Hideo Tanimoto, President and CEO, Kyocera Corporation

Unrivaled efforts and challenges to meet new needs

President and Representative Director, Kyocera Corporation　Hideo Tanimoto(Tanimoto Hideo)

■ Profile

A native of Nagasaki City, Hideo Tanimoto joined Kyocera in 1982 after graduating from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Sophia University. He was in charge of the fine ceramics business and built a track record through innovative developments in firing processes. He became Kyocera's president in 2017 and has promoted the creation of new businesses and organizational restructuring toward the company's sales target of 3 trillion yen. He is driving Kyocera's growth through investments to increase production of parts for the semiconductor-related market and efforts to pursue synergies within the group.

President Tanimoto continues to bring innovation to Kyocera with the motto "Be humble and not arrogant." The company's management philosophy, "Kyocera Philosophy," created by founder Kazuo Inamori based on his own experiences, and its unique business management method, "Amoeba Management," have attracted the attention of many business leaders and have become models for management in Japanese companies. We spoke to him about Kyocera's challenges and future prospects as it works towards its goal of achieving sales of 3 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2029.

Attracted by Kyocera's philosophy, he joined the company as an engineer

I majored in inorganic chemistry at university. I had the option of choosing organic chemistry or polymer chemistry, but I preferred inorganic chemistry because it allowed me to study a wide range of substances. I enjoyed playing to the fullest outside of my studies, and traveling around Japan with friends is now a fond memory. When I was job hunting, I hated Tokyo's crowded trains, so I looked for companies in the countryside. Among them, I found Kyocera to be growing rapidly and was attracted by the "Kyocera Philosophy" advocated by founder Kazuo Inamori, so I joined the company as an engineer.

When I turned 30, I was appointed project leader to create a new ceramics manufacturing line. After much trial and error with ceramic molding processes and firing methods, I established a method to reduce firing time to one-tenth of the previous time. It took three years of basic experiments and about six months to establish the manufacturing line, but that manufacturing line is still in operation at the factory today.

My achievements as an engineer were recognized, and I was promoted to division manager at age 46, division manager at age 54, and then president in 2017. Since my time as division manager, when I was in a position closer to management, I've been aware of these issues and have been promoting two initiatives throughout the company since becoming president. The first is transforming our factories into smart factories. This initiative involves collecting data and digitizing it to thoroughly eliminate waste. The second is organizational reform. New innovations are difficult to generate without active internal communication. Therefore, we divided our organization into three segments, encouraging interaction between engineers not only within our own departments but also across business divisions. One result of this was the development of an inkjet textile printer that minimizes water usage for the textile apparel industry, where wastewater discharge during the dyeing of clothing was a global issue. We were able to launch a product that contributes to solving this social issue.

Kyocera's two pillars: "Kyocera Philosophy" and "Amoeba Management"

The Kyocera Philosophy and Amoeba Management have made significant contributions to Kyocera's development.

First of all, the Kyocera Philosophy dates back to the company's founding. A company's mission is not to showcase its technology to the world, but to pursue the material and spiritual happiness of its employees and their families. Inamori clearly defined this as Kyocera's management philosophy. The Kyocera Philosophy, which forms the foundation of Kyocera today, is a compilation of the daily standards of judgment, code of conduct, and concrete ways of thinking needed to realize this philosophy.

Amoeba Management, on the other hand, is a system for increasing the number of people with an entrepreneurial mindset and for each employee to develop a sense of profitability. It works by creating teams of around 10 people, or "amebas." Because amoebas are run on an independent, profitable basis, the number of amoeba leaders increases, and by having amoebas compete with each other, productivity can be increased. However, this method alone has its drawbacks. If there's too much competitive spirit, employees will only care if their own amoeba makes a profit, which can strain relationships between the amoebas. Therefore, it won't work unless the Kyocera Philosophy is functioning and the amoebas have a cooperative mindset. That's why we're conscious of focusing on educating employees about the Kyocera Philosophy first.

■ Sensitive to needs and leveraging technical capabilities

Kyocera's ceramics business spans a wide range of fields, from electronic components to communications and software. Kyocera's ceramic technology, in particular, is used in a wide range of applications, including ceramic components for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, semiconductor packages, and capacitors. Kyocera's technology is embedded in many familiar products. Our strengths lie in our extensive accumulation of past experimental data and our advanced technological capabilities, allowing us to maintain high profit margins. Going forward, the spread of generative AI will likely increase the need for semiconductors capable of storing large amounts of data. Furthermore, the semiconductor market is expected to exceed 100 trillion yen in the next few years, necessitating a sense of speed in our business development. Therefore, in our current medium-term management plan, we are prioritizing investments in semiconductor-related areas and pursuing a strategy to meet this new demand.

■Which comes first: love or effort?

The traits of people we want to hire are those who can act, not just speak. It's best if they take on challenges and succeed, but it's okay if they fail. Taking on challenges and taking action are important. We also want people to love their work after joining the company. People say you should do what you love as a job, but the reality is that it doesn't always work out that way. You probably don't know what you love when you're a university student. I think it's only once you join a company, put your efforts into your work, and receive thanks from others that you start to find it interesting. You'll love your work because you've worked hard. When you take the tasks in front of you seriously and get results, you'll start to love your work.

■ Future outlook

When I joined Kyocera, overall sales were around 150 billion yen. Over the next 20 years, we reached 1 trillion yen. As the business expanded, my workload increased rapidly during this period, and by my third year at the company, I was given managerial responsibilities. However, it took another 20 years for the company to reach 1.5 trillion yen in sales. It was at this time that I became president. I realized that as the company's growth slowed, individual employees had less discretion and the energy of our young employees was being lost. Therefore, we changed our personnel system and introduced 360-degree evaluations, with the aim of restoring the energy of our young employees. First, we focused on the semiconductor field, where growth is expected, and we are working together as a company to create a rewarding place to work, aiming for the ambitious goal of 3 trillion yen in sales by the fiscal year ending March 2029.

■Message to university students

Enjoy your student life to the fullest. It would be even better if you could find something you are passionate about and enjoy. When you have worries, keep in mind the Kyocera Philosophy, which states, "Always be cheerful and positive." This is an age when you are likely to worry about your career, studies, and personal life, so when you are feeling down, talk to someone and don't let it linger. It's also important not to worry alone, but to get help from others. And if you try new things without overthinking them, I'm sure the path will open up for you.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on December 5, 2024 by Meiji University Graduate School 2nd year student, Sakai Yaku

Musashino University 4th year student Nishiyama Ryusei / Hosei University 4th year student Shimada Daiki / Meiji University Graduate School 2nd year student Sakai Yaku