Definition of a Good Organization in Business

The political world is in turmoil in Japan. The lofty ideals symbolized by such bombastic phrases as “Enhance spirit of fraternity” and “Eliminate the gap in society” seem to have slipped from the memory of members of the ruling party that took office about one year ago for the first time in the past more than 50 years. Although the world is changing very fast as shown such current subjects as prolonged appreciation of Japanese yen, rise of low cost carriers, and Russia’s trade embargo of its wheat, a power struggle is going on in the ruling party.

In the professional baseball, it is not unusual that a weak team becomes the national champion thanks to its enormous efforts but returns to be a weak team in the following year because of the internal rivalry. It is difficult to become the national champion, but it is more difficult to remain the national champion. It is the time to renew the awareness of the great leadership of Tetsuharu Kawakami who enabled Yomiuri Giants to remain the national champion for nine consecutive years as manager.

An organization has a cumbersome characteristic that places the highest importance on how to keep it going rather than thinking seriously about to what it should give service once it is established. Although a political party should render service to people, the current ruling party seems too busy with power struggle to think about its duties seriously. Because the political world is free from bankruptcy, the struggle lasts without interruption as if it is part of the main activities of a political party. The story is quite different in business. If a company is absorbed in internal rivalry in disregard of customers, it will be given a one-way ticket to bankruptcy. The source of business always lies not inside but outside the company. Every company needs to keep innovating its products and services to satisfy customers.

An organization is a mixture of good and bad. In general, workaholic employees and lighthearted employees account for 30% each, and the remaining 40% falls between the two in an organization. You may think that business will grow faster if the 70% makes joint efforts by eliminating the lighthearted 30%. However, the 70% will be divided into 30% workaholic employees and 30% lighthearted employees, and 40% in-between. This is the bothersome characteristic from which an organization cannot escape. That is, a move to avoid a change will emerge once an organization is established. If an organization becomes twice as big as it is, the difficulty to change the organization will become four times as difficult as it is.

Then, what is a good organization in business? It can simply be defined as an organization that allows for excellent results. No organization can be a good organization should it be unable to realize excellent results, however effective and efficient it may be. And there are only two ways to realize excellent results. One is to offer excellent services to customers, and the other is to beat the competitors. The underling concept is that a company exists for the sake of customers. In this sense, neither an enjoyable organization nor a pleasant organization is acceptable in business.