Mogic considers

As plants grow.

It is time to start replanting and pruning plants in the office.

I wander around looking at the plants, mumbling to myself how big they have become or how weak they may be, and carry them up to the rooftop.

As Golden Week approaches, we will have more sunny days, and working in short sleeves will be just fine if you are a little sweaty.

There is a store near Shakujii that carries rare plants and trees, so I tend to have plants that I don't see everyday.

Recently, there are many flowerpots with good textures, so if you are particular about what you buy, they end up costing more than the plants, which is not good.

Pampas grass has weakened this year.

The plant bears such large ears that it is commonly called "haunted silver grass.

Originally from South America, including Brazil and Argentina, it seems to have been introduced during the Meiji period (1868-1912) for ornamental purposes.

I bought it a few years ago because it looked interesting to have a large Miscanthus sinensis in my office, but since it loves sunlight, it gradually lost its vigor after being indoors all the time.

We decided to give it over to a room with a balcony to grow in search of light.

They will cut off the long, thin, dead leaves, check the rooting, and figure out how to adjust the soil.

So, as I work on various plants, I look back on the year's growth.

Of course, each room with a plant also naturally gives a sense of the growth of its members.

From the Management Concerns Survey

Before I formed my company, I had seen surveys on entrepreneurship and management conducted by chambers of commerce and ministries.

A quick look at the company's three main problems: inability to attract new customers, inability to hire good people, and cash flow difficulties.

I thought that would be true, and also wondered why it all boils down to these three.

Can't hire good people because of cash flow difficulties?
Is your cash flow so low because you can't find new clients?
Is it because you don't have the right people?

We will continue to deepen the information to make it more useful to us.

Assuming that we assume countermeasures to the three problems of A) not being able to develop new customers, B) not being able to hire good people, and C) cash flow difficulties, the lack of funds in C) is just a matter of not spending money for the time being, and the inability to hire good people in B) is just a matter of doing my best for the time being.

What remains is A) to develop new customers. The idea is that as long as we can manage this task, we can do something about it.

However, after all this time, I finally realized that I do not have a proper understanding of what a "new customer" is.

We use them because we don't know what they are more than words.

The word "new customer" is also from the seller's point of view, so I really need to imagine a better image of the person with whom I am signing a contract.

Then again, new challenges arise.

What is the expectation that makes you want to sign a contract?
What is normal satisfaction after signing a contract?
What is above-normal satisfaction?
Is it better if the above-normal satisfaction lasts forever?　etc.

Running a company allows us to create our own agenda as much as we like, and that can be fun.

What you see in the subtraction series

There is a theme called the subtraction series, which involves subtracting "what seems most important" from "what is obvious" and seeing what is left.

It is like what happens when you take the red bean paste out of anpan.

You are free to think about whether it will be just bread or air anpan.

I quote at the beginning from a book that considered what would happen if we subtracted year-over-year sales and quarterly targets from capitalization.

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Minority Design
h ttps:// wrl.co.jp/2020/12/25/minority-design/

Since childhood, I have been saved by numerous creators.

omission (of middle part of a text)

But when I jumped into the workforce, I realized that people in the "creator" professions in all industries were tired.

The reason for this is that the economy is eating up the talent that we have.

omission (of middle part of a text)

But on the other hand, I think people are beginning to notice.

That it is not all about meeting numbers such as 10 "1%" sales over the previous year or meeting "quarter" goals.

With a shrinking workforce, shrinking domestic market, and widening disparities in many areas, we are running out of breath and will collapse if we only try to meet our short-term goals at full speed.

One junior student tweeted this to me.

Where the hell is capitalism headed?"

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One answer is "capitalism" - "sales and profits" = "realizing the importance of minorities."

Sales and profits, if left alone, will approximate the focus on the majority in terms of efficiency, so there will tend to be less consideration for minorities.

This may also be the reason why a setting like the SDGs is daringly necessary.

There is no particular answer, but if you subtract "dreams" from "life," "your rights" from "society," and "president" from "company," you will notice things that you may or may not have seen.

Why an office in Shakujii?

It has already been 10 years since we opened our office in Shakujii.

Recently, I have been asked in interviews, "Why do you have an office in Shakujii?" I will try to write down the reason.

There are so many that it is difficult to explain verbally.

Why is the office located in Shakujii?

I wanted a place with a lot of greenery and a relaxing atmosphere.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, I thought it would be better if everyone's home and office were closer to each other.

There are very few IT companies in Ishigami, and I thought I would soon be able to say that I was Ishigami's number one IT company.

There are no other companies to compare with, and they don't seem to be hurried.

I wanted to question the "common sense" of setting up an office in the center of Tokyo.

I felt that 20 years from now, the city center would not be the only office.

I wanted to do something together with people in the community.

I thought I could contribute to local restaurants if there were more people working there.

The office space cost per tsubo was lower than in central Tokyo, and the company wanted to use the savings for employee benefits.

. because I didn't have to ride the commuter train.

I used to have meetings at a family restaurant in Shakujii when I first started.

To do something that is not common sense, I need to consider the rationale for it from various angles.

With all these reasons, there is still room for people to say, "Why not just take the plunge and go regional?" I will answer that question.

Companies that make extensive use of IT inevitably need the help of web engineers, designers, directors, and planners, so from the standpoint of the economy of concentration, it was not a good idea to locate in a rural area from the start. Although it is possible in the future, we thought it would be a good first step to draw on Tokyo's strengths.

The first two are the following.

Then, after weighing the advantages of the city center = people experiencing IT-ness and the advantages of the rural area = easy living with plenty of space and time, we decided that a location near 17 km from the city center would be better.

Well, I think I am overthinking it, but as a result, looking back, I had a lot of unexpected fun.

And now that various subsidiaries have been established, we will have to come up with ideas for new developments.

Infodemics and News Deserts

The pandemic caused by coronas has brought a huge influx of information to the Internet.

The phenomenon is called an information epidemic.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has an interesting page on infodemic surveys.

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Current Information Circulation on New Coronavirus Infections
h ttps:// www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/r02/html/nd123100.html

Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting (2020) estimates that the world's information transmission capacity has expanded 68 times since the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic of 2002.
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And although it depends on the method of calculation, the title of the Detroit Tohmatsu research report is "Information Transmission Increased 1.5 Million Times in a Century - Rapid Contagion of Information "Infodemics"". In particular, the amount of information and number of contents seem to be having a major impact.

While there is a flood of information, there is also the problem of news deserts.

This refers to the phenomenon that local newspapers in the U.S. are increasingly disappearing with the rise of online media and are no longer providing necessary news to local residents.

Infodemics flooded with information and news deserts depleted of local news.

If only human cognitive capacity could increase 1.5 million-fold in a century, but given that not much has changed, how can we cope with "information that swells and dries up"?

I wonder if there should be a course called "cooking practice of information (infocooking)" at least from elementary school.

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Reference information: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Promotion of Information Education
h ttps:// www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/zyouhou/detail/1369613.htm
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Message in a bottle

Now I am just called "representative" anymore, and I rarely have the opportunity to teach interns or new graduates directly.

It may or may not happen once after the first month of employment.

The executive directors and chiefs are following up on this, so there's no way to get out.

That's all well and good, but a little rusty, I started to create a column site that only those who work at Mogic can read.

There are many miscellaneous topics, from basic knowledge as a member of society, job hunting problems, things to think about in your 20s, the three major expenses of life, the story of how Mogic was created, the stance we want our employees to take, and so on. All in all, there are probably about 200 articles.

The atmosphere at Mogic is a bit different, so I hope people will look at it when they wonder, "Why so many events and education?" and hope you will look at it when you have questions.

Writing a column for members who will come in the future is in itself a strange feeling.

However, I hope to deliver a bit of today's exuberance along with it, just like the bottle mail that people used to put letters in small bottles and float them out to sea.

How to match the rhythm

At the heart of a personal computer is an integrated circuit called a CPU, which performs various calculations.

In addition, there is memory for temporary storage, hard disks for long-term storage of large amounts of data, and external connection terminals, which work together in complex ways.

There is a secret to collaboration, and that is rhythm.

Since a large amount of processing is done simultaneously using electrical signals, if each part is out of alignment, it makes no sense at all.

Electronic circuits have "oscillators," or rhythm makers, that produce accurate and fast rhythms.

Many people have heard of the word quartz, which in Japanese is quartz (quartz crystal) as it is, cut thin and vibrating when voltage is applied.

I sometimes use rhythms that I have created by applying them.

Rhythm is also a major factor in human movement, and I recently read in a paper that the hippocampus, the part of the brain related to memory, is in a 4 to 8 Hz rhythm.

Rhythm seems to be important for the brain, too, to link the parts that are divided by function, such as sight and hearing.

However, there seems to be a debate over whether the system is centrally managed like a personal computer or whether it is decentralized and aligned by taking advantage of functional localization.

Thinking about such rhythms, I wonder what the rhythm that makes a company function should be.

Mogic has never had a numerical goal or roadmap. Each person or team brings up an idea at their own time, gets feedback, and then, poof, they're together and gone.

Spring rooftop is closed.

The Mogic office has a rather spacious rooftop where we sometimes sunbathe, nap, roast coffee, or work on wood, but the best time to do so is at dusk.

Fuji rises faintly as the sun sets, and the lights of the Sky Tree and buildings are reflected in the background.

As it gets a little darker, you can just barely see the first magnitude stars, and right now you can see Aldebaran in Taurus, Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and then Mars and Saturn shimmering.

As the weather warms up after the first day of spring, the cedar pollen will arrive, so the rooftop will be closed soon.

Next would be a small bookshelf on the stairs to begin a select book section.

Throughout the year, we find small pleasures in every corner of the office and share them with everyone. Such Mogic-ness begins today.