Knowledge Management: From Brain to Business (PDF 5.5 - Asian ...

Ability to Grasp the Essence of Particular Situations: God is in the Detail
This photo shows Souichiro Honda
at a Honda motorcycle race trying to
put himself at eye level with the
riders so that he can empathize with
them by seeing things from their
viewpoint. By seeing what they see
he can sense what they feel. This
picture captures the essence of the
Honda way.
But in simple observation, somehow
there must also be an underlying
hypothesis. As I said, knowledge is
justified true belief. Without belief, I
can see nothing. I have to have a
hunch, intention and hypothesis.
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In the case of Fujio Mitarai at Canon,
he regularly visits the frontline. He is
well-known for his ability to modify his
message to fit the context. He shares
his management philosophy in a way
that employees can really understand
through annual visits to every Canon
office and factory in Japan. During
those visits he speaks for about two
hours at a time, meets with every
employee in the smaller branches and
with everyone from assistant manager
up in the larger branches. This helps
him to acquire contextual knowledge
which he uses in strategic decision
making.
We must see reality in a dynamic context. CEO Suzuki at Seven-Eleven Japan says,
It is impossible to apply universal rules derived
from past experiences because customers’ needs
keeps changing and each store is operating in
different context. We are successful only by
denying the past and constantly reflecting on the
future to find fundamental solutions in each
particular context.
Ability to Reconstruct the Particulars into
Universals Using Language/Concepts/Narratives
This picture is another good example of Souichiro Honda.
He is trying to articulate a concept through dialogue,
again while sitting and keeping the same eye level as the
engineers, thereby building concepts in direct dialogue on
the spot.