"Gen-chi, Gen-butsu"

Fujio CHO Vice Chairman, Nippon Keidanren Chairman of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation

For a little over twenty years since our economy started getting globalized, we have adopted, as global standards, the Western world's ideas and norms of doing business and ended up facing business environments significantly different from our earlier surroundings.

Meanwhile, initiatives to reassess the merits of the Japanese way of doing business seem to be gaining momentum, and serious re-examinations are under way, particularly in the manufacturing sector, to identify "what to be changed" and "what not to be changed."

While the Japanese economy is on a path to recovery today, we have not reached the conclusion in our re-examinations as yet; Our "journey in search of identity" still continues.

We have recently witnessed instances of Japanese companies separating their development and manufacturing divisions, outsourcing their manufacturing operations, or relocating their production plants offshore; Nonetheless, I keep insisting on the importance of "Gen-chi, Gen-butsu," (or doing actual things in actual workplaces) and raise this tenet as one of the pillars of in-house education in my company.

Come to think of it, the results of jobs performed by workers, not only in development or design engineering, but also by those in other key departments such as personnel, procurement, marketing, and production planning, tend to become tangible in their actual workplaces. It is an established practice with professionals to verify their work results directly in workplaces by being there personally; The letter C (for check) in QC-circle activities (P-D-C-A) denotes such action.

The rule of "doing actual things in actual workplaces" is also important for business managers; It provides them with valuable opportunities not only to ascertain the correctness of their management policies or annual plans but also to listen to many people who are actually performing jobs and to learn from them about things to be changed or rectified.

Our mission is to see that the Japanese way of "Mono-zukuri" (or making things) be preserved and refined, with its valuable concepts and practices, so that it may help us win out in the global market. "Gen-chi, Gen-butsu" is, I believe, an essential virtue for our pursuit of this aim.