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Vol.1
Third Way. |
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My father, who at 94 is
enjoying his retirement, is the
founder and previous president
of Niccho, Inc.
The
story below is one that he told
me, following my entry to his
firm, and took place during the
rapid economic growth period of
the first half of the Showa
period. At that time, my father
worked as the sales director of
a major Japanese research
company.
A Human
Resources manager of a Japanese
company that was a major client
approached him to facilitate
the hiring of the manager’s
relative who had applied to his
company. The relative was a
recent graduate of the
University of Tokyo with a case
of tuberculosis, sufficient
grounds for not offering
employment to this young man.
The Human Resources Manager
requested my father to exclude
this information from the
pre-employment checks provided
to the hiring company.
At this period in time in
Japan, left-wing movements
among university students
abounded and Japanese companies
conducted extensive background
checks before hiring new
recruits. A case of
tuberculosis would have been
discovered during such a check;
however, succumbing to the
Human Resources Manager’s
request would have breached the
trust relationship between my
father’s employer and client
company. So my father decided
to think this through and
promised to come to a decision
in a few
days.
My
father was in a difficult
position: on one hand, he had
to respond to the requirements
of a major client, but by doing
so, he would have endangered
the reputation of his company
as a trustful research and
investigations firm.
After a few days of
consideration, my father
arrived at the following
decision: to entrust the
background check of this
University of Tokyo graduate to
a junior and inexperienced
researcher under his
employment. The Human Resources
Manager agreed to this proposal
and my father proceeded with
its implementation.
My
father does not know the result
of the background checks, nor
whether the Graduate was
offered a position at his
client’s company. This subject
was not discussed with the
Human Resources manager despite
subsequent meetings and
business engagements with him.
At the end of this
narration, my father told me:
“I still don’t know whether the
Graduate was offered a
position, nor whether the
junior analyst assigned to the
background checks discovered
that he carried tuberculosis.
In such conditions, people
often only see two immediate
possible solutions. However, it
becomes important in these
cases to sit back and think
through the solutions, so as to
propose an alternative
‘third-way’ solution that was
not considered previously.”
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