In later years, Kazuo Inamori recalled the founding period of Kyocera, “we took on the ‘impossible’ and said ‘We can do it,’ and kept on doing it until we actually could do it. It may be a reckless ‘stretching’ to create the possible from the impossible. However, it was this reckless ‘stretching’ that led to the development of Kyocera’s technological capabilities, the creation of achievements, and the paving of the road to success”. The conditions regulated the ‘stretching’ which make the impossible into the possible should be examined in much broader context.

It was Kazuo Inamori and Masaji Aoyama, who were at the forefront of the sales activities, who carefully determined if it was ‘feasible impossible’ or not. Their ‘instincts’ as engineers must have supported their careful judgment. Naturally, they did not take on everything, and there were times of business negotiation when they immediately refused. Inamori and his team developed their sales activities while carefully examining the potential of Kyocera, in other words, the room for growth.

The potential to achieve goals is not something that is fostered only within the company. The Japanese electronics industry itself was an emerging industry in the 1960s, and unsolved problems existed everywhere. There were many counterparts in the trading network with whom to work on technological issues. Kyocera was nurtured within this trading network. Mentors for learning technology were not only in the trading network, but also in universities, academic societies, and the place like the Telecommunications Research Institute of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation.

This article aims to clarify the attributes and career paths of top management of KYOCERA from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Compared to companies such as Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony, KYOCERA had a shorter tenure from entry of each firms to entering directorship, especially for mid-career recurits. Correspondingly, the age at which they took executive offices was also lower than other companies. However, over time, the tenure from entry to executive positions has tended to become longer in KYOCERA as well as Panasonic, Hitachi and SONY.

The mid-career recruits assumed directorship shortly after joining KYOCERA or a short time afterwards. In addition, there were only few job rotations before they became directors of KYOCERA.

In the case of executives from new graduates, they were nurtured over time and groomed to become key players in management. After joining the company, they would typically become department heads such as the head of a business unit, manufacturing department, or sales department within 15 to 18 years. Accumulating 5 to 10 years of experience in that position, they would then be promoted to director. Additionally, it was not uncommon for individuals who joined the company as new graduates to rotate through various businesses and jobs before being promoted to director.

Even after becoming executives, they often hold high-ranking positions in various departments. The career path after becoming the executives was also the process of being nurtured as general managers. In that process, there were many persons who experienced job rotation while the others did not. This job rotation was one of important reasons why KYOCERA tended to have longer tenures for its executives.

At the same time, a series of proactive consolidations and mergers by KYOCERA resulted in a greater need for managerial manpower. Consequently, there were many cases of executives being dispatched from KYOCERA to its subsidiaries, or of KYOCERA headquarters’ executives concurrently serving as executives of subsidiary companies. There were also a lot of cases where KYOCERA top management served as executives of multiple subsidiaries. This practice of appointing executives from KYOCERA to subsidiary companies was also a strategy to cultivate young business leaders of it.

One book that Kazuo Inamori kept close at hand and read repeatedly was “Kenshinsho” by Tempu Nakamura. In particular, it is known that the word “The success of a new endeavor depends on our indomitable and tireless spirit; therefore, we must visualize our goals intently and earnestly, with a noble motivation at heart.” in “Kenshinsho” was used as the management slogan at Kyocera’s management direction presentation in January 1982, and was also put up as a slogan again during the reconstruction of Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., following the company’s bankruptcy.

As Inamori stated in his later years, “I read the book, and it says wonderful things. I really studied it, and a large part of my thinking is influenced by the thoughts of Tempu Nakamura.” Based on these comments, the influence on Inamori from “Kenshinsho” can be surmised to have been large. However, when and how Inamori first encountered “Kenshinsho,” which played such an important role in Inamori’s life and management, and the details of the chance encounter were not completely clear.

The following facts were clarified following an investigation of the archives stored in the Inamori Library, such as received and sent document files. (1) After Inamori gave a lecture at the Sanwa Bank Clover Group held in Kyoto on February 12, 1981, Yoshio Kawabata, then the representative director of Kawataki Corporation, who listened to the lecture, was impressed by the content, which was consistent with the ideas of Tempu Nakamura, and said so to Inamori directly. (2) Inamori received Tempu Nakamura’s “Kenshinsho” along with a letter from Yoshio Kawabata dated February 20, 1981, and thereinafter used “Kenshinsho” as his guide. (3) Inamori’s ideas on the subconscious mind or the importance of ‘thoughts’ were formed before he met Tempu Nakamura’s book. (4) The chance encounter between Inamori and “Kenshinsho” played an essential role in further deepening and developing the ideas and philosophies that Inamori had devised as an entrepreneur.