ISOWA Corporation

Message from the President

ISOWA is working towards "Creating a company with the best corporate culture in the world that makes us and our families happy."

I joined ISOWA 30 years ago, and the ISOWA of that time was very different compared to now. There were technicians with their craftsman's attitudes, rampant issues with poor teamwork, and lots of waiting around for orders from the top. I felt a sense of crisis, and I tried many things to solve it. But nothing I tried did any good. There was, of course, a good reason for this. I was struggling alone, but I was only looking at the tip of the iceberg.

What is the "tip of the iceberg"?

There is a way of thinking called the "Iceberg Model," and it asks you to think of a company like an iceberg. Just like an iceberg, a company has elements of its structure that can be seen (the company's business, organization, institutions, structure, etc.) but this is just 10% of the whole, and the vast majority of the company is under the water where it can't be seen. Though it is under the water and can't be seen, the bottom part of the iceberg is what drives the company. That is the company's corporate culture.

When this underside of the iceberg hasn't matured enough and employees haven't built up relationships of trust, it doesn't matter how many wonderful systems and rules are created for the tip of the iceberg. No matter what you do, this is only going to be forcing people to do your bidding.

Such an iceberg will lose its balance and topple into the sea.

Once I noticed this, I stopped all activities to do with the tip of the iceberg as a flagman and focused my efforts on preparing the underside of the iceberg.

Rather than forcing people, I began working on the mechanisms for making things work, and these mechanisms began to create chemical reactions with one another, and I, the employees, and ISOWA itself, began to change a lot.

Then, it was in 2006 when I was beginning to feel as though I was getting results, and I began talking to employees about the corporate philosophy I began this article with, about creating a company with the best corporate culture in the world.

My vision for the organization was to create a company with the best corporate culture in the world, and all the visions I brought forth after that, through conversations and actions between ISOWA people (between comrades, not just fellows), began to take on a true, deeper meaning, within myself and within ISOWA people.

Then, although at first it had simply been my own vision, it gradually became the shared vision of all ISOWA people, and it evolved into "our vision."

In fact, this process itself is the improvement of ISOWA corporate culture.

Now, ISOWA isn't a company where people are given problems to solve, they are expected to find the problems themselves.

This was the point when I realized that things were different from how they used to be.

"This doesn't simply stop with employee satisfaction!"

This is when I began thinking that these results of our corporate culture improvement shouldn't be limited to just our business as a corrugated paper machinery manufacturer.

Because ISOWA is working hardest in the world to improve corporate culture, I believe we have something here that we can provide to our customers, and to the world.

Our conclusion was that our concept: "ISOWA keeps you going - always on the go," our products: "i Machines" that are not just a means of production but loved by customers and bring joy, and our services: not only typical repairs, but "NEXT SERVICE" that is one, two, or even several steps ahead of the rest, are what we can provide to our customers.

But even this is not the end.

I believe that there are still new values yet to be found that can only be found by us at ISOWA who continue this corporate culture improvement. Every day, somewhere at ISOWA, everyone can have thoughtful discussions in a frank and open atmosphere.

Supplying Dreams Around the World in Corrugated Paper

Today as well, we continue to run towards this exciting dream.

November 15, 2017