There is a segment in the film series "Gaia Symphony," directed by Jin Tatsumura that I was particularly impressed with. In this part of the film, the cultivation of tomatoes using the hydroponics farming method is mentioned. This method of cultivation enables one to attain a harvest of approximately 13,000 tomatoes from a single ordinary tomato seed. Normally, some 60 tomatoes can be harvested from a single seed. Hydroponics farming was researched and developed by the botanist Shigeo Nozawa. The method requires neither biotechnology nor special fertilizers.  Simply, it is an achievement impossible to understand within the accepted confines of science.
Mr. Nozawa once commented, "The tomato has a soul. I talked to the soul and assisted in the growth of the tomato by listening to what it said to me."
  Unbelievable results were obtained by providing the tomatoes with the nutrients and water required for growth, just as it is vital to provide factories with sufficient land and access to other essentials to freely spread their roots. The plants were then shielded from strong winds because they might stop growing when exposed to such elements because of the "feeling" that, "My stems might break if I continue to grow, and so I should stop growing now."

  The same theory is applicable to parents and children as well as management and employees. Companies may very well be guilty of not noticing when employees feel that growth should subside when working with them. If this is the actual case, it is important to recognize this aspect and give serious consideration as to how to promote continuous growth.
  At Kato Spring Works Co., Ltd. (Kato Spring), I have tried many new methods after giving consideration as to how I can draw out the abilities of each employee and help maximize their potential.
  In Japan, there is a saying, "If you love your children, let them travel." However, today's parents interpret that doing so may result in the child becoming lost or starving to death, thus they have judged that it is better not to let their children go. In the same manner, if new employees at a company were allowed to do as they wish, the workplace may well become chaotic. Consequently, many companies often entrust work to employees only after establishing various restrictions. It is my belief that individuals cannot grow under such an environment. Likewise, the children of Japanese families are prevented from growth as well.
  If a company wants its employees to grow, it must allow them to continuously challenge themselves, even at the cost of equipment failure or physical injury. Parents should also allow the same type of freedom to their children.
  Although repeating myself, a vital aspect of this is that individuals have the duty of living their lives to the fullest potential while alive on this earth. The duties of managers and parents are to assist in this process without causing interference. It is definitely wrong to block the abilities of others because of the conflicting beliefs of a manager or parent.

  My goal is to create a working environment that reflects the hydroponics farming method used for growing tomatoes. Since tomatoes have no preconceptions, they are able to naturally generate the abilities they are conceived with and obtain excellent results. The sense of values possessed by any human is molded by the society into which one is born and the environment he or she is raised in. Therefore, it is understandable why an employee becomes confused if management suddenly attempts to change his/her inbred sense of values after joining a company. In fact, such managerial efforts could go as far as causing serious rebellion.
  When I became president of Kato Spring 13 years ago, I was overly motivated and granted employees far, far greater freedom than they had ever had before. This caused corporate performance to drop. However, I did not give up. One thing I learned from that experience was to position preparation of the soil (i.e., corporate environment) as one of the most important managerial factors in the company, and approached this issue with great enthusiasm. When I finally judged that the soil was nearly ready, in 1997 I took the drastic step of establishing another company on the basis of creating a corporation free of conventional restraints. Every member of the new company, from the president on down, had been an employee at Kato Spring. They are people who have personally experienced and felt the improvements in the soil of that company.
  The name of our new company is Strawberry Corporation, and it has enjoyed rapid growth in the three years since its conception. Although improvements and trial-and-error activities will continue in the future, I believe that I have succeeded in implanting an administrative style based on the hydroponics method, and I am devoted to pursuing and implementing this administrative method from this time forward.

  Even though there has been excellent progress in improving the company's soil, there are employees, however, who cannot adapt to the hydroponics method. Many such employees are capable of feeling comfortable and fostering their potential in a non-hydroponics-type company environment, and I therefore believe that a company must be managed in a way that ensures the satisfaction of these employees as well.
  The system I choose to resolve this problem is referred to as the "associates system." This unprecedented system allows employees to choose the site that enables them to work at their optimum capacity. It is a great experiment for the employees of the company and myself as well. Six months have passed since introducing the associates system, and it has begun to function well.

  This book is devoted to "option management," the origin of the associates system concept, and is a compilation of an interim report that discusses the progress of system implementation and execution with as many references to actual operations and activities as possible.
  In addition to the publishing of this book, I will be releasing information concerning Option Management periodically via the website http://www.optionmanagement.net/, and wish to enter broad discussions with all persons interested. I look forward to the opportunity of spreading the awareness of this book and its contents as well as obtaining readers' collective comments and opinions via the website. Please feel free to establish links to it.
  In closing, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the stars of this book, the people of Kato Spring, Masatoshi Kasuya, chief editor of the Sanno Institution of Management's Publication Department, for his wonderful recommendations and diligent work in getting the book published in this format, and all other people affiliated. It is my true hope that this book can serve as even a small reference in the process of finding a future style of administrative management.

June 2000

Yuichi "Paul" Kato