The Wisdom of Shinise

"Strength from living over 100 years"

Following are some of the results of research from my colleague, Makoto Kanda from Meiji Gakuin University in Japan. In 2009 he sent surveys to nearly 3,000 small to medium-sized companies that were over 100 years old (exculding those with less than 10 employees) and received responses from 500 (a 16.8% response rate). These companies were spread over various industres: 37% wholesale, 34% manufacturing, 12% construction, 12% retail, and 5% services.

Kanda uncovered three factors, which he calls the "three sacred principles of Shinise." These are:
1. Credo: Most companies have a strong sense of corporate vision and values, often established by the founding family. Half of the companies had a written credo and others passed it on verbally.
2. Family ownership and control: Not only were almost all shinise privately-owned companies, over 80% were still owned and run by the founding family! Only 10% did not have any ownership or management involvment by the founding family.
3. Continuity of business, company name and brand: Though most companies have diversified their business, their traditional business still remained (more than 60% have retained their orignial line of business); 40% of the companies have made no changes in company name or brands for more than 100 years, 30% have changed one but not the other, and only 30% have changed both their company name and the brand name under which they do business.

Kanda goes into detail on what practices make up these three factors, which I will explain at a later date.

Japanese Shinise

I have kept in touch with the Japanese professor who first spurred my interest in 100 year old company research (Makoto Kanda) and he has given me permission to share the results of his updated research on small-medium sized old Japanese companies. Stay tuned!

Data Base is Almost Ready

A recent email from Cargill's archives director (as they prepare for their 150th anniversary) reminds me that I have not updated this blog in a while. My student researchers have been busy building our data base of 100 year old U.S. companies and and Katelyn Rumsey is now doing an analysis based on size, industry, etc. The results of this work will be presented at the Association for Global Business Conference to be held in New Orleans in November. Hopefully they will see it as worthy for publication in their journal.

We have done a few surveys along the way (talking to these companies is much more fun than the data base work), but we will begin surveying in earnest in 2011. In the meantime, if you run across an "old" company of which you think I might not be aware, please post a comment or email me.