Long-surviving businesses in Kyoto

Hi all,

I just returned from a trip to Kyoto and Nara, and coincidentally I found this article a while back and wanted to share it. This is about long-surviving businesses in Japan. Some of these businesses have existed for 300+ years, survived ill-fortune, bad economy and bad leadership. After my recent (and surprisingly popular) post about the Bonsai Rider, I thought it would be fun to explore the subject again. As stated previously, a good business plan and flexibility can spell success even in a disadvantageous environment, and in the article, a Kyoto professor makes a key point:

“Entrepreneurship is indispensable to even established firms that have been in business for centuries,” he said. “Constant reform makes continuation possible.”

One of the businesses dates back to the time of Oda Nobunaga the warlord, and survives even now through adaptation and shifting to what businesses work at the time. Today they sell tenugui, not garments, but that coupled with better location has helped.

Speaking from experience when working in technology corporations, you can see much of the same work. Companies that constantly strive to stay fresh and stay ahead, even if the plans are only half-baked, tend to thrive while other one-product-one-model business eventually lose out. I used to work in a small start-up company that had a good idea for a product, but poor design and a business model that depended on large, slow contracts with the government that could take years to hammer out. Even when the business was losing money, they just tried to hold out for more venture capitol and the existing contracts, rather than diversifying, and a couple years after I left, the company finally ran out venture capitol and closed its doors.

While in Kyoto recently, we had a tour of the famous Gion district via taxi on our way elsewhere. Traffic was terrible in those tiny, cramped, one-lane streets, so we were frequently stuck at this street or that. The taxi driver, friendly like every driver we met in Kyoto/Nara,¹ pointed out a store and mentioned that they made geta clogs for the geisha, or that this other store made hairpieces. It was clear some of these business stretched back well before modern times, and survived by a combination of hard-work and flexibility with the times. Keep in mind that Kyoto has suffered war and fire many times over the centuries too, so it’s not just hard economic times that some Kyoto business have had to adapt to.

Clearly today’s businesses can survive the same way, just as businesses in Asia have done for centuries, by following similar principles:

• Customer is first, always. Only then can you build loyalty to sustain you in difficult times.
• Customer needs will change with the times, so again put customer first, not business plan.

Far be it from me to be giving advice, but based on these businesses and what I saw from the Bonsai Rider, it’s clear what works and what doesn’t.

¹ My wife and father-in-law noticed the contrast right away compared to drivers in the Tokyo area, who were less friendly, more business-like. Personally, Kyoto/Nara taxi drivers reminded me of taxi drivers in Ireland as well, were things were a bit more laid back and they were happy to chat when given the chance.