Mogic considers

With the combination of a small number of people + software + servers and robots
We are promoting a new era of company management.
We hope to share part of this process with you in this corner.

Representative Director Yoichi Yamane

June 25, 2024

Rewrite the organization as information

It occurred to me to do a thought experiment that is typical of IT companies.

First, assume that everything in the organization can be converted into a "flow of information".

In short, everything is considered "information flow," including the contents of e-mails and meetings, casual daily conversations, teaching and learning, hiring new people, getting to know someone you don't know, preparing quotations and contracts, issuing invoices and checking payments, managing cash flow, setting up office facilities and work rules, checking attendance time, enhancing security, and so on. Checking office equipment and work rules, checking time and attendance, enhancing security, etc., are all considered "information flow.

The question then becomes how best to route (design routes) if one is in a position to have a bird's eye view of all information.

This does not mean that because you are the head of the organization, you are authorized to view all information, but it is a hypothetical situation where you really have access to all information.

In a normal work site, it is enough to process the information coming from one person's point of view sequentially, but in this case, it is difficult to keep track of everyone's information at the same time.

Even if it were for one day in an organization of 10 people, the simple addition of all the information volumes would be enormous.

Furthermore, as time passes, current information creates new information as a chain of new information, which, if left alone, will accumulate linearly (whether in a straight line or a curve).

The image is that if nothing is done, a lot of unread mail will accumulate.

Now, what should we do?

First, consider the method of selection & prioritization.

The granularity of information is determined in advance and divided into appropriate sizes.

Prioritize the divisions based on the measure of their impact on the organization as a whole.

A category that affects more than one category is considered higher than one category.

Select from the top of the priority list and discard the lower ranges.

This way, the amount of information can be reduced, since the resource of attention can be devoted only to the top priorities.

However, risks remain.

What may seem to have a small impact from the perspective of the organization as a whole may miss the larger impact from the perspective of society outside the organization.

We will call this the top-down "single viewpoint trap.

Second, consider node & filtering methods.

Determine the important nodes (nodes) that will serve as hubs and spokes, and establish filtering (screening) functions at these nodes.

In layman's terms, information is gathered from the members to the head of the department, and the head of the department makes a comprehensive judgment and then gives the information to a higher node.

If the node takes a hierarchical structure, the more steps you go through, the more the information decays.

This is also a risk.

It is easy to make partially-optimal decisions only around important nodes, an issue that can easily delay information when there is a hierarchy or when nodes are far from each other.

Partially optimized node-by-node information arrives at different times, and as a result, it takes longer to make a policy decision as a whole, which may magnify the bad effects.

We will call this the bottom-up "multiple node trap.

Third, consider redundancy & compression techniques.

It applies what is used in information theory to minimize the number of packets to be sent.

Compresses data by treating similar portions of all information as identical.

If you have information that X = {A, A', A'', A''', B, B'}, it is shorter to do something like {A*4, B*2}.

Therefore, if all information that is similar to each other is considered redundant and identical, it can be compressed, thus reducing the amount of information while maintaining the overall structure.

This also has risks.

If too many parts are made similar, the compression ratio may be too high and the information may not be understood at the destination.

On the other hand, if the resolution is increased too much, there is no place to compress.

In other words, it is difficult to determine the criteria for what constitutes similarity or not.

We will call this the "redundancy level trap" due to resolution.

For reasons of space limitations, I cannot expand further, so I will force my way into a summary.

Since there is an overwhelming increase in information within organizations compared to 10 or 20 years ago, I propose that we should work on organizational networks as informatics rather than organizational charts as geometry or taxonomy, without being afraid of various traps when new problems arise.

June 17, 2024

Recursive Narrative

When talking to engineers, "Recursion (recursion) is all about finding the right structure.

So this time, I will use recursion to go a little farther.

First, from the definition of precondition recursion

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Recursion (Recursion)
h ttps:// w.wiki/3TjR

Recursion, or recursive, refers to the occurrence of references to the thing being described in a description of the thing itself.

abbreviation

When an object is placed between parallel matching mirrors, its image is reflected infinitely in the mirrors. Thus, when something is partially composed of itself or defined by itself, it is said to be "recursive.

abbreviation

Linguist Noam Chomsky and others have argued that the fact that there is no upper limit to the number of eligible sentences and no upper limit to the length of eligible sentences in a language can be explained as a consequence of recursion in natural language.

abbreviation

Programming languages that have the concept of procedures and functions often allow the procedure itself to be called again within a procedure. This is called a recursive call, and is suitable for describing algorithms that have an inherently recursive structure (recursive algorithms), such as factorial calculus and the Fibonacci sequence.

abbreviation

Shapes that appear to have resulted from recursive processes, such as structures in which one large part branches into several smaller self-similar parts (fractals), are sometimes seen in plants and animals. The vegetable romanesco is an example.

abbreviation

The matryoshka doll, which originated in Russia, is an example of physical modeling of the concept of recursion, and in Japan such forms are also called "neshi-zaiku.

abbreviation

A 1956 work by Maurits Escher (Print Gallery (M. C. Escher)) is a print depicting a distorted city, including a gallery with recursive paintings, in an endlessly stately composition.
Wooooooooo!

In light of this, I feel that the management of the company is extremely recursive.

A similar word is "regression," which means "to return to the original position or state, or to repeat it," so management would still be recursive.

Let me give you a simple example.

Today I am going to read and listen to a talk to think about finances.

After a moment's pondering, we decide that this is the best way to go about it and take action.

Three months later, I think about finances once more.

I already thought this through last time, but I will look over it again.

We find unexpected challenges from a different angle and decide to tackle them.

Then, three months later, we will delve further into the financials once more.

If you think it won't happen again, you will find new challenges.

It's not just the same situation, it's a crux back using the structure that has been in place.

They never tire of returning, wandering from theme to theme.

So, for me, management is a "story that can be continued.

June 12, 2024

Asked about all kinds of "growth".

Every few months a representative interview comes along.

This is the last issue of the series, which is early in the year.

We were asked about "growth" from all angles.

Surprisingly, growth is difficult to put into words.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
- I'm a little nervous about this last installment. Let me start by asking you about Mogic's growth to date. I understand that you started out as a one-person consulting firm. Why did you decide to add more people?

Yamane: Since we registered as a joint stock company, we decided that we would work with others somewhere else.

But if you start a company with a few people, the fixed costs will be heavy.

These are things like labor costs and rent.

To get the project off the ground while financing it, we had to work hard to prepare a large amount of funds at the beginning.

I wanted to do it more loosely and thoughtfully, so I started alone.

Fortunately, I got a job from a friend and acquaintance, and within a few months it looked like we could make it work, so we put a team together.

Let's grow up! Rather, I just wanted to do more of what I could do.

- It took you about a year to start your own branded service after you started your business. What did you need to do to start your own service?

Yamane: After all, it is very difficult to create and expand a service all by ourselves (laughs).

No wonder.

After choosing a field that could become a business, planning, gathering people, working out the funding, and managing the schedule, we finally release the product.

Furthermore, that's where the real challenge begins. There are running costs for servers, development, promotion, and marketing, but we can't devote that much time or resources.

So I was always looking for ways to get it off the ground with the least amount of man-hours.

It is quite different from working for a company to create a service, so we had to carefully manage our own resources and gradually got better at it.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Long interviews like that are now being edited to rave reviews.

[To be added at a later date] Click here for the rest of the interview article.
h ttps:// www.mogic.jp/category/interview/14033

2024.06.04

Fail-safe, through-safe

When you are tinkering with machines, you often come across the word fail-safe.

In other words, a system that prevents injury even if it breaks down.

To expand, I quote from Wiki.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Fail-safe
h ttps:// w.wiki/3VNK

Fail safe (fail safe) is a reliability design method that ensures or encourages safe operation of a device or system in the event of failure due to damage to components or malfunction due to faulty operation or malfunction.

This is based on the assumption that equipment and systems 'will always fail.

abbreviation

In the case of an airplane, it is fail-safe if it is designed to glide to a safe landing even if it loses all thrust due to engine failure.

When a helicopter's engine stops, it can glide and land in the same manner as an airplane by using the autorotation method of flight.

abbreviation

When an overcurrent flows, the fuse itself melts and breaks, thereby stopping further overcurrent and preventing the board, etc. from burning out or catching fire.

In this regard, the insertion of fuses in electrical circuits and the fuses themselves are also a kind of fail-safe.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

We assume that 'it will always fail (make a mistake)'.

I feel this idea is very important in the operation and management of the company.

Needless to say, organizations and people make mistakes all the time.

You get it wrong whether you intend to or not.

I made two mistakes just now.

And if that's the case.

Without a doubt, we have to assemble it with mistakes.

Create a system and atmosphere where even if mistakes are made, they can be made well.

I think that is my idea of management.

If that's the case, just say it out loud.

While we aim to create an environment where if someone makes a mistake, someone else can point it out, and yet, to prevent fickle human beings from forgetting to point it out, we have a system that automatically detects such mistakes, and to avoid overlooking the possibility of mistakes when the system is designed in the first place, we usually set aside an hour or so to "look for mistakes together". While we try to set aside an hour a month for "looking for mistakes together," it is not perfect, of course, and we need to maintain a relaxed atmosphere in which mistakes that have occurred can be redefined as correct answers in a different way.

and then it became

if it comes to that

It's bad luck to talk about failure right from the start.
If you think of bad things, you attract bad things to your life.
Since everything has been fine up to now, there's no need to look for something wrong.
Don't complicate things, just take it as it comes.

If someone says something like that to me, I suddenly pretend to be a fool.

Otherwise, much later.

I should have thought about it more instead of just going with the flow."
We were all so excited that we could do it.
I thought momentum was the most important thing.
I didn't think it would come to that.

I don't want to say that.

I think it's safe to go through the opinions that seem right at first glance if they don't ring a bell.

Latest Articles

Interview with Representative

Monthly Archives