October 14, 2022
Occasionally I talk with friends who are also top managers. Earlier this year one such friend unexpectedly asked us, “What would you do if you were told that you only had a month to live?” One person said, “I would want to focus on my family, so I would visit I would spend the time visiting different places with them. a few different places with them.” I responded by saying, "I don’t think I’d actually change anything about the way I’m living my life.”
I would certainly want to spend my final hours with my family, but if I only had a month’s time left to me, then more than anything else I would want to secure the future of my employees. In order to do that, I would need to clearly communicate to my second- and third-in-command about how to run the company. I would need to complete the vision that I have in mind, as well as things like product designs, and pass those on. I think I would also need to visit our clients and business partners so as to create an environment that would allow our employees to work with peace of mind in the future. I firmly believe that TOPC Potentia is a company with great possibilities that will continue to grow in the future. However, if my second- and third-in-command were to say that they didn’t have the confidence needed for management, I will help employees find other jobs at companies that I can trust. In that case I would want to stay on until I had helped the last remaining person find a position.
I want all of our employees to continue to grow and develop, to make greater contributions to society, and to enjoy better lives and livelihoods. I want those things from our employees just as much as I want them for my own children. I wouldn’t see any need to differentiate.
I believe that someone’s worth is determined not by how much they acquired, but by how much they gave. I feel that I would want to use that one remaining month not to do what I want, but instead to use that time for the benefit of the people who need me. I don’t think that because somebody said it was so, but because I believe that is the way to live my life.
A company is a reflection of its top manager. That’s because the company moves based on the vision and beliefs of the person at the top. My vision is to “Become the best accounting firm to work for”, and I want to be able to create the environment where the employees are the most engaged in their work, and where they can grow and develop the most. In turn, the employees who have themselves grown and developed will want their clients to grow and develop, do their work accordingly, and see those clients expand that much more. That circle of growth is expressed in our mission: “Empower company, empower you”. People shouldn’t use their abilities just for their own benefit, but rather for the benefit of those around them, connecting those abilities to the development of society in general. That is the intent of our mission.
Precisely because a company is a reflection of its top manager, that person’s beliefs and way of life, as well as how they think and feel about their employees and customers, are supremely important. Feelings can be hard to communicate. However, once a top manager has decided something, they have to be rock steady in their belief and continue to communicate without fail to their employees, to their customers, to everyone around them, until the message is indeed communicated. The top manager has to press on with their desire to contribute to the progress of society as a whole until the very end – I believe that is the level of commitment and courage that is required.
That means the originality to envision how work will be in the future, the fairness to take advice from anyone you believe to be right, and the courage to act. As a young person, I wanted to work under a top manager who combined those attributes. And during the time that I was complaining about not encountering such a person, I found that I myself had become a top manager. At first, I had no idea what a manager should do. As time went by, I gradually began to see what that looked like, but I am still quite far away from the image of the ideal top manager that I cherished when I was younger. Even knowing that, however, I want to move closer to that ideal, and I am making efforts to get there step by step.
But working under that imperfect top manager are 20 employees. They all believe in the mission and vision that I have put forth. If I only had a month to live, I would want to do whatever I could for the people who believed in me, to my last breath. That is the significance of my role as top manager of this company, and that is the ownership that I believe in.
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