Doi Shiba Zuke Honpo was founded in 1901 as a road side shop. Ever since it has been producing pickled vegetable, like shiba zuke, a very famous survenior from Kyoto. We had an interview with Takahiro DOI, a executive director.

Shuntaro, the first son of Kiyotaro, founder of the company, succeeded to the family business in 1957. In the same year, Shuntaro, 2^nd president, made it a limited company. After Shuntaro passed away, Seiichiro, his first son, became president and Takao, his second son, was appointed to executive director for production, finance and general affairs. Seiichiro clarified division of roles like the above, which functioned to compliment each other. As a result of the said role sharing and partly because of the economic and travel boom, their business expanded largely. Takao took over the presidency in 1991. Takeshi bcame president and Takahiro executive director in 2001 when the company commemorated its hundredth-year anniversary.

Takeshi, the current president, started working for the company soon after graduation from college. He worked at its shops in department stores in Tokyo. He was also involved in producing vegetables actually, which is regarded as an important job to be president. He tries to promote interaction with managements of other industries and to broaden his perspective. He takes advantage of human and intellectual networks for his management and strategy. Takahiro tries to strengthen the internal organization by using knowledge and expertise that he acquired when he used to work for a bank after graduating from college.

Takeshi and Takahiro who are brothers of the 4^th generation of the family business, used to lend their hands in the family business together. Through these experiences they learned about how to make the traditional Shiba Zuke, most popular product of the company, and strengthened their relationships with employees as well. Through these experiences, both could foster a sense of responsibility as a next leader. This may be one of the strong points of family business.

The corporate culture of Doi Shiba Zuke is a cheerful atmosphere and family-like harmony if simply put. The number of employees exceeds 100, but it is like an one big family. We guess this must be from the fact that family members have been working with employees since their childhood. Judging from the fact that more than 90% participates an annual company-sponsored recreational trip, which has abolished in other companies, the company has maintained a good corporate culture in which they have smooth communication.

On the other hand, they are always concerned about the demerits of family business. They make every effort not to cause a factional dispute within the family. For instance, they limit the number of management people from each family. They also have a clear distinction between the main family and the branch families. Takeshi who was from a branch family took over the presidency in 1991 as said earlier, since no suitable candidate existed at that time. He would say often that he kept the position temporarily and had to return it back to the main family.

Doi Shiba Zuke Honpo has the following company motto:

Be on good terms with other family members

Be on good terms with employees.

Pay attention to the main business.

Do business within your means.

Do business for employees.

Contribute to the community.

Takahiro says that their way of business has been more or less conventional and on a top-down basis so far. However, he said the company is going to modernize their management. They are making a new corporate culture. The company has stipulated a vision called "15 hopes". They did not create but put their practices in writing. Time has come when a lot of experienced employees who have supported the development of the company retire. They need to develop human resources for product development, research on pickled vegetable and production technology. They want to change the passive attitude of the employees into a bottom-up organization.

They have tried to find challenges and issues in conflicts through the four generations. They have also solved each issue or challenge by trial and error. That kind of challenging spirit has been constant as a corporate culture. They have started to tackle something new to carry on such a good tradition and to make it a basis for a new development.

Question 1: Where do you think the harmonious atmosphere in the company comes from?

Question 2: What do you think about the measure to limit the number of employees from one family?