Question

Background information: Hiroto Sati is the former CEO of the Sumāto Motor Corporation in Japan. It has been widely said that his mother named him well, as Hiroto matches his name which means ‘Soar, fly and command’. Hiroto was CEO of Sumāto from 2006 until his retirement in 2016. Under Hiroto’s leadership Sumāto rose from second lowest in popularity of Japanese cars within Japan, as measured by sales, to the second highest popular car in Japan. At the time of Sati leaving, Sumāto sales had soared in numbers to be second only to Nissan. Hiroto also led Sumāto to be a competitive contender for sales of Japanese cars in the United States and other countries, capturing a large share of the market previously held by Toyota. Although Sumāto now operates as a consultant to other car companies, his reputation and legacy continues at Sumāto with the corporation today still showing signs of Hiroto’s dynamic vision, positive culture, and respect for all workers who work hard. Sumāto was a leader in Japan in pushing to start designing and implementing electric cars, as his vision could see the need and demand to get these new electric cars into the market as soon as possible, which he has done successfully.

Read the following case study and answer all the questions.

Present detailed answers to the questions posed at the end of this case study in under 1800 words in total:

Sati makes Sumāt osoar ahead of others

During his time as head of the Sumāto Motor Corporation Hiroto Sati showed himself to be a strong and brave leader, confident in his abilities, different to traditional Japanese leaders in that he always said what he thought even if it meant radical change was needed. Sati showed leadership aspects that had not been seen before in the CEO of a Japanese motor corporation. It is argued this non- traditional Japanese leadership style was needed to transform and take Sumāto to a high position in the Japanese car market, and to forge inroads into the lucrative overseas car market. Unlike his predecessors within Sumāto who had all come from within the same family, Sati was a game changer in both not being a family member, and not being bound to be dutiful and follow the opinions of the family elders.

Without the limitations of adhering to family loyalties and tradition, using a more individualistic approach Sati forged forward with a new vision and new strategies to drive the Sumāto brand to achieve a high market share and in implementing new car models, including the electric car. Counter to the traditional Japanese culture where power was wielded in an invisible way and unspoken to the public or the workers, Sati’s leadership style was outspoken, assertive to the point some called him ‘aggressive’. All the changes implemented at Sumāto were first discussed with workers with a chance for them to give feedback and ideas of how change might work in their section to align with Sati’s plans. Sati’s goal in raising worker commitment to change, he believed, was essential for success, so he communicated and consulted with workers all through new ideas and processes from start to finish.

Sati and his supporters argued that this drastic change in leader style was needed to shift Sumāto from the stagnant and bureaucratic way of doing things, to a more dynamic approach. Sati focussed not only on production and efficiency changes, but also on changing the culture to involve all workers, in building a cohesive and high performing corporation. Sati saw that changing the internal culture of workers was a key to achieve more efficiency, and also the end game was to be a big force in car sales in Japan and in the international market. Sati was known at Sumāto as not being a leader who got others to do the jobs while staying invisible in the office. Sati was often present on the car factory floor, talking with workers, also attending meetings quite often in all departments, and consulting with car workers from the top right through to the lower level workers. Sati placed value on removing barriers in the corporate hierarchy, to ensure workers had access to him to share ideas, even attending social events every fortnight with his workers. Listening to others and acting on good ideas was important to Sati. All work teams in the factory area were involved in weekly competitions for the best team of the fortnight. This involved keeping team records on punctuality and attendance in each team, productivity and safety (judged by how many safety issues were reported). At the end of each shift every second Friday workers gathered and the winning team of the fortnight was announced. The prize was a large bucket of KFC chicken and soft drinks to be shared amongst the winning team and a certificate for the best team. Sati personally announced the winning team and shook hands with all team members. Being the top team was highly valued by all workers even though on the surface the prizes did not look much re chicken and soft drinks. On the factory floor Sati personally ordered a display board where each worker would be announced in lights on their birthday, which made them feel valued. Sati also ensured workers both in the factory and in office positions had the chance to learn new skills and move around to different departments. Sati justified this strategy by stating that workers deserved to add to their skills, learn new things and meet new people. Worker turnover was very low at Sumāto, and there was a big waiting list of people who had heard it was a good place to work, even though the pay was not higher than other car factories.

Over the first two years Sati had been the CEO he had changed the culture at Sumāto so that all workers felt valued. Sati viewed consultation with workers as essential to see what was needed, and to make them feel valued in contributing to ‘how things are done around here’. This strategy proved beneficial as many ideas to improve work processes came from the workers, from ideas to streamline or improve work processes, to cut waste, to improve safety, even for car design ideas, or whatever workers felt was needed.

Sati set a high standard in commitment to work and rewarded those who also worked hard and shared ideas with praise, promotions and bonuses. One initiative of Sati was to create faster reporting lines from workers to managers, to create more efficiency. Sati aimed to connect all workers and also worked hard to encourage more females to progress into higher management positions. Sati also encouraged workers to come forward with new ideas, similar to what was encouraged in the former Holden plant in South Australia. If ideas were implemented in the factory workers were acknowledged and given a bonus. This strategy shifted Sumāto to a more risk- taking culture which resulted in implementation of many new strategies that made Sumāto both more efficient and effective.

Another initiative of Sati was to promote high performing workers who showed initiative and promise, often as high as two levels more than their previous job. This new promotion strategy created some conflict in older and longer serving workers, as in Japan the work culture was one where older and more senior and longer serving workers were promoted over younger and more dynamic workers. However, Sati stood by his beliefs and had a vision to create a dynamic organisation where workers were acknowledged according to their ability and rewarded for this. Over time the culture changed to be more dynamic and more profitable with aggressive marketing, and the implementation of the new electric car resulting in a strong customer base, both in Japan and overseas.

By the time Sati left Sumāto, he had achieved all the goals he had set including: significantly increasing market share in Japan and overseas, implementing the electric car, and changing the culture of Sumāto to be one of commitment, sharing and high performance, where workers were seen as the key to success. Sati’s legacy is to have raised the brand image of Sumāto, and made them a key contender in the car market.

Sati has also successfully and fairly seamlessly shifted the Sumāto work culture to one with a more global flavour in neither being extremely western or eastern in how it operates. There are lessons to learn from Sati in leadership. Indeed, it can be said that Sati had lived up to his name as he commanded, soared and flown the company from a low base to a high flyer in the car world.

2. Drawing on leadership content in this Course, how would you describe Hiroto Sati’s leadership style/s? Cite specific examples in the case study that support your choice.

Answer 1

Answer

2) Hiroto sati's leadership style can be described as a transformational style. That includes more focus on vision, and inspiring the members to achieve common goals and to involve the members for participating in the necessary activities and decisions. Hiroto consider the vision to succeed and take the company to a greater heights along with the members. He considers their feedbacks for making necessary decisions and actions and motivate them for achieving the success.

Hiroto sati highly appreciated and was concerned for the employees, he rewarded and promoted deserving members, and also motivated others with a great workplace and effective culture. Transforming the way members are led and changing the traditional style of leadership, he influenced and supported Innovation and flexible approach to attain desired results.