It is the basis of communication.”

The second part was led by Mr. S of the processing department.

“I will do my best so I can handle the NC machine.”

The third part was led by Mr. K of the management division.

 “Although I didn’t know about the iPad at all, I figured it out together with my colleagues.”

When he explained about the project to introduce iPads for all the staff, our visitors were astonished and envious.

After Mr. K’s talk, I had this question, “Can I join ISOWA?”

I said instantly, “Do you really want to be a member of ISOWA, or you just want an iPad?” I think it was a nice joke.

The fourth part was led by Mr. S of the technology division.

 “I haven’t had a chance to work on development so far. I want to start from scratch.”

“Do you think you can make time for it?”

He answered right away: “The most important thing is for you to believe you can do it. It’s only my frame of mind to make me feel busy or not.”

That was a cool thing to say.

The last part of the tour was led by Mr. Y of the sales department, from Nagoya.

He started in a different way from others.

“Let me ask you a question. We’ve been talking about reforming our corporate culture. It is a typically Japanese theme. I was just wondering if you understand what we’re saying.”

“Yes, of course.” They all wanted to hear that kind of story. You did a good job.

All of the staff who spoke in today’s tour – their English was so nice.

I guess it is thanks to the office English school. I think the efforts of the E-You Project, the in-house English class, has started to bear fruit.

And also this time I tried out a new camera angle for photographing.

Both of the visitors and ISOWA staff are in the picture. It’s nice, isn’t it?

After going back to a conference room, Mr. O of the “sharaku” section, which was organized to promote corporate reform, introduced the history of our efforts to improve.

And then we held a Q&A time with the visitors.

They were all very eager. Lots of questions about my management style came at me. That was really fun.

A representative of the visitors gave us gracious words of appreciation at the end of the tour.

Other visitors said, “I want to be a president like you” and “You are the best president ever.”

There were even some people waiting in line to take a picture with me.

I’ve never experienced this. I felt like a Hollywood star.

Mrs. N, who accompanied us last time too as an interpreter, said right before she left the office: “I know I don’t have to come anymore. But I hope I will be here the next time too. I even wish I could work in ISOWA.”

I really love ISOWA. I love the people of ISOWA, too!

New Employees' Contribution

Just a while ago, we got the following e-mail message from Mr. K, our executive director.

“Level 1 evaluation items for the Growth Rating System, Section B: The good attitude toward life, in the category of “Duties of a Member of Society,” has the following items:

1.    When you are asked to do some work, accept it willingly.

2.    No matter how troublesome the work is, start it right away.

3.    Always work carefully.

4.    Work energetically on tasks that others don’t want to do.

Note 1) LADDERS is an abbreviation of the Personnel Evaluation System that our company uses, and the fundamentals are the basic abilities required for all types of jobs, whereas the specifics are those things that are particularly required for a certain type of job. Level 1 is an entry level for those who have just joined the company.

Well, cleaning is a work that nobody is willing to do. However, things won’t get clean unless someone cleans them, and we cannot keep up our good condition unless somebody does it.

New company employees may have trouble contributing to their company, so what can they do for ISOWA? We ask them to do the cleaning, out of consideration for this situation.

They are in a training program to learn about making both factory and office into a showroom. Cleaning work is the main activity of this program.

The picture at the top shows some results.

The no-slip pads on the stairs at the east side of the office are now white and clean. Don’t you think they have become whiter? Don’t you think the shoe box has become whiter too?

These are all the results of their devoted cleaning. And I’m sure they will do the cleaning with all their might in the rest of the training period, since this is work they can do right now. I’d like you to support them.

As soon as I got Mr. K’s e-mail, I went over to check the results. I was so happy to find things really clean.

In advance of getting this e-mail, Mr. T asked us, “Please thank them for their efforts, if you really think it’s become clean.” Of course I did. I went see each of them and said: “This is great!”

“That really shines.”

“Keep up the good work.”

“If you find someone dirtying it, you can just rebuke him.”

That isn’t all. I found the following comment in their induction reports.

“I always used to go up the stairs without thinking about it, but from now on I will wipe off the bottoms of my shoes before I climb the stairs. I have to think about these things from the cleaner’s viewpoint.”

In my opinion, this is a good way for new company employees to develop and grow. I don’t think I can coach them like this. The other members of ISOWA compensate for what I can’t do. Such teamwork is among the most important things for us.

While I was going around the factory thinking those things, I ran across another new employee who was cleaning another stairway.

I said, “Thank you. I’m looking forward to seeing it shine.” And the worker replied, “I feel like I can contribute to ISOWA a little.”

He is growing up just as I expected. The next day, I went to check those stairs and found they were transformed like this.

I don’t want you to misunderstand - in the middle of the stairs that’s not some dirt that remains. It’s just because the paint is coming off.

I suggested to Mr. E, who manages that section, that we should repaint those places. He said, “Yes, we were just planning to do so.”

Regrettably, that paint job is not finished yet, but in a few days you’ll find it snow-white.

We senior staff must try not to trample their devoted efforts. Let’s work harder than the new employees!