Project Your Abilities into the Future
Excerpt from a 1979 speech by Inamori Kazuo, Founder of Kyocera Corporation.
It is crucial to determine the timing for your technology development. There are technologies that become completely worthless if their completion is delayed by several months or a year. While the timing of technology development is challenging even in universities and research institutes, it can become a matter of life and death for companies in extreme cases.
Therefore, when we decide on a development theme, we always set a deadline for completion. The research and development goals we set are often far beyond our current capabilities, so there are people who vigorously argue that it is impossible. On the other hand, some people, driven by enthusiasm, exclaim, "Let's do it!" without a concrete and realistic solution. It is extremely dangerous to proceed with development in such a state. Regardless, selecting a development theme that exceeds our current capabilities determines our success or failure based on when we can achieve it. Since it becomes completely meaningless if we miss the right timing, it is necessary to set a deadline for development.
What is required of someone leading such development is the ability to predict whether their own and their group's capabilities can be enhanced to meet the theme by a certain point in the future. Anyone can judge the success or failure of development based solely on their current abilities. Instead, we deliberately choose themes that seem impossible to achieve at this moment in time and decide to complete them at a future point with potential. In other words, leaders involved in technology development must be able to envision how they will develop their own and their group's abilities by a certain point in the future.
Developers must have the ability to perceive their own capabilities in the "future progressive" tense, and you must strive to cultivate individuals who can do so. Although this may sound like a very combative attitude, I feel this way based on our past experiences.
In other words, it is natural to realize what we can currently do, but when it comes to things that currently cannot be achieved due to a lack of technology or whatever reason, we must think creatively and devise ways to accomplish them at all costs.
Excerpt from a 1979 speech by Inamori Kazuo, Founder of Kyocera Corporation.
It is crucial to determine the timing for your technology development. There are technologies that become completely worthless if their completion is delayed by several months or a year. While the timing of technology development is challenging even in universities and research institutes, it can become a matter of life and death for companies in extreme cases.
Therefore, when we decide on a development theme, we always set a deadline for completion. The research and development goals we set are often far beyond our current capabilities, so there are people who vigorously argue that it is impossible. On the other hand, some people, driven by enthusiasm, exclaim, "Let's do it!" without a concrete and realistic solution. It is extremely dangerous to proceed with development in such a state. Regardless, selecting a development theme that exceeds our current capabilities determines our success or failure based on when we can achieve it. Since it becomes completely meaningless if we miss the right timing, it is necessary to set a deadline for development.
What is required of someone leading such development is the ability to predict whether their own and their group's capabilities can be enhanced to meet the theme by a certain point in the future. Anyone can judge the success or failure of development based solely on their current abilities. Instead, we deliberately choose themes that seem impossible to achieve at this moment in time and decide to complete them at a future point with potential. In other words, leaders involved in technology development must be able to envision how they will develop their own and their group's abilities by a certain point in the future.
Developers must have the ability to perceive their own capabilities in the "future progressive" tense, and you must strive to cultivate individuals who can do so. Although this may sound like a very combative attitude, I feel this way based on our past experiences.
In other words, it is natural to realize what we can currently do, but when it comes to things that currently cannot be achieved due to a lack of technology or whatever reason, we must think creatively and devise ways to accomplish them at all costs.
