Management
Mani, Inc. is not a big company in terms of
sales and capital, but it is a big company in the medical instrument industry
in terms of presence. It is the leading manufacturer of suture needles for surgical
operation and extra fine medical instruments for dental surgery. Since it was
established in 1959, it has been concentrating its management resources on developing
and marketing suture needles in pursuit of the highest quality and the largest
share in the world market.
All executives, development managers, and
marketing managers get together in the head office two times a year to compare
its products with competitive products from around the world. Participants
examine all products submitted for the discussion by market segment. If Mani’s
product is No. 1 in quality and share, the question will be “What we should do to
widen the margin between the follower and us.” If Mani’s product is No. 2 or
below No. 2, the question will be “What measures we should work out to catch up
with and beat No. 1.” It is very simple, but the simplicity is the key to any
strategy as we learned from Jack Welch of General Electric.
The company develops only products that
enable it to become the world leader, and holds a meeting every month to study
whether or not the product can be the world leader in the future and whether or
not the current development approach is right. Management staffs always ask
themselves, “Does the market really need this product?” This is a very important
question because engineers mostly tend to assume that the products they are
developing will be in great demand in the market. Konosuke Matsushita, the founder
of Panasonic, once asked his brilliant engineers, “Do you really think that
customers will be happy with your product?” at the end of the product presentation
that they delivered with great confidence and emotional excitement. That’s it.
This company declared that it will not be a
family company in the future, though it is a family company at present. It does
not allow children and relatives of management staffs to join the company. Saying
is one thing, doing another. Every company starts with a family company.
Neither Mitsubishi nor Toyota is an exception. In some day in the course of
development, a company has to say goodbye to family management. Soichiro Honda,
founder of Honda Motor, did not allow his son to join his company. Talking
about his successor, he asked his management to search an eligible among all employees.
If you cannot find an eligible, search him throughout Japan. And if you cannot
find an eligible in Japan, find some one all round the world. This story alone is
enough to show how great he was.
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