“Ladies and gentleman.  The financial performance is not enough.

The real thing is the harmony within the company.

If you have the harmony within the company the financial performance will arrive.

If you don’t have the harmony inside the company the financial performance, even if you have them, will be lost.

The real key is harmony.

Harmony within the company, harmony with the clients, harmony with the suppliers.

When I am talking in the West, I have to shout, I have to really force it because they don’t believe me.

In Japan, I hope that this is part of your culture.  That you really know how important it is.  My problem with Japan is that even though you know it so well, I am looking on your companies, I must tell you, I don’t see enough harmony.  I see the recognition that it is important. I don’t see enough harmony.

Let’s talk about retail. You have the same level of shortages that exists in your equivalent retailers in Europe, in Latin America, in the US, the same level of shortages.  But, I expected from Japan to look on shortages in the right way.  Shortages ruin harmony.

A client comes in, looking for something, and they find what they want but it’s not in their colour or in their size, you have jeopardised the client’s harmony. Not just the client’s harmony, you have jeopardised the sales person’s harmony. And, severely.

It’s not just losing profit immediately.  It is ruining the base.

What I have tried to show in this book is that the formal system is not really the most important thing in the company.  The informal system is even more strong in terms of what makes a company. The friendship, the relationships, the harmony, that is what makes the company into a big company or a small company.

And, throughout the book, it is emphasised to what extent the informal system, the human relations system, the motivation coming from it is the key, much more than your computer systems.  And, how to really take it seriously. How to judge what we are doing, not just an impact of the bottom line, this is short-sighted, but the impact in terms of the harmony. 

That is the real thing.

That’s what will last.”

The greatest cause of conflict between people in an organisation is the tension between:

  • Commercial Responsibility
  • Customer Value
  • Constructive Culture

Understanding this tension and learning to harness it is the key to sustainable high performance.

Accelerated Interest-Based Problem-Solving is a powerful method for evaporating the conflict and creating more harmony.