What 19th Century, Heart-Centered, Values-Based Businesses Can Teach Us Today
On Valentine’s Day, Japanese women give men chocolates.
You can thank a 1960 ad campaign by confectioner Morinaga and Co. for this Japanese twist on a tradition invented by Richard Cadbury in 1861. Cadbury realized he could sell more chocolate in fantasy heart-shaped boxes.
Pioneering business and PR are in Morinaga’s DNA, given its founder’s story.
Taichiro Morinaga was dirt poor and orphaned. He went to America to seek work -- hard to come by for an Asian in virulently racist 19th-century California. In the US he found Jesus and Western candy making, returning to Japan to spread the word on both.
Today Morinaga & Co. has ~$2 Billion in sales, and is still innovating, e.g. Hi-Chew candy, a cross between gum, gummy, and taffy.
Taichiro Morinaga’s ahead-of-his-time business precepts:
Start small and keep costs low.
Allocate ⅓ of capital for start-up costs, ⅓ for growth working capital, and ⅓ as a reserve.
Sincerity is more important than immediate profit. He refused to betray his customers by making a box with a raised bottom to make it look like it held more chocolate.
Never sell a product unless it is honest and righteous, never discount the price you have announced, not even by a penny and plan your business for ten years.
Morinaga turned the factory from a private store into a corporation in 1910 and hired employees based on their character, regardless of family or educational background.
A pioneer in corporate philanthropy, he gave away powdered milk, biscuits, and caramels to victims of the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, building the firm’s reputation.
Today’s heart-centered, values-based businesses can learn a lot from their 19th-century predecessors.
Morinaga & Co., Ltd., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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