How to Revolutionize Business in Japan
Nintendo, which became a global company through their hit products the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, and the Wii, originally started out manufacturing and selling playing cards. Panasonic originally started out producing duplex lamp sockets. Toyota started off with automated looms, Honda with small automotive engines, and Sharp made mechanical pencils. It may be obvious, but today's big corporations started off as small businesses.
What made these small businesses into large corporations?
- They developed products that sold well.
- They then, focused their core operations on those products; expanding to maybe two or three more.
- Their growth wasn't because they just made a staggering amount of the products at hand and put all of their efforts into selling a lot of them.
- They invented new products, and were good at bringing about innovation in their structure and operations.
Presently, that is called business model innovation. Innovative companies that have lasted throughout the years all share the characteristic of making and emphasizing a variety of rules, whether clearly stated or not. They are what gradually turns the group culture into something revolutionary. If a company wants to be revolutionary, they need to be able to fervently and continuously bring about both business model innovation and product innovation. In order to achieve those things, they must have the weapons (tools and methods) and devices (organizational structure, arrangement, and systems). How a company reaches a state where they are considered revolutionary may vary, however they all have similar paths.
Here are the common principles these revolutionary companies share:
- "Necessity is the mother of invention."
- "Creating things the world has never seen before."
- "Bringing together seeds and needs."
- "Simple products with strong appeal."
- "Business development, not product development." This one in particular lies in the field of an organization's motivation.
- Above all, the thing that should be emphasized the most is aiming to implement the idea that "organizational development = innovation" through new business/product development.
Globally, organizations such as 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever have this strong belief that "organizational innovation can only be achieved through the products and services we offer." You could even go so far as to say that it's coded into their DNA. The fundamental concept behind organizational development at those companies is making paramount the synergy of the creativity and developmental powers of "the individual," "the team," and "the organization." It is said, "Simply gathering different parts together doesn't make a group. A group has its own character."
Understanding the characteristics of a creative organization:
- "Even if every single individual in a group is creative, this does not necessarily mean the group will be creative as a whole. Similarly, even if you have creative teams, this does not mean that the whole organization will have that same creativity.
- Companies that rely on "lone hero" individuals to have brilliant ideas and fight alone within the organization to create things, have little to no prospects of increasing the power of innovation in the company as a whole. That is to say, (as is the case with the majority of corporations), leaving the bulk of organizational innovation to exceedingly small groups in research and development labs, product development labs, and planning departments, yields scant opportunities to raise success rates.
- In order to succeed, companies must hold the creativity and developmental power of the individual and the group in the highest regard and organize the company in such a way that they use those resources to strengthen the developmental power of the organization as a whole.
- In short, this involves thinking of a "total."
This combination of developing, understanding and creating has proven successful in a variety of businesses. Each corporation has tailored its path to innovation to fit its company, all the while following the same guidelines. Whether you start with one product or a few, with an innovative organization, there is no limit to the legacy you can create. Although you may start small, follow the foundation of successful companies that came before you in order to become revolutionary. And who doesn't want to be revolutionary?
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