My partner-in-crime asked me a difficult question today: We must exploit the factor of time units.
For time immemorial, my partner-in-crime and I have been grappling with the problem of cash. We resisted borrowing from anyone for a long, long time. But, we always ended borrowing in times of distress. For each borrowing, we always pay back in double the time and using double the effort. This caused a great loss of progress and a great deal more chance for competition to catch us. Fortunately, we lasted.
So a day in once upon a time, my partner-in-crime suggested that we exploit the time units, i.e., we start employing people to do our work. The progress was tremendous and we made lots of money in a very short time. But, we missed out on the quality control. The people that we employed were very slipshot in their work and delivery. After a while, our customers started to complain about the shody work output and started to shun us. Initially, customers bought from us was because we were symbol of quality. But, once they consumed and realized that our quality sucked. We went downhill all the way. It took us 5 good years to repair that damage and regain the confidence of customers again.Exploiting the time units is not an easy task.
Just watch the movie on Steve Jobs, you would realize you need more than just employees to do a good job. You need passion. The whites tried to do it by giving employee shares, founder's share, share options, profit-sharing, and etc. But, even at this time and age, Steve Jobs still had to fire everyone and restart from ground up.
What my partner-in-crime gave me was indeed a very, very hard question. How to exploit the time units effectively? This is slippery. Done right, we fly. Done wrong, we are dead, like Nokia, Microsoft and yahoo. But, if we don't try to exploit these time units, we will never be very big. Once we have the cash units, the only next step is exploiting the time units.
The answer is not yet fully established by me.
But, I do know a good start, We must look at strong companies that are at least 200 years old. Let's look at the story of Kikkoman:
During the hundred years from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century, soy sauce production led by the Mogi and Takanashi families prospered in the city of Noda, located in Chiba Prefecture. This is where Kikkoman was born.
Noda is located on the Kanto plain, once one of the largest production centers for soybeans and wheat. It was easy to secure the necessary workforce in this region, owing to its growing population following on the establishment of nearby Edo (today’s Tokyo) as the capital of Japan. Besides its geographic advantages, boat transport had developed in Noda, which was blessed with two major waterways: the Tone and Edo rivers. The transportation of ingredients was thus facilitated, while manufactured products could be delivered to Edo for mass consumption. Based on historical documents, nineteen soy sauce brewers organized an association in Noda to ship soy sauce mainly to Edo. By the mid-nineteenth century, Noda had become the largest soy sauce producer in the Kanto region.
In 1917, the Mogi family, the Takanashi family and the Horikiri family merged their businesses to form Noda Shoyu Co., Ltd. In 1964, Noda Shoyu Co., Ltd. changed its corporate name to Kikkoman Shoyu Co., Ltd. In 1980, this trade name was altered to the company’s current name: Kikkoman Corporation.
"Make Haste Slowly" was a show about Kikkoman, after the company's motto, and alludes not only to its 300-year history, but its six-month brewing process that, according to Kikkoman's site, dates back to feudal Japan. The process involves fermenting soy beans, wheat, salt, water and a koji mold. The mixture, called moromi, is aged for several months before being pressed, refined, bottled and shipped. Kikkoman's site also states that the company was founded by a woman, "in a time when women didn't start companies."
When I was younger, I was invited to join in a discussion with the boss of a Kikkoman factory and a chinaman consultant who specialised in fermentation. The consultant claimed that he could cut fermentation period to only 10 days. Immediately the boss' face turned black and the meeting ended in less than 10 minutes.
The consultant simply didn't know why the short meeting. He didn't realize that good things only come slowly. I was humbled by the meeting. Although I have zero respect for neither Japanese nor the chinaman, the company was indeed still a force to contemplate with.
The time units can therefore be established only after we have finalized the quality aspect of the products.
I still have much to learn. Growing is always good if not great, but growing at the expense of quality is death.
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