The option management concept of Kato Spring was completed and began to take form in April 1992. In July 1996, the Strawberry Corporation was established as a venture corporation. In December 1996, the authority for evaluating personnel was transferred completely to section managers. And in April 1997, the first step of organizational reform to the "associates system" began.

  My intent is to build an environment of "happy management" for the company member. The objective is to transform the company so that company members can confront their work cheerfully, enjoyably and with energy. This is because of our belief that true improvement in productivity comes from cultivating the autonomy of company members rather than from setting high objectives and prodding company members to attain them. This is my concept. Its development began when I joined the company and has grown over the years.
  The idea of "responding to change and creating change" is the essence of the strong leadership my father demonstrated, overcoming 40 years of storms. I inherited this idea as the core of the corporate culture I live for.
  Of course, the era, environmental changes and accompanying trends in the market have repeatedly impacted Kato Spring in unprecedented and different manners. Consequently, we must take the bold step to change ourselves to handle these changes. We must not only understand the changes, but also make our own trends.

  Analysts describe the current confusion at the end of the millennium as the third shock faced by Japan, following the "black ships" (Commodore Perry's arrival at Shimoda, which opened Japan to the outside world) and "defeat in World War II." This meaning is gradually becoming clear.
  Similar to these periods and the period of the company's founding, we now have no navigational charts to follow. And the pressure from outside is now 10 to 100 times greater, now that the ship is larger. On top of this, the direction of the wind continues to change constantly.
  In such an era, there is a greater risk in not changing than the risk in changing. Success in a continuously changing new era is impossible without a management that is willing to make dramatic changes. It is important to boldly dispose of the sense of values from the old industrialized society and determine the ideal form of a company in the new era, and quickly build a new system that fits the mold we perceive to be the best.
  I have repeatedly stated that Japanese companies and management are feudalistic. However, the unchanged attitude of industrialized society will not only make it difficult to be victorious, but to survive. The most critical requirement for fully demonstrating the true power of a company is to create a flatter, clearer, fairer organization.
  I believe that a company is a virtual world that serves as a square in which management (including the president) and company members are equal, and is but a single stage in one's life.
  In Japanese, virtual is translated as "kaso," a word that conveys the meaning of "a vacuum," however, I would like to interpret its meaning more aggressively. A company is not a location where you contribute your entire life or depend upon for the future.
  There may have been a period when "the meaning of one's existence" was felt by placing the palm of one's hand on the concrete walls of the office or by making a desk in an office one's location. However, is this the true description of a company? I believe that people who were separated from the "companies" they had become familiar with over many years through restructuring were taught the real meaning of this phrase. Whether this is good or bad, a company from the beginning has been a virtual world.

  The term "virtual corporation" began to be used frequently from the mid-1990s. This term appeared with the image of organizations in which there is mutual cooperation on individual projects over the boundaries of sections and companies, and in which various specialists work for a set period of time in accordance to needs. However, I refer to a virtual world as "the basis of the company organization." It may be better to call my concept a "network company." This network company is as different as heaven and earth from the companies that have existed in present times.
  The same trend is seen in the computer world. Just when computers began appearing in the world of business, the original image of the actual product was that it was the "holy of holies." However, as the era changed, computers have begun to be referred to as "just a box if there is no software." With this, further decentralization occurred to reveal that the "quality of the network" is the central issue facing the computer society.

  The company, in other words, the virtual world, is a world in which the grand, thick walls of a company are like a castle and are now boldly being torn away.
  Naturally, there have been misunderstandings and strained interpretations, such as people criticizing our measures as steps being taken with cold-blooded restructuring in mind, or simply as a spiced up way of forcing senior company members out of the company. However, the answer is the "associates system." Why? Because it is virtual.
  I want to remodel our company into a location where people gather with a view that each company member is an independent associate, and that they themselves are independent members of a joint ownership.
  When humans become very motivated, morale improves. When they gather in teams, and then in groups, the morale at the work site improves even further.
  I described management as risk taking in and of itself. The reason I decided to choose the risk of tearing away company walls is because of my deep trust in the "associates" at Kato Spring.