ARTICLES
Kyocera in its Founding Period and External Talent:
The Role of Masatoshi Sugiura
2023 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 1-20
Details
2023 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 1-20
Masatoshi Sugiura graduated from ceramics department of Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1939, then entered Nippon Electric Company (NEC). In postwar years he transferred to Kunitoyo Leather Company in 1948, again transferred to Nagoya National Industrial Research Institute (NNIRI) in 1953, entered Kyocera as a research director in 1963. He became managing director in 1964, then executive managing director in 1972, and retired from the company in 1975.
The purpose of this paper is to trace the trajectory of Sugiura from the 1930s to the 1970s, through which to consider his contribution to the technological development of Kyocera.
The launch pad by which Kyocera could grow from a ceramic standalone manufacturer to a globally famous ceramic applied products firm was success of the mass production of IC package for electric calculators. Research and development activities on ceramic materials led by Sugiura and researches on precision processing of materials for electronic parts demonstrated by Yuzo Arai who was also an external talent came from research institute of electrical communication of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, largely contributed to the development of new product, IC package by Kyocera which was also supported by the accumulation of production technology at the workshops and absorption of imported technology.
Expansion and deepening of in-house technologies by invitation of excellent external personnel was one of the technology strategies of Kyocera in its founding period. The first example of such a technology strategy was Sugiura’s entry in 1963. Kyocera’s patent application activities was accelerated from 1963. Of the 17 patent applications filed in the 1960s, in 13 cases Kazuo Inamori was the first name of inventors, and in eight cases we can confirm Sugiura’s name as a co-inventor. From this fact we can know the role of Sugiura in R & D activities and patent applications in Kyocera in the 1960s.
