Episode #458: Kokorogamae - The Secret Japanese Ingredient For Business Success

Kokorogamae means to clarify your true intention. It is a compound word combining two characters – one for kokoro and the other for kamae, which becomes gamae when in the compound format. Kokoro can be translated as our spirit and kamae as our stance. If you have studied a Japanese traditional martial art, you will recognise kamae as the command to take your fighting stance. Why is this idea of your true intention important for those of us in business?

We talk a lot about trust is business, but this is the outward manifestation of our inner thoughts, which in turn guides our actions. Kokorogamae as a concept goes straight to the spark of the idea, the attitude, the approach, the true intention. In traditional Japanese arts such as ikebana, the master will strip the stems of the leaves themselves, rather than leaving it to their assistants. Similarly, in shodo, the master will grind the inkstone to produce the ink for the calligraphy to be written. In martial arts, the master will sit quietly at the start of the training mediating to clear the mind of all the extraneous thoughts that hinder the teaching process. In each case, the masters are seeking total clarity of their intention before they take action.

What about in business? If we are leading our team, have we clarified our intention? Is it to drive the team hard and use our staff as a springboard to the next rung on the ladder of our ever upward, glorious career? Or is it to build leader bench strength in the organisation, to mentor our team members and invest in their growth? Are we honestly working hard to develop our people?

Are we working cooperatively, focused on beating the external competition, seeing the big picture to make sure the whole enterprise moves forward? Or are we assembling our troops to fight with other parts of the organisation to position us to grasp the brass ring ahead of our internal rivals. Are we focused on ourselves or the success of the enterprise?

What about your current boss? Is it all about them or do you feel they really care about you? If you had to identify their kokorogamae what would it be? Now if you are the boss, truthfully ask yourself, “how would my team describe my kokorogamae?”.

Do we treat our business suppliers as pawns to be squeezed until we ring the last nickel out of them to our advantage or are they seen as partners? What is our kokorogamae? I am always astonished by the terms of payment of some the biggest companies on the planet. They demand and get payment terms of 60 days, 90 days and in some cases 120 days for our services. We are a peanut compared to them and their kokorogamae is they can do whatever they like because their might is right. These same companies talk about the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), compliance control and ethics in business, but to me their kokorogamae is clear – pressure the little guy, because they can. In my experience, small companies always pay each other on thirty days terms, because we know that business is tough and cash is oxygen. Their kokorogamae, their true intention is correct because they know if it isn’t, they will lose trust and disappear.

What about in sales? The pressure to sell is on. You are on a low base and a high commission or 100% commission and if you don’t sell, then you don’t eat. Or you are being pushed by your sales manager to recommend certain products because the margin for the company is better, regardless of the impact on the client? Get the money in the door or else.

So I ask the question, “is the kokorogamae or true intention to just get the sale?”. That to me is totally wrong thinking. The kokorogamae should be to get the re-order, not the single sale. We should become partners with our clients and we should be thinking lifetime value of the buyer, not about some smash and grab antics.

A businessman I know here in Tokyo told me that he used to work for a US company where he had to keep going to new towns to sell their product. It was cheap, but the quality was bad, so like a shark, he had to keep swimming and moving on to the next town to make sales. He couldn’t go back again to where he had been, because he would have faced a hostile reception. That kokorogamae for me is basically an evil way of thinking and I don’t want to deal with people like that. Significantly, back when he was selling his product, we didn’t have the power of social media like we do today.

That influence was brought home to me when I saw a post on LinkedIn about “has anyone seen Mr. X., he owes me money”. I knew both people and was shocked to see this dirty laundry splashed all over social media. I went on to do a search on Mr. X and I found a viper pit of unhappy business partners all complaining about his kokorogamae. I checked with my people “are we dealing with Mr. X?”. It turned out we were in very preliminary discussions. We immediately broke off those talks. I reflected to myself that you should have a correct kokorogamae anyway, but you really need to have a correct kokorogame in modern business.

What is your organisation’s and your own personal kokorogamae? Are they aligned? Is your true intention the right one? Once upon a time, you could burn staff and buyers in isolation. Today, bad news about bad people travels at warp speed on the internet. Let’s make sure our true intention, our kokorogamae, is the right one, because we all want that secret ingredient for a long and successful business career.