Mr. Noriyuki Inoue, Chairman of the Board, Daikin Industries, Ltd., was born as the eldest son of Mr. Yoshiyuki Inoue, Professor of Department of Agriculture, Kyoto Universtiy, on March 10, 1935. He went to Doshisha Junior High School and Senior High School and entered Department of Economics, Doshisha University. He belonged to the Religion Club in high school and to the basketball club in the university, gaining many valuable experiences from both activities. He graduated from Doshisha University in 1957 in a period of economic depression and job shortage. He entered Daikin Industries upon his father’s recommendation. But he was absent from work without leave for 10 days just because he was assigned to the general affairs department of Yodogawa Seikosho against his will. Yet warm reception of his fellow workers at the factory melted his petulance and he started his work with a positive attitude.
Mr. Inoue experienced various positions including the head of the personnel department before he became a director in charge of chemical products. He was appointed to the position at the time the chemicals department was in a serious trouble because of illegal exports to communist countries (the COCOM incident). Even though he was not familiar with the chemical field, he successfully extracted the company from this predicament and was appointed to President in 1994. His immediate act after his appointment was the restructuring of the air conditioners department, and he decided to keep the line of air conditioners for household use. His decision lead to the company’s achieving the top share in the domestic household air conditioners market for two years from 2003. Then overseas markets that supported Daikin’s current growth went into an expansive orbit, and the company is now established as the second largest air conditioner company in the world.
As represented by the phrase “Democratic Dictatorship”, Mr. Inoue practices a management style that puts more values to people than speedy decision making or organizational structures. He is trying to find ways to expand this management style globally. |
