We had a birthday party for Hiratsuka Take-chan's 32nd birthday. This is my fourth year at KOMA. He never lies, badmouths, makes excuses or shifts the blame, and he has a strong sense of responsibility, determination and guts.He also holds an architect's license and has the skills, knowledge and passion for manufacturing. He has a lot of experience as a working adult, and while he doesn't act strangely dependent or complain unnecessarily, he does voice his opinions. Despite this, he is a somewhat elusive free spirit and just the right amount of clumsy. Either way, he's always smiling and has a calm, manly personality, and is one of the most trustworthy friends I'm glad to have met. When he joined the company, the work environment was still tough, with a lot of passive work and constant deadlines, with only about four days off per month and working at least 15 hours a day. It was also a time when exhausted young employees were quitting one after another, and rather than taking on new challenges, the priority was to "rebuild the company," and I found myself often feeling frustrated. This has gradually improved, and now I work 8 hours a day and have 10 days off a month. Now we all have more time to create. We are able to utilize each other's strengths, and we are gradually changing our culture so that the things we want to make and the things we want to do become our work. Hiratsuka Take-chan helped me get through some tough times and is one of the key players in creating the environment we have today. We've always heard the saying, "Failure is the seed of success," and it's so true. I've learned the hard way over the 15 years since I became independent that the world isn't so simple that you can easily succeed without any failures. But on the other hand, if you make as many small failures as possible as quickly as possible, that will just lead to a pile of small successes. And the amount of time, effort, and money you can spend on that small failure increases, and that in itself is growth. Then failure becomes part of the fun. The reason I can be so optimistic is because of my trustworthy friends. In the future, I would like to work together with him to develop new products, taking advantage of his knowledge and curiosity. I hope we can grow together while making lots of mistakes. We had the 32 years old birthday party of Takeshi Hiratsuka. We have spent 4 years since he joined KOMA. He has never made fool of himself including lying, speaking ill of others, blaming onto others, has strong sense of responsibility, guts, strong will, skills / knowledge / passion for manufacturing with the license of architecture. He has plenty of working experiences without spoiling himself or unnecessarys, however, is able to make his opinions. At the same time, he is free-spirited person difficult to figure out, while properly clumsy. Anyway, he is smiling and generous manly man, and one of the most reliable members whom I am so glad to have met. When he joined, KOMA had still struggled with hard working environment with many passive tasks always tied up with delivery dates. Employees had worked 15 hours per day and 4 days offs per month. At that time, we had experienced a series of resignations of young employees, I would be irritated with the situation where we had to prioritize "turning-around" rather than new challenges. The working environment has been gradually improved, we work 8 hours a day and there are 10 days-off a month. We are able to spend time on creating something. We have changed our company culture to make what, each employee would like to make or achieve taking advantage of his and/or her good points and originality, are in line with what the company is supposed to do. Hatsuka Take-chan is one of key members who have overcome the tough situation with us and made the prevailing working environments. We frequently hear Japanese verb "Every failure is a stepping stone that leads to success", which seems to be true and I have learned that the life is not that easy as I gain anything without pains since I had become independent 15 years ago, conversely, piling up small failures in the short period of time would be equal to piling up of small successes. And, the growth would be defined as the increases in the length of time and the amount of expenses consumed for small failures. Then, we may enjoy failures ourselves. This kind of optimistic way of thinking would be brought by reliable members. I would like to cooperatively develop products with him taking advantage of his knowledge and his sprit of inquiry. I would like to grow with him making many failures.
