Vol.34

New President Selected from Outside the Founder's Family! (Part 2)

In the first part, they talked about the delegation of authority to the president, who is the representative of the company's management, and how the IKEUCHI ORGANIC brand has a personality. They also talked about the idea that the brand is also the voice of the customers. In the middle part of the interview, they spoke passionately about how the brand is recognized by people other than fans, who understand the brand, and the direction IKEUCHI ORGANIC is heading in under the new Abe administration. For the first part, please click here.

Abe, Ikeuchi

I can’t do it the same way as President Ikeuchi.

–I think that IKEUCHI ORGANIC is only as good as its fans, and you have been doing things for fans and the representative has sent out messages to fans, but in what way do you want to expand to fans and other people? In what ways do you want to expand your activities to fans and other people?

Abe: Mr. Ikeuchi is an icon of IKEUCHI ORGANIC, and without him, the company would not exist. He is the one who has the words that resonate most with end users, so I cannot do it alone without him standing in front of them. Therefore, I will create an environment in which Mr. Ikeuchi can easily communicate. I believe that creating such an environment means creating an environment within the company, with our business partners, and with financial institutions and other investors.

In order to communicate the right things to customers in the right words, there is a gap between what Representative Ikeuchi is saying, what is happening inside the company, and what is happening outside the company, so I am working to fill that gap. I think that discrepancy is inevitable. I believe that we need to do this work to bring our brand closer to the way it should be seen by customers outside the company, and without doing so, the brand will not be truly sustainable.

–I would like to ask Representative Ikeuchi, do you have any episodes of hardship that you have experienced in the process of IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s growth to this point?

Ikeuchi: We are always doing things that are different (from our competitors), so I feel joy in that, and I think (employees) probably wouldn’t move if we said we would do the same thing as others in our company. This morning, when Sawai (finance manager*1) was driving me home, he asked me, “Why do you subscribe to such an expensive trade newspaper, and why don’t you read it at all, Mr. President?　He told me, “I don’t look at it because if I look at what’s going on in the world, I’m too far removed from it and I lose confidence. But I don’t look at the world because it makes me feel too far away from the world and makes me lose confidence. I’m going to put a trade paper on your desk from now on (laughs).

–How about you, President Abe?　I understand that you like to explore paths that no one has taken before.

Abe: I think it’s a question of whether it will last or not, or whether it is meaningful to society. For example, I think design and such things are important, but you can only say which is right subjectively. I think there should be a person who decides the direction, and that person is our representative at the moment. I think it is important to have a person who decides which direction is right, and that person is the representative.　I think I am in a position to decide whether or not to launch a new product based on my judgment of how the company has been doing so far.

I think that the representative and I are quite different types. If I were to pass the baton to the next person, I am not good at sending out messages or conveying innovative messages like Mr. Ikeuchi. So, I wonder if the next person who is good at such things will be the one who comes next.

An ideal company that is not top-down

–I think you are saying that it is impossible to be the same kind of icon as the representative, but what kind of color do you think Abe’s color should be? As the head of the company, that is the color of the company, isn’t it?　What kind of color do you aim for?

Abe: That’s where I have a slightly different perception. I really think that the way the company should be will change, and I think that the person at the top is a temporary figure. For example, there are many things that we cannot do on a daily basis, even if we think of them as the ultimate organic things that we should do, and (the selection and acquisition of such things) becomes a conflict of the mind, and people with such feelings get together and create something new.

I think that the company of the future will be one that gathers spontaneously, and that this will lead to economic activities, and I think that the distribution of wealth will also change from what it is now. I think the distribution of wealth will also change.

I would rather see people with the same aspirations get together, resonate with each other, and do something new. Whether it is within the company or outside of it, I think that is my character. So, rather than my own color, it is what I want to do. We want to do this kind of thing, and we are having trouble with this kind of thing.　I think our color is to always throw out the message, “This is what we want to do, this is what we need to do, and this is what we are having trouble with.

The size of a company is determined by the needs of its customers.

-Now, how much volume of work will we do in our circle of economic activity, and is it possible that we may expand too much?　Do you have any thoughts on how much volume you would like to do in that context, or do you want to do it on this scale?

Abe: Well, I think the scale of a company is determined by its needs, and those needs are related to the maturity of society. Organic means a percentage of the upper layer of society, so I think it will take a long time for the current niche market to turn around and become a mass market. I think it will take quite some time for the current niche market to turn into a mass market. One is the raw materials. There is a limit to the harvest, and then there is the issue of production capacity. Expanding our production capacity is also possible only with the support of our customers to a certain extent, so I think that shortages may occur to some extent during the transitional period, but I think that oversupply would be an unhappy situation.

If there is an oversupply, we have to lower the value of the brand and sell it at a lower price. If this is the case, the brand will not be able to continue because it will not be able to make a profit. Therefore, I believe that in order to continue, we must maintain a certain level of hunger, or at least that level of hunger, in order to sustain the business. Therefore, if you ask me what kind of growth strategy we should pursue, I would say that it is up to society to decide, and we should respond to that decision without excesses or deficiencies. I think that is what we will do.

Continue to Part 2

Interview June 2016
Interview and text by Mutaguchi and Kamio
Photographer/ Yuji Kimura (Kimura Photo Office)

Notes
*1: Appeared in Ikeuchi no Hito vol. 28, the person in charge of finance