How to Read Hou-Ren-Sou: The Key to the Success of the Japanese Company DOC
In my previous book on Japanese Quality in the Industry, we talked about how the Japanese invent the TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT out of sheer necessity for the survival of the company.We said that quality is not a theoretical concept but on the contrary, it is 100% practical, simple, basic and that it took place in the production workshop.No matter how much we read books and attend courses and more courses on total quality, we will never assimilate the principles if we do not understand the correct mentality.The most important thing is to understand and assimilate the mentality that should guide us on the path of excellence to achieve the real implementation in the company of the continuous improvement or KAIZEN system within the Japanese quality system or TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT.We can say without fear of being wrong, that the "sine qua non" condition is that previously we must understand, practice and implement the total communication system that the Japanese call HOU-REN-SOU: HOUKOKU, RENKAKU, SOUDAN or in other words: INFORM, COMMUNICATE, CONSULT.When I started my first work experience as Quality Director within the Japanese company it would not even have occurred to me to think about the importance of HOU-REN-SOU.I often kept the information to myself or prepared a report by myself and when it was finished and cleaned, very proud of the good work done, I presented it to the Japanese president of the company in a quality committee or in the weekly steering committee.Those presentations usually ended, against all odds, like a real disaster.I remember that the Japanese got very angry and argued with each other.Personally I was annoyed that they looked down on such a detailed and even beautiful report that I certainly hoped to show off.What was wrong with them?But for the Japanese it was very difficult, if not impossible, to understand why I had not shared the information with other department heads before officially presenting it in a meeting.They didn't even understand why I had withheld relevant information from the management until that moment.I replied that I was informing them at that very moment and that I had waited to have the report ready.Now I can understand that they really were unable to understand me no matter how much I tried to explain to them.The president of the company, a short Japanese man, elderly, always elegant and from the old school, looked at me very angry and clasped his hands so that the palm of the right hand was facing downwards and the one of the left was facing up and joining. the fingers of both hands pulled them hard in opposite directions and kept repeating HOU-REN-SOU, HOU-REN-SOU, HOU-REN-SOU ... let's see what he wanted to tell me!
