We not only met with greater success in new business activities in 2007 than in the previous year, but also were able to expand our business thanks to a favorable reaction from customers. In 2008 I believe that we can further increase the ratio of new products and new services in our sales mix.

The key concept in the fiscal 2007 management plan was "development," and nine months into the fiscal year our development efforts have steadily produced results. Customers have favorably received our newly developed services and technologies and are pleased with our efforts. Nevertheless, many development themes remain to be brought to fruition, and I expect to make further progress in these areas in 2008.

Incidentally, at a fiscal 2007 kickoff event held in April of last year I spoke to the employees about my desire to establish Obun Printing as a brand. By that I mean reassuring quality, unique technologies that underpin quality, and the fostering of relationships of trust brought about by heartfelt communication. As a matter of fact, very few companies have achieved this seemingly obvious task. This means that, provided we satisfy these conditions, we can become one of the very few printing companies that customers enjoy dealing with or eagerly seek to do business with.

The road to that destination is long, and the journey will require enormous effort. Fully aware of the task ahead, I intend to redouble my efforts in pursuit of the dream of establishing Obun Printing as a brand.

Best wishes for the New Year.

I thoroughly enjoy conversation because I find it to be intellectual stimulation itself. It is highly enjoyable to come to know new people and encounter for the first time unfamiliar thoughts, wisdom, and knowledge. I think another reason I enjoy conversation is that I like people. When during a conversation it occurs to me that the other party doubts that I will express approval of his views, I immediately do so. Sure enough, the person shows visible gratification. Through conversation, people affirm each other. That, in a nutshell, is the beauty of conversation.

Something that has only a superficial resemblance to conversation is chitchat. On reflection, I think the difference between the two is probably substance. Talk that expands horizons to a degree that justifies the time invested is conversation, and talk that provides no food for thought is chitchat.

As I find that engaging in substantive conversation with no respite leads to a state of continuing tension, for me the most fulfilling relaxation time is time spent in conversation with an appropriate amount of chitchat judiciously blended in.

Reading a magazine the other day, I came across the article title "Communication Skill Determines Success and Failure." One of the values we espouse at Obun Printing is communication, and we enthusiastically conduct internal training to gain understanding of the essence of communication. For this reason, something in the title of an article that I would ordinarily skip over gave me pause: the use of the expression "skill." The reason this caught my attention is that, while skill is certainly one aspect of communication, I think consideration is more important. This is because I believe that the presence or absence of the inclination to understand and to be understood, a manifestation of heartfelt consideration, greatly affects communication.

When we take up the subject of communication in internal training, no one ever says that communication isn't being achieved. In fact, however, there are times in conversation when people use words to mean different things. Consider, for instance, the words "purpose" and "objective." Although they clearly have different meanings, people use them as synonyms. In such circumstances, no matter how much time is spent talking, common ground cannot be found.

Furthermore, even if discussion becomes digressive, no one says anything about it. Even when it is clear that a discussion has gone off topic, no one puts it back on track. Or rather, it is probably the case that no one is capable of putting it back on track. To be sure, skill in communication can solve such problems.

What mystifies me is that there are people who don't ask questions even though they don't understand what is being said. In the absence of questions, a person explaining something naturally assumes understanding. In the vast majority of cases, however, an absence of questions is a sign of an absence of understanding. The failure to ask questions despite not understanding something betrays insufficient consideration of the speaker in the form of the desire to understand and is an insult.

It is probably better to have skill than not. However, having skill without consideration is the same as having no skill at all. The agency of consideration opens up any number of ways of increasing mental agility, raising the level of understanding, and building relationships of trust. That's why I think that showing great consideration is important in communication.

The Obun Printing management plan incorporates a number of matters of universal importance to companies, such as the corporate philosophy, our goals, the scope of business activities, the management stance, the company slogan, and our values. In preparing the company's 62nd management plan, I clearly defined the establishment of the Obun brand as a medium-term to long-term objective. At that time I had long discussions with a number of employees about the corporate culture to which we aspire and clarified it.

Through this process, we newly prepared nine "action guidelines." As the guidelines cover nothing but fundamental nuts-and-bolts matters, I will omit the details here. I would point out, however, that as these fundamentals are considerably difficult to accomplish, I consider the action guidelines to be of great importance.

In this year's plan, we more concretely defined the scope of our business activities as 1) the manufacture of information processing-related products and the sale of related services, 2) the development and dissemination of on-line publishing, and 3) the development and sale of original products that utilize emotional value printing.

In the current fiscal year we will carry on with the development activities implemented in each division of Obun Printing last year: human resources and skills development, technological development, product and services development, and development for cost reduction (an initiative for this year is cost reduction through reengineering). In the area of technological development, last year we successfully developed a material unique to Obun Printing that is essential for the emotional value printing business. Looking back, however, something we didn't accomplish was product development. This year we will seek to develop and commercialize applications for emotional value printing through means including collaboration with universities.

We also intend to revive a business that at one time accounted for 10% of our sales. What prompted this idea was a favorable turn in the business environment that offers potential for reviving the business. I will provide details when the time is ripe.

The conventional printing business is being sucked down in a whirlpool of excessive price competition. Printers are swimming against the tide in an ocean of red ink, which is an effort that requires considerable physical strength. We wish to avoid reliance on strength alone and instead draw on all the wisdom we can muster to please our customers and engage in challenging, enjoyable work.

Bonus Thought
By chance I find myself caught up in the enjoyment of writing senryu (humorous haiku), a diversion I would like to share with you. If you find my modest efforts annoying, by all means skip over them. The theme this month is "senility."
Perhaps one day, when I've gone senile, I'll deny it.

This month marks the 100th installment since I began writing Thoughts on Management in February 2000, eight years and four months ago. I feel mixed emotions about this modest milestone, a combination of "At last!" and "Already?" Be that as it may, I suspect I have been thought a truly brazen fellow for indiscreetly expressing my personal opinions in a public forum for such a long time.

In what no doubt has been a considerable inconvenience, many employees of Obun Printing and affiliated companies have been compelled to participate in the shacho-juku (encounter with the CEO), where a booklet of compiled Thoughts on Management is used. For me, encounter with the CEO is enjoyable, stimulating, and a place to experience an invigorating sense of tension, and I am grateful to the employees who have participated.

At any rate, since I began writing down my musings, several employees have remarked that my thinking hasn't deviated over time. But, that's only as it should be. Since what I write in Thoughts on Management is what I consider to be the essence of things, or should I say, my true feelings, it would be strange indeed if deviation occurred. Even so, at times I miss the mark when I try to impress. Of course, when it comes to strategy, it is necessary to actively change strategies in accordance with circumstances, and it is only natural that the strategies of the past no longer apply today.

I don't know how long I'll continue to write, but for the time being I intend to carry on so long as I don't exhaust my supply of topics. The other day I learned of someone who has continued to write in a company in-house magazine for 37 years, context that made me realize that my modest record of 8 years pales in comparison. Still, if on a dare I were to continue for 37 years, I would be 88 years old at the end. As it is by no means certain that I will live that long, for the time being I will continue as long as I can find material. And so, I ask you to humor me a while longer.

The theme of this month's senryu is "dieting."
Dieting. No matter what I try, my metabolic belly remains.

Previously the word "priceless" was used in a series of television commercials. The theme of the commercials was things that money can't buy: for instance, memories. When I consider management-related items that cannot be bought at any price, a surprising number of things come to mind: for instance, ideas, expertise, employee motivation, and an excellent corporate culture. These are things that business managers desperately desire. With regard to ordinary matters, there are affection, consideration, personal ties, and relationships of trust. When I enumerated things that money can't buy, it occurred to me that indeed, the less likely it is that something can be obtained with money, the more truly valuable it is.

Ordinarily, people, things, and money are said to be the three major management resources. Many would say that of the three, people are the most important. This is a perfectly reasonable view, as it is people who devise new things. It is people who decide how to make the best use of money. No matter how excellent machines may be, it is people who make full use of them. To be sure, people are the most important of the three critical management resources.

Nevertheless, for some reason, CEOs in the printing industry are infatuated with machinery. Whenever these CEOs meet, they talk about equipment or software, discussing the favorable reputation of a certain machine or their desire to install some other machine. These are "things" that can be bought with money. Although such CEOs may say that the most important management resource is people, their actual interest centers on things. With that attitude, they can never differentiate their companies from competitors.

When discussion turns to what sort of employees CEOs want, they say they want people who have motivation. When asked about know-how, of course they say they want it. When asked what they are doing about it, they say they are doing nothing at all. The reason they give is that nothing can be done about it because know-how can't be bought. Asked why they don't try to have their employees acquire know-how, many CEOs answer that it can't easily be accomplished. They say this even though they know full well that know-how is valuable precisely because it can't be easily attained. This is beyond my understanding.

Are we left to conclude that people don't make a serious effort to obtain things even though they consider them priceless?

Monthly senryu:
The art of thinking. No money required, just self-discipline.

The PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle is at the heart of ISO compliance. Obun was the first company in the printing world to achieve ISO-9000-series certification over the entire process, from receipt of document through delivery. Three years ago we went on to obtain 14000-series environmental certification.

After this long contact with the ISO, I recently came to the conclusion that while the ISO approach is rational and well put together, it lacks a heart. It suffers from the classic pitfall of western rationalism.

Human beings are often irrational, and often enough incomprehensible. One might think that everyone must immediately yield to the force of logical argument, but this is not the case. People are not moved by logic and theory alone. They are often moved by and inner spirit, by their deeper feelings, even where these seem to be contrary to logical rules.

When you present a plan, you have to carefully explain the enthusiasm that went into it. You have to bring enthusiasm into the Planning part of the PDCA cycle. When you do this, you unleash tremendous energy to drive the Do stage, producing results well beyond those you planned for. At Obun, we began adding enthusiasm to the ISO PDCA cycle in April, as we entered the new fiscal year. Then, it leads to great achievements in many cases.

We accept western rationalism but we also add some Eastern energy—injecting a human touch into the rationalist framework.

Theme for monthly senryu: Enthusiasm
A Japanese first
Adding "enthusiasm"
To the ISO PCDA

How is it that some people seem so extraordinary, even though they are really just human beings like the rest of us. When I compare myself against people who the world considers extraordinary, I can't help but feel that I am small and inconsequential.

But even the extraordinary person has limits—no one is great in every dimension. And so even an ordinary person such as myself may have capabilities that an extraordinary person lacks. The problem is that we ordinary people don't notice this. But if we just look a bit more carefully, we can make some surprising discoveries. You may discover, for example, that you have a "kind, generous, and honest" character, or you may be an "uplifting personality who is always cheerful, optimistic, and inspiring." Or perhaps you are "taciturn but steadfast and unwilling to settle for second-best." There are many ways to be extraordinary. The first step is to compare your own behaviors and actions—however ordinary you may think they are—against what the people around you are doing. And this may help you find that you are indeed extraordinary in some unexpected ways.

Instead of just thinking that "this person is great" and "that person is wonderful," you must recognize that you, too, can offer something that others don't have. And so you, too, can join the group of the extraordinary. And then you can dispassionately observe the outstanding characteristics of some of the other people in the group, and start—however slowly—to emulate these. In this way, you can begin creating yourself anew.

So don't simply focus on the greatness of others. Find the greatness in yourself. And then, modestly but confidently, expand it and add to it. Wouldn't that be just fine?

Monthly senryu:
Nice story
Be duly impressed
And then forget

One day in July, the manager of our baseball team sent an email informing me that we had reached the semifinals and asking me if I could show to offer support. I was surprised to hear this—I didn't even know we had made it into the second division—and immediately responded that I would go. When I arrived, I learned—also to my surprise—that we had given up 10 runs in the first game of the quarterfinals. The goal for today's gain was to keep the opponents to 9 runs or less, so that at least we'd show some improvement. I thought that we'd be okay with that—but in the event, we held them to only a single run, winning 8 to 1 in a called game and advancing into first division. We were all completely thrilled.

The following week came the finals. The morning was fresh and clear, but the temperature climbed rapidly. I was worried during the pregame practice—the team seemed a bit off. Were they tired from the heat, and from playing two weeks in a row? And while I don't know much about baseball, it seemed to me that the opposing pitcher had some pretty good stuff. So I wasn't really surprised when our first three batters were easy outs. But then we scored a run in the second, and then later another, and then two more—a slow but steady accumulation. We won the game 8 to 2, as our opponents were unable to muster any kind of comeback. It was a great victory for a team of players in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. I was much impressed by the emotion in one player's voice as he told me that this was his first victory in 23 years.

In addition to our strong business performance in recent days, the entire company was furthermore thrilled with our victory in the second division and our ascent into the first division. The episode revealed another face of a healthy and happy company—a real delight to see. (On the Printing & Health Insurance Industries' 54th Baseball Tournament)

Monthly senryu:
Ascending
Into the first division
Seems like a dream

When an employee goes to observe the facilities at another firm, we say: "Don't just look at what you can see. Look at the stuff you can't see, too." Of course, you can plainly see the machinery, and you can also see a lot about the practice of the 5S's (sorting, setting in order, systematic cleaning, standardizing, and sustaining the discipline). And as you do a walk-through and look over the facilities and the practices, you get a general view of the working conditions. But I think the invisible things are even more important. For example, observe the subtle actions and movements of the staff. These are visible too—but they lead us into something else. How come these people are working so diligently, in such good spirits? The answers are not visible. Is the leadership good, or does the company have some special ability to motivate its staff, or is there something in the company's culture that drives people to work like this? Well, we can't see what the reason is—and so the only thing to do is to ask. And when we do, or eyes are opened, and we see the otherwise invisible background against which the visible foreground is leaning. The ability to observe in this way—that is the mark of someone who can make meaningful visits to outside facilities.

Monthly senryu: Thinking
Think. Think and Look
And then you see something meaningful

As you may know, TV Tokyo's World Business Satellite program carries a spot called Trend Tamago. But did you know that on October 27, Trend Tamago featured the Rewriteable Paper product developed by our company? This was a first in our company's 63-year history—the first time a product we have developed has achieved this type of distribution.

Rewriteable Paper incorporates varnishes, and varnishing application techniques, developed by Obun as an extension of our efforts in emotional value printing. Going forward, we would like to develop additional products around the idea of erasability. There's a broad range of possibilities: erasable imitation vellum and memo pads, use in barrier-free tools, use in educational tools and toys—in drawing pads, mazes, and more.

Our earlier development of tactile-type, multiple-varnish "lacquered (Urushi) paper" taught us a good deal, but at the same time we recognized that it is no easy matter to maintain a monopoly on a production process. To better differentiate ourselves from our competitors, we wanted to bring uniqueness into the materials themselves—and so we expanded our development focus accordingly. The first fruit of this effort was the varnish we developed for our Rewritable Paper.

We are already working on development of another material, which we should be able to announce in the near future. This new material does not deliver great new functionality, but it does offer outstanding flexibility and economic potential with respect to the development and marketing of applied products. We shall continue to pursue development initiatives in the future as we work toward becoming a "market-creating" company.

Monthly senryu:
When reaching for answers
Stand on the truth

The essence of our business plan for last year (April 2007 to March 2008) was development. While we have been involved in development for many years, our new plan represents a clear recognition that we must devote even more attention to this area. The plan was rolled out a full year-and-a-half ago, and I'm happy to report that we are now in something of a "development rush."

In fact, we are pursuing development in four areas: materials, technologies, products, and services. Consider the Rewritable Paper we announced in June: we developed the varnish for it (materials development), the method for applying the varnish (technology development), and the product itself (product development). Since we think that the rewritability capability has potential in many other areas as well, we are busily looking at other possible product applications—for example, in educational toys, promotional novelties, stationery, sundries, and more.

In the technology area: We developed the method for applying varnish to our "lacquered (Urushi) paper", and we developed a polarizing pearl varnish that produces color changes at different angles. Both of these developments are consistent with our efforts in the area of emotional value printing. In the materials area: We are now working on our second major development, a new varnish with unprecedented functionality. We should be able to make an announcement about this in the very near future.

In the services area: Our web-based name-card production service and our blog binding service are already up and running, and we are now working on two additional online services which we should be able to announce by next March. Development of services ultimately relies on development of new ways to do things—which in turn requires imagination and original ideas. Fortunately, we have the necessary talents on board, and we are fully equipped to conduct innovative developments in-house.

To a certain extent we conduct our development work simply because it is interesting to do. But, at the same time, we recognize that we cannot be complacent. As in all industries, everyone in our business is looking to achieve low prices for products and services. The only way to escape from the never-ending price war is to become proficient in providing products and services that are special and that are difficult to implement. And so we are always focusing on our ability to deliver what other companies cannot do.

Engaging the developer mindset
In all aspects of our business