CEO blog(en)

Men and women who say ‘you are everything’ and managers who say ‘the company is everything’.

When you run a restaurant, you often talk about how many customers you had today.
This is because restaurant sales are actually number of customers x number of customers.
Some major restaurant companies claim to have over 200 million customers, but how is that really true?
Is that really true?

Overseas franchises expand the overseas market for Japanese food!
Ascentia Holdings Corporation (Head office: Kobe; Representative: Akira Tsuchiya) has opened a new ramen franchise in Paris, a bustling city on the eve of the Olympic Games.
The new ramen restaurant was opened by Takesan Ramen (Miso Noodle Co., Ltd.; Head office: Obuse-cho, Shimotakai-gun, Nagano; Representative: Tetsuaki Takeda), which soft-opened a miso ramen restaurant based on the earthenware pot concept on 13 April 2024 near the Opera House in central Paris, France, followed by a grand opening on 18 May. Taken. This is Takesan's third overseas branch, following two in Mongolia. How is it that a ramen restaurant founded in 2008 in Nagano, opened its Obuse branch in 2018 and as of today has only one shop in Obuse, is able to develop an overseas franchise?
The means of overseas expansion in the form of franchising opens up new possibilities for the Japanese food service industry.

Rural cities. Growing or declining businesses: which will you choose?*Ghost towns all over Japan? It is no exaggeration to say that Japan is sinking.When I am in Japan,...

I have been running recently.
While running, I always think of a poem that my mother used to sing to me,
"Doryanense."

"It's good to go, it's scary to come home.
As I run, I always think,

Physically, it's easy on the way there, hard on the way back
Psychologically, the way there is hard, the way back is super easy.
I always feel like this when I run on a new road that I have never run before.

Have you ever had this experience when running on a new road that you have never run before?
What's there to see after you get there? How far does it go?
How far do I run? Where do you turn around?
I don't know what's ahead, so I'm running with those things in mind.
On the way back, I don't think about that at all because I've already run that road once.
I know everything.
It is psychologically easy.
The psychological difference between a new road and a road that has been traveled many times is obvious.

It is the same with traveling.
If it's your first time in a new country, how do you get to immigration, or do they not speak English? How will I get from the airport to the city?
In a country that I visit frequently, I don't think about such things at all.
Also, going alone is different from going with a group of people, and the sense of security is different.

This uncertainty (not knowing what will happen) causes a great deal of psychological stress.
The difference between knowing and not knowing is a very big stress.

And it is the same in management.
First business, new business, first overseas business.
The main business you have done many times.
The major difference is uncertainty.
You don't know what other companies are doing, but you don't know what you are doing.
We don't have the experience. We don't have the experience.
This is a big stress.

This situation has been the same for a long time.
However, the scope of uncertainty is much wider than it used to be.
The angle of vision that we have to deal with has become wider.　
The uncertainty is also wider, greater, and deeper.
There are many ways to reduce one's uncertainty (psychological instability), if it leads to certainty (psychological stability).

It is a matter of using not only one's own experience, but also the experience of other companies as if it were one's own.
One example is franchising.
Headquarters dispels uncertainty.
This is because they have a lot of experience and experience in their own company (headquarters-owned business) and in other companies (franchisees).

Successful franchise headquarters have "certainty.
In terms of running ahead, they are a parallel runner and a companion,
A good running companion increases certainty (psychological stability).
If we do this, this will happen. When you get to this point, this is what starts to happen.
They make you see the signs with certainty.
On the other hand, there are also bad companions, who have no experience, so they are full of uncertainty and anxiety, whether they are running with you or not.
Franchise headquarters that do not let you see the future with certainty.
There are some.

Not only in the franchise field, but in management in general, management is easy if you have the ability to predict and see the future with certainty.
The future that can be predicted with certainty was described by P. F. Dragger as follows.
Demographic data never betray you. Demographic data is the only data that can be reliably predicted in management.
The number of people who are 35 now will certainly be 40 in five years. The total number may decrease, but it will not increase (deaths). Except for an increase due to immigration and other factors.
That is why this data is so reliable.

This demographic was helpful at St. Mark's, at Gyukaku, and at Curves.
Because they kept attacking the volume zone of demographics.
Only a few developed countries in the world, including Japan, are suffering from population decline.
The world's challenge is the population explosion.
How to read the demographic situation in Japan and around the world is essential for future management.

Asia and Africa can be considered as areas that will grow demographically explosively in the future.
Depending on the country, Southeast Asia, which has been the focus of our attention for more than 10 years, has many countries with large populations, including Indonesia. 5 Asian countries, half of which are in Asia, are at the top of the list of Japan, the 11th most populous country in the year 2023.
China (1st), India (2nd), Indonesia (4th), Pakistan (5th), and Bangladesh (8th).
*Nigeria (7th) Ethiopia (12th)

The Maslow of food!

Productivity at Work

Entrepreneurship can only be understood by those who have done it.

Will the Internet surpass the five senses!

The five human senses - hearing, sight, smell, touch, and taste - are God's greatest gift to mankind.

Invisibility.

There are things that can be seen because they cannot be seen.