Paper Clip Frugality as Operating Religion
Books Teaching This Pattern
Evidence
Itochu - The Strongest Merchant Beyond the Zaibatsu Corporations
野地秩嘉 · 2 highlights
“In the president’s office, the three characters “Ka-Ke-Fu” are framed and displayed. They stand for “earning (profits), cutting (wastes), protecting (from losses).” He regarded “Ka-Ke-Fu” as the principle of business of the Omi merchants he admires, and has put it into practice. Instilling in employees the awareness to keep an eye on both offense and defense in business is what propelled Itochu to the top of the trading industry.”
“When companies grow large, it’s difficult to imitate others’ successes, even if you see that their performance has improved. Looking back at Okafuji’s messages since he took office, he did not make bold declarations like “We will become number one in the industry” from the start. He used carefully thought-out strategies even in PR both internally and externally.”
The Invisible Billionaire, Daniel Ludwig
Unknown · 2 highlights
“Over the years, Ludwig earned the reputation of being the Scrooge of the shipping industry. One of his employees, a story goes, on being asked to suggest a design for a fleet flag symbolizing the Ludwig enterprises, submitted a drawing of two hands stretching a rubber dollar bill. Some years later, the captain of a Ludwig ship made the extrava¬ gant mistake of mailing in a report of several pages held together by a paper clip. He received a sharp rebuke for his prodigality: “We do not pay to send ironmongery by air mail!””
“With Ludwig, work is almost an obsession. A non-smoker, only a moderate drinker, Spartan in personal habits, business gets almost 100% of his attention. If he’s retiring in outside life, in company operations he is stage front most of the time, a one-man director who relies on assistants and in-betweens to clean up the details. On a project, his greatest gift is seeing the big picture. Once a project begins, Ludwig doesn’t rest easy until completion date. There’s no lack of projects — an associate speaks of his unlimited ingenuity in dreaming up new ways of doing things. He willingly gambles on an idea that looks good — but his formula is to add a large dose of hard work to the gamble.”