Don't become a craftsman-manager.

    A craftsman-manager

    I had worked on Saint Marc Holdings Co. Ltd.
    As the founder fell into the situation of "Shokunin-Soagari" [craftsman uprising] in the early days, he began working on establishing restaurants without craftsmen. Shokuninn Souagari means that all the kitchen staff, as if by common agreement, do not show up one day and subsequently quit. Shokunin=Craftsman, usually used in a positive sense of craftsmanship, but in this context it can safely be used for its negative connotations.
    Cook = is not a Shokunin. They are creature of
    inflexible ideas; hate change, reforms, or improvements; insist on every right and believe that neither shops nor enterprises will keep going without them.

    “The shop cannot run without me. So listen to what I say.” Their insistence creates a conflict between management and shop kitchen staff (on site). This could happen at a regular corporation as well.

    Executives and middle management.

    “Without me this department cannot carry on.”
    “If I quit, all staff would quit.” With this belief they confront management.

    The more important the company division, the more of those craftsman type middle managers appear.
    The company will be in trouble without me.”
    This is the result of, not totally optimal thinking, but people of suboptimal thinking being at the top of the department,

    This tendency is even more prominent abroad.

    A president of a foreign subsidiary, even if he is at a director level in Japan, he is a president abroad.
    The suppliers will be obsequious to him.

    It is a feeling he couldn’t have in Japan and it’s a pleasant feeling...
    Power and the environments make people strange, distorted from the essential aspect of management. A human being is a creature affected by the environment and cannot avoid it. It will be affected by both good and bad environment. When abroad, I was often asked what kind of person is appropriate to be assign abroad.

    Better a president’s avatar (alter ego) than those who speak foreign languages
    It is simply that.

    Assentia Holdings, Inc.
    Akira Tsuchiya

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