Foreword:

"Kyocera" was established on April 1, 1959 as a manufacturer of technical ceramics. Technical ceramics refer to a series of advanced materials with unique physical, chemical and electronic properties.

Today, most of Kyocera's products are related to telecommunications, including wireless mobile phones and network equipment, semiconductor components, RF and microwave product sets, passive electronic components, crystal oscillators and connectors, and optoelectronic products used in optoelectronic communication networks.

When it comes to "Kyocera", it is necessary to mention his founder Kazuo Inamori and his famous "Amoeba" business philosophy.

1. What is "Amoeba" operation?

The Kyocera Group has independently created a unique management model called "Amoeba Management". "Amoeba management" is a management model created to realize the Kyocera Group's corporate philosophy. It is a management system that divides the company's organization into "Amoe" small groups and operates these small groups according to separate accounting. .

The "Amoeba" business philosophy is one of the important pillars of "Kyocera" business success. It helps the "Kyocera" group to increase the enthusiasm of employees to participate in management and enhance the motivation of employees, and these are the roots of the Kyocera Group's competitive advantage.

2. How does the "Kyocera" Group use "Amoeba"?

Each amoeba is an independent profit center. It operates like a small and medium-sized enterprise. Although it requires the approval of the boss, all business operations such as business planning, performance management, and labor management are operated by them.

Each amoeba integrates production, accounting, and management. In addition, the various amoeba groups can be split and combined at will, so that the company can respond quickly to market changes.

Kyocera Corporation is composed of units called "Amoeba Groups". Like ordinary Japanese companies, Kyocera also has a hierarchical system of divisions, departments, and classes, such as the business headquarters and business departments. But unlike other companies, Kazuo Inamori also organized an independent accounting system based on the "Amoeba Group".

In 1963, Kazuo Inamori and Aoyama Masao (the directors of the Kyocera headquarters factory and Shiga factory at that time) jointly launched the "unit time accounting system" plan. In 1965, when Kyocera officially introduced "Amoeba Management", the "unit time accounting system" was adopted as an important indicator to measure the operating status of the Amoeba Management System.

Amoeba not only carries out cost management, but also finds ways to make the actual cost lower than the standard cost, realize the order with the least cost, and create the maximum value with the least cost, so as to maximize the added value.

Through this process, Amoeba becomes a constantly challenging creative team. In other words, in the traditional cost management system, the protagonist is the product and the object, and the focus is on the cost of each process of a product; while in the operation of Amoeba, the protagonist is to pay the least amount of money in exchange for the largest sales The focus of the brain-powered "people" team is on the added value created by the Amoeba team.

Through the unit time accounting system formula, the business performance of each department, each group, and even a certain person becomes clear and transparent. Generally speaking, it is difficult for employees of large companies to have a real sense of the specific results of their work. They are often just a small gear in the company's huge system, and it is difficult to perceive their contribution to the company. From this point of view, the added value per unit of time motivates employees.

3. What value does "Amoeba" bring to Kyocera?

Amoeba management is a full-participation management system. Every employee must fully grasp the goals of the amoeba organization to which he belongs, and make unremitting efforts to achieve the goals in their respective positions and realize themselves in them.

The company will announce the added value of each team per unit time on a monthly basis, the operating status of each team for the month, the profits created by each team member and team, and their percentage of the company's total profit, etc., all at a glance.

Of course, the results of each group are superior, but the company does not have different treatments for wages and bonuses. Kyocera always insists on giving only the honor of "contribution to the company" by giving praise to the teams with good results and presenting souvenirs.

For Amoeba with poor operating performance, the company will strictly hold accountable, but the so-called "poor operating performance" is not just looking at the added value, but will also examine the operating content from the added value. Sometimes an amoeba cadre with a high added value per unit time is underrated because it may serve its own interests regardless of other amoeba cadres, and is therefore considered to be "poor operating performance". This is to avoid the emergence of vicious competition between various Amoeba, and Kazuo Inamori has put a lot of effort in improving the quality of the company's employees.

Therefore, "Amoeba Management" not only improves employees 'cost awareness and management mind, but also improves employees' professional ethics and personal quality. These two aspects complement each other and contributed to the success of the management method of "Amoeba Management" in Kyocera.

to sum up:

Kyocera succeeded in combining the vertical management network based on the linking accounts in the "Amoeba" structure and the horizontal management network between indirect departments, thereby enabling a comprehensive grasp of the operating performance from two aspects. Therefore, "Amoeba Management" is known as one of the two pillars of Kyocera's successful operation.

Kyocera Corporation founded by Inamori, KDDI and Japan Airlines led by Inamori, now more than 600 companies have introduced Amoeba operations.