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A Taste of Tradition
In a family-founded business, tradition and values are as ingrained and in-escapable as one's own genetic heritage. Even when such an enterprise becomes a publicly owned and operated corporation, the family's influence can remain an integral part of company culture. Such is the case with the Kikkoman Corporation, whose roots stretch back to the seventeenth century, when the Mogi family began soy sauce production in Japan. The company was incorporated in 1917 as Noda Shoyu Co., Ltd., went public in 1949, and changed its name to Kikkoman in 1964. Now a maker of soy sauces, condiments, beverages, and pharmaceuticals, Kikkoman is a $2-billion global enterprise that still retains its family flavor.
Kikkoman's executive managing director is Kenzaburo ("Ken") Mogi (MBA '73). Given that company tradition allows only one member per generation from each of the eight founding families to work at Kikkoman (preventing any one branch from gaining dominance), Ken, a second-born son of a branch Mogi family, seemed destined for a career elsewhere. But in 1962, Shichizaemon Mogi, a direct descendant of one of the founding Mogi families, approached Ken's father. "That branch of the family didn't have a Kikkoman successor," explains Mogi, "so Shichizaemon asked my father for permission to adopt me to fill that role." At the age of 24, the newly adopted Kenzaburo, who had officially become a thirteenth-generation member of the original and oldest Mogi family, was taken into the fold of his clan's empire.
After working for Kikkoman for nine years in nonmanagerial roles, Mogi became eager to advance his skills and set his sights on HBS. Lessons he learned from the School's case-study method-a teaching approach unknown in Japan-continue to guide him, he notes, in overseeing Kikkoman's new business development. He also manages several other departments and subsidiary branches, such as the company's biochemical and research and development divisions.
Although members of the founding families now own only a small percentage of the company, one example of their continuing influence is a company "creed" adopted in 1926 and originally designed to promote internal family harmony. "It formalizes many of the traditions and habits long observed by the families," notes Mogi. Among the ideals it articulates are peaceful behavior, faith, mutual respect, and discipline. "These concepts are often referred to among management even today," he says. More than a mission statement, it suggests that the four-thousand-employee soy sauce giant whose products are now marketed in more than one hundred countries is still a family affair at heart.
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