---

Staff post about: Akio Morita Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

I knew we needed a weapon to break through to the U.S. market, and it had to be something different, something that nobody else was making.

Carefully watch how people live, get an intuitive sense as to what they might want and then go with it. Don’t do market research.

If you go through life convinced that your way is always best, all the new ideas in the world will pass you by.

Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice.

Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for the times.

From a management standpoint, it is very important to know how to unleash people's inborn creativity. My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.

The most important mission for a Japanese manager is to develop a healthy relationship with his employees, to create a family-like feeling within the corporation, a feeling that employees and managers share the same fate. We will try to create conditions where persons could come together in a spirit of teamwork, and exercise to their heart’s desire their technological capacity.

I believe people work for satisfaction. I believe it is a big mistake to think that money is the only way to compensate a person for his work. People need money, but they also want to be happy in their work and proud of it.

My solution to the problem of unleashing creativity is always to set up a target.

Management of an industrial company must be giving targets to the engineers constantly; that may be the most important job management has in dealing with its engineers.

I established the rule that once we hire an employee, his schools records are a matter of the past, and are no longer used to evaluate his work or decide on his promotion.

The American system of management, in my opinion, relies too much on outsiders to help make business decisions, and this is because of the insecurity that American decision makers feel in their jobs, as compared with most top Japanese corporate executives.

There is no secret ingredient or hidden formula responsible for the success of the best Japanese companies.

We all learn by imitating, as children, as students, as novices in the world of business. And then we grow up and learn to blend our innate abilities with the rules or principles we have learned.

The key factor in industry is creativity.

There are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing. To have any one of these without the others is self defeating in business.

What we in industry learned in dealing with people is that people do not work just for money and that if you are trying to motivate, money is not the most effective tool.

The investor and the employee are in the same position, but sometimes the employee is more important, because he will be there a long time whereas an investor will often get in and out on a whim in order to make a profit.

We want to keep the company healthy and its employees happy, and we want to keep them on the job and productive.

I believe one of the reasons we went through such a remarkable growth period was that we had this atmosphere of free discussion.

I have always made it a point to know our employees, to visit every facility of our company, and to try to meet and know every single employee.

A company will get nowhere if all of the thinking is left to management.

The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake.

In all my years in business I can recall very few people I have wanted to fire for making mistakes.

Management of an industrial company must be giving targets to the engineers constantly; that may be the most important job management has in dealing with its engineers.

We want everybody to have the best facilities in which to work, but we do not believe in posh and impressive private offices.

The company must not throw money away on huge bonuses for executives or other frivolities but must share its fate with the workers.

You can be totally rational with a machine. But if you work with people, sometimes logic often has to take a backseat to understanding.

Related Articles

  The Man Who Made Sony: The Early Years of Akio Morita
  Lesson #4: Challenge Conventions and Break the Mould
  Made in Japan: How Morita Became an International Success
  Lesson #2: Give Your Marketing a Mass Appeal
  Lesson #3: Management Means To Inspire Creativity
  Lesson #1: Take Your Market Research to the Streets
  Lesson #5: Create the Market Where There Is None
  Mr. Electronics: Morita Brings Sony to Life
  Words of Inspiration
  Why Is The First Auto Insurance Quote Not Always The Best Quote?
  Top 10 reasons to become an entrepreneur
  FYI...
  Car Insurance Discounts
  How to Get the Best Rates on SR22 Car Insurance
  Quotes on Leadership
  My Favorite Motivational Quotes
  Getting The Best Car Loans Quote
  Comparison Of Auto Insurance Quotes and Insurance Companies
  NetQuote Low Cost Health Insurance | Health Insurance Company Guide
  Quote 85% Less - Close 300% More

Related Forum Posts

Facebook application
Facebook applications
Re: NEW VIDEO - Business Ideas - Are people ignoring you? Secret

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet