So Young!

This time of the year, we need our products to get checked by the
customers before shipment if they work properly.

Today, we had a customer from Shikoku.

We demonstrate how the machine worked so they can see everything's okay.

One of the guests said,
"Every time I came here, I realize ISOWA is changing. Also, technical
staff are all young."

That was exactly what I was thinking.

Mr. S of technical division who did a presentation is in his 9th year.
Mr. S who actually operated the machine is in his 2nd year. Even Mr. M
who just joined ISOWA this year was in charge of the control system.

The way Mr. S was working was so impressive that I can't help saying,
"I'm in love with your industriousness."

Seeing Mr. Y in his fourth year at the end of the printer, I said,
"With other members, it seems like you are not young anymore."

He answered,
"I have to keep up the effort not to get left behind.

The new generation is getting stronger.
I'm very proud of them.

Looking Back at 2013

In December, we had the last off-site meeting of this year at Scholar Consult Co.

Here are the themes.

 What is the best decision of the year?

 And what is the worst decision of the year?

We were all given the theme suddenly and time to think ourselves.

This time I took part in with four ISOWA staffs, including Mr. Nakamura, a regular participant.

I thought they were thinking about their own worst decisions of the year.

But then they were told to speak about “my” worst decision.

They looked a little upset, but I was happy I would get their opinions.

After 10 minutes of thinking.

Here are the opinions.

I’m going to introduce what they wrote.

Mr. H

“Office Layout change”

When I first suggested it, apparently he was not happy about that.

But he said,

“Thanks to that suggestion, now we can try many different layouts in each division.”

Mr. O

“I Machine. It leads the way for us.”

It is one of my recent preoccupations, and I was glad to know he think it’s important, too.

These are my best of the year. What about my worst?

Their answer was “nothing”.

I wanted to know my worst, so it made me disappointed.

Mr. Okamura from Scholar said instantly,

“It’s a problem that you cannot remember the boss’s worst.”

I feel the same. I hope they let me know by the end of the year.

Mr. S who wrote my worst.

“He won’t show us his weakness at all.”

That was unexpected.

I thought I did and had many weaknesses.

But it is a good thing that I knew that some people were feeling like that about me.

I’m not going to tell you here what I wrote.

If you want to know, please ask someone who was there.

At the after-party, Mr. O from company K confessed,

“Although my boss asks for my opinion, I can’t tell him, because I think it’s a matter for himself.”

Mr. O from ISOWA answered,

“You should feel lucky about that. There are so many people who can’t say anything even though he wants to.”

As he said so, I will ask for his opinion more often.

But, actually, I don’t want to do that. Because asking for someone’s opinion means urging him or her to do it.

Especially when people who are in the position of president like me do it, they will be too afraid to say something from the heart.

It’s the best that you give me your honest opinions voluntarily.

Looking back on my decisions, I felt I haven’t been able to do anything special this year.

Mr. Okamura said,

“There are two types of management style. Some company let the president make many decisions, others not on purpose.”

Someday I hope to say with confidence, “I don’t make decisions myself because that’s my management style”.

Accepting Challenges

On August 3rd, there was a exam called "The National Trade Skill Test", which tests the technical skills and knowledge of working people.
This is certified by the government and takes place twice a year.

This time, 4 members from our assembly section took this exam, Grade 1 of "Finishing of Assembling Machines".

Although it seemed the exam got much harder this year, they didn't give up and stayed at our workshop practicing until late every night.

When I popped in the workshop after the work today, I saw Mr. N from company Y among the four.
He was originally in charge of teaching the examinees in his company, but he also supports ones from ISOWA every time.

When I was talking with Mr.N, he said to me,
   "It's true that they've got a hard task this year, so we should praise them for deciding to take it on this condition.
    Preparing for the test definitely improves their skills.
    It doesn't matter if they will pass or not, because it might be just a matter of luck.
    Actually, it is more beneficial for them to try and practice many times.
    What we should do is to value their challenges themselves."

That made me feel embarrassed. I had only commended the passer so far.

And I asked him how to make the most of "the National Trade Skill Test", he answered,
"If you make freshmen apply for Grade 2 as soon as they joined the company and prepare thoroughly from April to July, they can set a clear goal."
Thanks for the advice.

He went on,
"The problem is the exam is scheduled during Bon (Japanese ritual ceremony observed around the fifteenth of August)."

Hearing that, I couldn't help saying,
"All they do is getting their routine duties done not caring about examinees."

But complaining doesn't help anything.
I hope all of them will brush up their skill further within the next few days.
That will raise the overall skills of ISOWA.

Passing the test is not essential.
You trying something new like this are our treasure. Thank you.

A Company Valuable for Both Employees and Customers

Last autumn, Mr. Nishiura, who is my senior at the university, approached me about a new book.

He is also the CEO of Attax Group, which is a consulting firm targeting the small or medium-sized enterprises.

 

On that day, he said to me,

“I’m planning to publish a book, and I would like to introduce ISOWA in it.”

“This book introduces some companies whose customers are willing to pay, and tries to find out the key

 

I replied instantly,

“No way! We are trying to be that kind of company, but we still have a long way to go.”

 

However, I accepted that offer in the end, because he still was eager to write about us not as a company whose customers are willing to pay, but as the one which is trying to be.

 

Mr. Nishiura and I have been developing the relationships since I joined ISOWA. And in recent years I was invited to their seminar as a lecturer. In other words, they know everything about me and ISOWA.

 

Moreover, Mr. Sugiyama, who is a member of Attax Group is in charge of this project. He is a big fan of ISOWA Diary and familiar with what’s happening in ISOWA and my family every day.

 

That’s why all we had to do this time was review and make sure they didn’t leave out anything important so far.

 

Other than that, a lot of ISOWA members were interviewed at their request.

This is what had happened until last December.

 

And then they said,

“We would like to visit your customer for an interview.”

 

When I heard this, Mr. Takaoka popped into my head, because it was right after ISOWA Open House where Mr. Takaoka gave a presentation about our new maintenance contract to the guests.

 

He readily agreed to my request and the interview was carried out in January.

 

A few months later, Mr. Nishiura and Mr. Sugiyama completed the rough draft and we checked the copy, correct proofs and confirm the contents.

Although I thought it would take a lot of time to actually publish it, Mr. Sugiyama visited soon after that.

 

“The title is ‘A company valuable for both employees and customers’. The cover design is almost finished.”

 

I got overwhelmed by this surprising speed, and he explained me why;

 

“We’ve given it all of our energies. We were all so particular about the details that sometimes we didn’t have much time for sleeping.

 

When I saw Mr. Nishiura, he said,

“I’ve read the copy so many times that I’m starting to learn it by heart.”

 

15 years of corporate culture reform.

I think it will take more time to be able to provide value for customers.

 

But I believe that if employees who provide value for customers don’t like the company, we never realize customer satisfaction.

 

Can we become a company that brings true consumer satisfaction?

 

Our challenge has just begun.

 

This book contains four examples of mid-sized firms including ISOWA and will be put on sale at the end of this month.

I can’t wait to read it.

We Start a Delivery Service!

 

Mr. S and Mr. T, who joined our technology division last year, have been working on crisis experience device as one of their first projects. It's finally finished and today we held a presentation.

First of all, they explained why they chose this project and how the device functions.

"Nipping accidents account for half of all labor accidents. We'd like every operator to know how it happens and how dangerous it is, in order to prevent these accidents."

Then we got to experience the fear of getting caught in the machine.

Participants tried to insert a cardboard sheet into the device, they were dragged into the device, even when it was just idling. When they increased RPMs, we were all overwhelmed by the machine’s power, which was way beyond our expectations.

This was just a simple project for our first-year staff, but we are now planning to bring this device to our customer's office and demonstrate it for their operators. It will show them the true meaning of fear.

If someone needs a delivery service, please let me know. 

I want to say thank you to Mr. S and Mr. T for making this amazing device. I hope it will help improve safety for our customers.

 

 

Ninety-eight Years in All

We held a retirement party for Mr. M and Mr. I who have made a huge contribution to ISOWA for a long time. I’d like to look back on their histories in ISOWA.

 

Mr. M joined ISOWA in 1961 and Mr. I in 1967. Together they’ve been working for 98 years in all. That’s remarkable.

When Mr. M joined our firm, the office had already been transferred to Kasugai, but he started his career nevertheless in the former office in Nagoya. At that time there were 30 people. And there were only five employees in the technical division.

My father went to the U.S. and commercialized the Flexo-folder gluer under a technical cooperation agreement. That was back in 1970, and the machine had the functions of a printer and carton former. Since then Mr. M has played an important role as a specialist.

Mr. I joined six years later. He recalled that ISOWA had about 70 employees at that time. “I was so glad I could join ISOWA, because I always wanted to work for a final product manufacturer rather than a parts manufacturer.”

Unlike Mr. M, he went through a lot of different divisions and finally he got to the technical division. He has been mainly in charge of printer slotters.

The other day, he came to me and we had a little talk after hours. He loves golf, but he’s not good at playing golf. We played together several times many years ago and always competed for the lowest position. That’s what I really liked about him.

He started the conversation by saying, “ISOWA has changed.” I was just wondering how he felt about it and was anxious about what he was going to say.

“Meetings between different groups never happened before. There was a great distance between the various groups. On the other hand, it became quite a typical thing for the design and manufacture sections to meet and talk quite frankly.”

I was more relieved than happy to hear that. I have been working on changing our corporate culture, although sometimes I have to ask too much of our staff, especially of veterans such as Mr. I and Mr. M, but he expressed his opinion positively like that. It really was a relief.

I’ve been trying to reduce our company debt. But lately I’m starting to feel that the way we have improved our debt ratio is really by increasing our assets through more efficient use.

This is far from enough, though. We have to push forward with the reform.

Mr. I talked to me at the end of the party and said, “I often see ISOWA’s service trucks around my house. Every time I see one, I will quietly root for it.”

We will do our best so you two don’t have to worry. Thank you so much for your 98 years.

When I decided to work with ISOWA

Last weekend we had a customer at our office who came all the way from Tokyo.  We’ve been doing business together for three years now. That’s not what we'd call a long-term relationship, especially in the cardboard business where equipment sometimes lasts over 20 years.

 

But he suddenly said, “Actually, we decided to do business with you at your father’s farewell party. I remember you saying at the funeral that your predecessor had been working hard to get Rengo to use their machines someday. And I could see that the spirit was coming down to the next generation, with a clear process of development.

 

“That was exactly what we were trying to do too. So that was when we made up our minds.”

 

Those words really inspired me. We will never make him regret it.

 

We must always cherish such words from our customers. Let’s not forget the great principles of my father and grandfather about manufacturing.