I have rarely seen the books written by Japanese in the book store in the U.S. I was proud when I found this book on the shelf in the book store because I would like American to know there is quite a few great business man in Japan. They don’t talk or write themselves too much, especially in English. However, as for service business, they have best knowledge and ideas in the world, I believe.
The author Hiroshi Mikitani is the founder and chief executive of Rakuten, the third largest e-commerce market place company in the world. You know, the largest e-commerce market place is Amazon. The difference between Amazon and Rakuten is, Amazon concentrates on direct selling to costumer but Rakuten seeks for co-prosperity of merchant and costumer. So Amazon is interested in sales but Rakuten is interested in distribution.
This is famous story in Japan. He decided to ‘Englishnize (from the book)’ his company. He designated English as the official languages in his company. Almost all Japanese top company said he was ridiculous but he had done. After that, the diversity of human resource in Rakuten has vitalized, which is good for future of this company. And his company quit Keidanren which is strongest economic lobby in Japan. The member of Keidanren consists of top Japanese companies, like Toyota, Canon. They themselves think they need to change themselves, but only his company quit it to claim.
On this book, he also describes his policy about management. He has strong faith in ‘Kaizen’, but not as a manufacture, as a service business. He also emphases the speed. The speed of changing, action. I strong agree with him. One of virtue of Japanese is perfectionism but he asks his employ “Don’t think, then act, think to act”.
He is business man so that he is not my role model but I respect him on my own way. I admit he is one of the greatest Japanese.