Crazy Company Romantics.

 "What is a company?" Although it is a very simple question, it is a very difficult question to answer. Approaching from a general perspective, many people view a company or corporation as one of the economic entities whose purpose is to 'seek profit'. The members of the company are easy to be treated as a kind of tool to contribute to the purpose of the company, 'pursuit of profit'. Of course, it can be said that it is a very cold and capitalist view. However, if you look around, it is also the reality that quite a few people are living based on such a family. Some people take this general argument a little further and look at companies from a very romantic point of view, "The Crazy Company Romantics".

 

Today we would like to introduce their story! The company is mankind's greatest invention?

The Apple Romantic, Jobs.

The first person I would like to introduce is Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple.

"(I think) a company is one of the most amazing things mankind has ever invented"

"I mean it because it can be an incredibly powerful abstract structure."

"But to me, the company is important because it can make products."

“Because I can keep making great products while working with really fun, clever, and creative people.”

"So (to me) a company means 'a group of people who can create something more than the next jackpot'"

“Talent, competence, culture, perspective, and the way you work to keep making the next big thing, that’s what a company means.” (Steve Jobs)

So Steve Jobs believed that if you could build a team that could keep making good products, the company would cruise. Conversely, if the team can't keep making good products, I don't think the company can survive. So, one of the things that Steve Jobs paid a lot of attention to after returning to Apple was to form a 'good management group' qualifying him as our first Crazy Company Romantic.

That's why some business experts say that when talking about Apple's resurgence, it's important to pay attention not only to the product and marketing but also to the 'role of the management group' that Jobs formed after his return.

 

Bill Gates, a lifelong rival to Steve Jobs, is one such person who acknowledges Jobs and his intimacy with his firm.

He says, “I think (the management team that Jobs formed after returning to Apple) is a much more mature group than before.”

"The old Mac team and NeXT employees were all busy hiding in corners when Steve exploded."

“But the new Apple management team showed solidarity by countering (when Jobs exploded).”

"For example, if Steve points out one of them and says, cause he was really stupid or not."

"They were people who could go back to Steve and say,"

"'Steve, calm down. There aren't many talented people like him. So  'How do you do your work like this? You're such an idiot.'"

"They actually decided whether he should let him go bego ahead and apologize!' Then Steve would do what he said.

"It means you respect the team's opinions even if you still have a fiery temper."

“(And Apple’s management team) is a truly elite team, united by strength and hardships.”

“So what I mean is that anyone on the team can say that they are paying their bills properly.”

"I don't have a single friend who only celebrates rice with bills."

“It’s a team with no weaknesses.”

“So there is no need for alternative plans, no alternative teams for the future.”

"That one team is enough" (Bill Gates)

 

In other words, Jobs succeeded in building the strongest team to make the best products, and the products that the best team created were the key to reviving Apple. A journalist who watched the process told a similar story.

“Jobs had under his control a team of (and) mature, experienced and disciplined people who were capable of fiercely advocating for themselves.”

“And this time I gave them considerable power”
(Brent Schlender)

Perhaps, after Jobs' death, many people predicted Apple's crisis, but the reason Apple is still cruising (?) is because Jobs is not in the world, but the team he created is relatively solid.

Is your company a space where you grow through challenges and failures with your favorite people?

The Corporate love of Masuda Muneaki.

The next person I would like to introduce is someone who has a more romantic management theory than Steve Jobs.

He is Masuda Muneaki, who heads the 'Culture Convenience Club (CCC)' famous for Tsutaya Bookstore.

"Having fun doing what you love"

“It came from my heart when I started the company.”

"I'm going to have to work anyway"
"I want to do what I love and enjoy it with my friends who like it"

"Of course, it wasn't just fun for 32 years."

“Looking back, it was generally enjoyable and I still enjoy it now.”
(  )

How would he run the company? His thoughts may have been 'romantic', but his actions were very 'specific'.

"Freedom! The freedom to do the things you love with the people you love, it takes 'credit' to get it"

"You have to keep your promises and earn trust as a person who doesn't forget to be grateful"

“A human being can only be made through continuous efforts to become such a person.
You get the qualifications to get (that) freedom."

Masuda Muneaki pursued unparalleled romance, but at the same time thought more than anyone else about what it would take to keep going with someone who liked what he loved making him one-of-a-kind Company Romantic.

And in addition to credit, Masuda Muneaki continued to explore what it takes for a company to continue to grow, and his thoughts ultimately boil down to the keywords 'failure' and 'growth'.

“Everyone works with the idea that they are working hard, but as time goes by, the results are very different.”

"After all, a person who challenges the impossible becomes possible over time and grows, but a life of only doing what is possible does not expand the scope of possible (work) even as you get older"

"Growth is proportional to the size of a person's determination to do the impossible"

"Of course, if you try the impossible, you may fail, but even if you fail financially, the wealth of experience and networking remains."

"This is also growth, so to speak."

"I once wrote that management is 'allowing failure'"

"If the essence of management lies in the growth of companies and people, I wrote that management is an acceptance of failure in the sense that we have to challenge the impossible to survive."

"(But now that I think about it) the growth of a company or human resource development is only a 'result', and achieving it is 'the courage and challenge of the management'"

"Everyone who tries the impossible will fail"

"(I) also had (several) failures in the past"

"But by failing like this, you gain experience as a human being, and you can succeed next time."

“If you are desperate for failure, you won’t seize the opportunity.”

“If failure is the theme of hard work for growth, (failure) will surely help that person.”

In summary, for Masuda Muneaki, a 'company' can be said to be a space where people constantly challenge the impossible, fail, and eventually grow to continue doing what they love with the people they love. Sometimes you can think of it as very romantic and sometimes even philosophical making his endearment remarkable for his enterprise.

 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DknP2LBXSXs[/embed]

Dave Logan and his business intimacy.

Is 'company' the process of forming a kind of tribe?

And there are those who see a company or organization as a process of forming a tribe through interaction between leaders and members, not simply as a 'profit-seeking group'.

These are the people who advocate 'tribal leadership' led by Dave Logan.

"Some tribes are constantly evolving, demanding excellence from all members", while others are content with minimal performance.

"What makes such a difference in performance?"

“It is the leader of the tribe. When great tribes recognize their great leaders, great leaders also build great tribes and make an effort that will go down in history.”

"If a clan leader is successful in fulfilling his role as leader, the clan will recognize him as a leader, give his best efforts, offer blind allegiance, and reward him with phenomenal success."

"(Like this) the tribe and the leader create each other"

"You cannot do this journey alone"

"Only when someone is with you can you move forward"
(Dave Logan)

"A 1999 study by Martin Covey and Diamud Okorby found that 70% of corporate strategies fail, even when evaluated very generously"

“Because this is a problem for all companies, very few companies are able to achieve high levels of strategic performance consistently over a long period of time.”

In other words, a company's performance hinges on how it develops its day-to-day organizational culture, rather than its brute-force strategy making Logan's ideology classify as a leading Company Romantic.

Perhaps the arguments of Steve Jobs, Muneaki Masuda, and Dave Logan from the standpoint of a startup that are urgently needed to survive sound like a very idle sound.

It's not about leading the world alone, but coming together to a better place!

This goal is certainly romantic, but at the same time, isn't this a dream that everyone in the 'company' space, where they spend the most time of the day, has at least once in their minds?

And maybe it is the crazy people who challenge that dream that creates great results?

Read more at  UlzzangKorea.