As the simple DNA model formed of a double helix structure began to emerge, the 25-year-old James Watson, in a fit of emotion, said to his research partner Francis Crick, "There is no way that such a beautiful structure should not exist!" I will never forget this story.
  The unique beauty of this very simple model containing all the genetic information of life impresses all people the first time they see it. Shumacher, who said, "Small is beautiful," wrote in his book "Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered," "From my experience, it is more difficult to recover the straight and simple direction than to proceed in multiple directions that incorporate many elements."

  "The backbone of my administrative theory is a simple shape." It was with this thinking that I announced the group policy "KISS" in 1994. "KISS" is the acronym created from taking the first letters of the words in the phrase, "Keep it simple, stupid!" It is a phrase that is often used in the United States.
The intent is to not only make the organization and system simple, but to make the thinking simple and actions positive as well.
  As I mentioned in the preceding section, the administration and organization must become simpler when the era demands more speed.
  A vertical company structure is like the stacking of flimsy sheds. It is easy for both time and information to be wasted at one's desk or in one's pocket in such an environment. For example, there is no meaning if one day is needed to exchange information on an object that is produced at the speed of several hundred per minute. It is better to talk with your associates and make a product rather than to think hard alone about why you cannot make it correctly. Come to think of it, are there not many places within a company that serve as brakes to reduce speed? The purpose of this policy is to remove these barriers.

  I have long thought that Kato Spring grew too big for a parts manufacturer. This attitude has led to the specific incorporation of a suitable scale within the associates system, but this is because I had felt the crisis that large corporation sickness had already begun to affect our constitution.
  Our customers recognize the Kato Group as a company deserving of respect. However, the minute our handling of an issue slackens even slightly, we receive claims stating, "This is so unlike Kato Spring."
  The question then becomes how to handle these situations, so rules and standards are established. This causes matters to become complex instead, and in turn, processes slow down. It is also easy for a negative cycle to be created, in which countermeasures are delayed or forgotten.
  It is often said that complex items easily break. Items with a simple design have beauty incorporated into them by making functions simple and capturing the true essence of the object.
  The designer of the mega-hit car Bluebird once said the following, a comment littered with truth, "An engine without simple beauty always has something missing functionally." He is saying that simple is beautiful.
  It is my belief that a flat organization that achieves a simple appearance anyone can easily understand at one glance is a beautiful system that can handle intense change and always keep the minds of members fresh.

  KISS is also often used at Kato Spring for one more meaning, the KATO International Synergy Summit. This refers to an international conference held once a year at one of the international offices, where leaders of the overseas group gather.
  Another international meeting we hold is called "GOLF," which stands for the "Global Operations Leadership Forum." Changing the name to the softer sounding pronunciation of "GOLF," the conference is designed to be a place where opinions are exchanged freely.
  These international conferences reveal themes associated with business, which is becoming more severe each year. There are many cases such as price competitions with late market entrants and offensives by similar products with new technologies in which a mistaken or late response by Kato Spring will change our position from being on the offensive to being on the defensive. This is true for both international and domestic markets.
  For example, the Kato Spring head office once became entangled in a price war with a cheap Asian product in the area of media parts, which was a pillar of our business at the time. In addition, we were late in introducing a new product with high added value. Consequently, we dropped to a deficit in the mid-90s, and it took us three years to recover. This was also due to our steady growth performance being the result of riding the coattails of our electronic and office machinery manufacturer customers and then being unable to adapt to changes in the market environment as we became used to our status. Before we knew it, the situation created an atmosphere in the company of easy "passive marketing," in which there was a belief that sales would increase if Katoites simply followed the instructions of their superiors. Although it was a painful experience for Kato Spring, it was a valuable lesson. This experience reveals that the proposal-type business that we are regularly pursuing hasn't begun to function sufficiently yet.

  The general-use, free-stop hinge, "hexa torque," that we developed in 1995 is a typical proposal-type product that completely reversed the regular design stages of set maker to hinge maker to Kato Spring. In addition, the Tangless Coil Thread is a revolutionary product for which patents have been acquired in 20 countries.
  The essence of proposal-type business will also extend the properties of such hit products and broaden our base. There is still much room to increase the synergistic effects of technology.
  Due to the characteristics of precision spring products, there are rarely cases where the sales per single user account for more than 10% of total sales. Moreover, risk can be dispersed because there is a broad scope of clients even within a single industry. However, there is also another issue that needs to be dealt with concerning risk dispersion. This is risk dispersion within customer satisfaction. In the past, a single factory would produce vast quantities of a product to attain productivity. The countermeasures to implement if that factory were to experience a fire, earthquake, nuclear accident or such unforeseeable incident had been ignored.
  From now on, we must place priority on creating a system that prevents the occurrence of problems on the production lines of our customers even if such an accident should happen. Even if costs rise slightly, attention will be focused on customer satisfaction. That is the era we have entered, and absent of such measures, a company will not survive.