Journalist examines roots, management style of soy-sauce maker

U of Ideas of General Interest ó July 1998
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact:
Andrea Lynn, Humanities/Social Sciences Editor
(217) 333-2177; [email protected]

CORPORATE HISTORY

Journalist examines roots, management style of soy-sauce maker

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ó The Kikkoman Corp. not only makes excellent traditional and naturally brewed soy sauce, it also has a winning recipe for phenomenal business success in todayís global marketplace. So says the author of a new corporate biography of soy sauceís ìquiet giant.î

In ìThe Kikkoman Chronicles: A Global Company With a Japanese Soulî (McGraw-Hill), Ronald E. Yates traces the Japanese companyís smart and steady transformation from a 17th-century Japanese-village cottage industry ñ begun by a woman ñ to a $2 billion market-leading powerhouse with plants all over the world. Along the way, Yates, a longtime national and foreign correspondent and financial writer for the Chicago Tribune, analyzes the strategies that allowed Kikkoman to move its product from a strictly Oriental condiment to an international seasoning, and then to diversify into a wide range of 21st-century biotechnology products.

According to Yates, who now heads the journalism department at the University of Illinois, Kikkoman ìhas employed a daring, compelling and innovative management style and marketing strategy that other Japanese companies consistently benchmark.î

Kikkoman was the first Japanese company to build and operate a fully developed manufacturing facility in the United States. The plant, in the heart of dairy country in Walworth, Wis., is the largest soy-sauce facility in the Western world. Since it opened 25 years ago, it has helped increase U.S. consumption of soy sauce tenfold. In the past 50 years, Kikkoman has created a soy sauce market in 100 countries, said Yates, who spent 10 years in Japan, serving twice as Tokyo bureau chief for the Tribune.

Today, Kikkoman puts out 2,000 other products worldwide; about half of its revenues come from a wide range of products, including wines, fruit and vegetable juices and shochu, a traditional Japanese spirit. Moreover, since 1977, the corporation has developed 250 products for the pharmaceutical, medical diagnostic and food-processing industries. Company researchers are experimenting with synthetic luciferase enzyme, modeled after the enzyme fireflies produce, to detect harmful microorganisms in food-processing and semiconductor factories. They also are using cell-fusion technology to develop an orange that can be grown in cold climates.

Much of Kikkomanís success is due to its current president and CEO Yuzaburo Mogi, ìa catalyst for change,î who studied American tastes when he was a college student in the United States, then adapted products, packaging and promotion to suit those tastes, Yates said. Adaptability to its various markets is only one of Kikkomanís recipes for success. The other is its management philosophy, which is to make every employee ñ from Wisconsin to Japan, the Netherlands, to Folsom, Calif. (where a plant will open later this year) -ñ a treasured member of the Kikkoman family.

ìIt isnít just lip service,î Yates said. ìThe company genuinely cares about its employees. It understands the value of the human relationship.î

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