Insurance boss's willingness to listen speaks volumes `What is important here is to hire good people and encourage them to stay as long as possible.'

This is the 11th in a series of special features on corporate leaders in Japan who have climbed the ladder thanks to their outstanding business philosophy.

As a developer of innovative insurance products, listening and responding to customers' needs was at the heart of Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co.'s approach to business and helped the company maintain a leading position in the industry in the decades following its establishment 125 years ago.

It is a philosophy that continues to play an important role following the creation on Oct. 1 of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. through a merger of Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire and Marine Insurance Co. The new company, the nation's largest non-life insurance entity, ranks eighth in the world.

Moreover, an approach that emphasizes listening works on an individual level, too-a fact to which President Kunio Ishihara would attest. Simply conveying one's opinions does not drive others to work toward common goals, so his first step is always to carefully listen to others' views.

In the summer of 1988, Ishihara was posted to a computer center in Tokyo's Kunitachi as deputy manager of both the information system administration and information system development departments. He was also president of two affiliated companies. After having worked as a sales section manager at the Osaka branch for three years, he was suddenly transferred to departments with which he was completely unfamiliar.

``Why me?'' he wondered. He was not the only one who thought that way. The appointment seemed to take everyone by surprise.

When he asked the reason behind the move, he was told that Tokio Marine was introducing an administration system to all sales offices throughout the country that was similar to point-of-sales systems in retail stores, and the company wanted Ishihara to lead the project. The computer center was scheduled to move several years later, and he was also entrusted with handling the move. However, that explanation alone was not enough to satisfy him.

Before leaving Osaka to go to Kunitachi, Ishihara visited a former computer center manager who had been appointed branch manager in Okayama.

The man guessed Ishihara was taking over due to his sales experience and because he was about the right age to become a deputy manager. But Ishihara was still not convinced.

He finally concluded that personnel appointments were made willy-nilly, and he moved to Kunitachi. Yet the computer world was not an easy one, and its terminology and business practices were not readily understandable to someone new to the field.

``I've come to a tough place,'' Ishihara thought, but he instinctively knew what he had to do.

He invited staff from the two departments out in small groups for drinks after office hours to ask what kind of projects they worked on and what sort of problems they had. He often took them to small drinking establishments south of JR Kunitachi Station. Though he had gotten a rough idea of the situation through handover instructions and from explanations from section managers, Ishihara wanted to hear from all of the 300-odd people in the two departments face to face. It took 56 days, not including weekends, to meet everyone.

``A computer center is sort of like a factory, where many people have many different roles to move a giant project forward,'' he thought. ``What is important here is to hire good people and encourage them to stay as long as possible.''

Hiroshi Yokotsuka, an information technology planning manager who used to work for Ishihara as a section manager, was impressed. ``During the 56 consecutive days of going out with staff, Ishihara asked each of them about the details of the work they did,'' he said. ``Maybe because of that, he memorized the names and faces of all 300 people. In addition, he got to know employees at the affiliates.''

Even today, when he sees people at the center that he used to know, he can call them by name.

The staff established an intranet and an online system connecting headquarters with branch offices and agents. An online agent system makes it possible to combine product, administrative, sales promotion and other information in a comprehensive manner to meet customer needs exactly.

On Oct. 1, the company merged with Nichido Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Combining computer systems was the most important task in the merger, and it was essential that the leaders of the companies understood where there were problems. Ishihara worked in the computer department for seven years, and his experience there is now paying off.

Ishihara has always understood the importance of listening to others.

He was born on Oct. 17, 1943, in Xinjing (present-day Changchun) in the former Manchuria. His father Shiro worked at a Manchurian mine, and when the war ended, his father, mother Sachi and Ishihara came back to Japan in 1946. Ishihara went to elementary school in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, but the family moved to Chiyoda Ward when he was in grade four, so he transferred to Kojimachi Elementary School. The family moved again to Setagaya Ward the following year, but he went on to Kojimachi Junior High School because he had many friends there.

Ishihara was chosen as class president when he was in grade nine. He also became president of the student council. He spoke at and facilitated general meetings without using a microphone.

Perhaps because he had a talkative mother, Ishihara was not intimidated in front of a large crowd. However, he sometimes had a tough time trying to get everyone to join in discussions as the other students were noisy and would not listen to him.

One day, the situation got out of hand because of a group of rowdy students. But as soon as they heard the teacher coming back, they suddenly fell silent. When the teacher asked Ishihara how things were going, he answered that everything was fine. He did not believe in telling tales, and everyone knew it.

``Mr. Ishihara was always calm and he was the only one who was mature,'' said Keiko Kawado, now a Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. commentator, who was his classmate and a student council member in charge of campus broadcasting. ``He was tall and sat at the back, carefully listening to others.''

A class president has to relate all kinds of information to fellow classmates, but Ishihara believed that it was more important to listen to them carefully and know how they were feeling.

In April 1966, he joined Tokio Marine and was posted to the first Tokyo sales department's direct sales section following hands-on training. When selling new types of insurance, he visited customers with a sales representative to think about conditions to attach to the insurance depending on the individual. Customer requests were much tougher than he had expected, so he carefully listened to each person, and asked to them sign up for policies.

Ishihara was amazed how much they had to beg to win a contract, and anticipated the arrival of a customer-driven era.

Ishihara was in charge of developing liability insurance for 10 years from June 1969. Businesses were beginning to face product liability claims, including those relating to harmful effects from drugs. His prediction that market demand would create many new kinds of insurance was proved right.

In June 1995, he became a director and was posted to Sapporo as Hokkaido division manager. The Hokkaido economy was weak following the collapse of the asset-inflated economy, and the bankruptcy of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank was an additional blow. Ishihara's office continued to perform poorly.

In the spring of 1998, he had to implement a method he did not really like-sending faxes to 40 sales and administration offices in Hokkaido each night listing offices by progress toward sales targets with numbers and graphs. Until then, he had sent such data only once or twice a week.

It was an unusually strict move for Ishihara. While he did not intend to back down, if he heard agents were complaining, he would visit them to hear what they had to say. He spent more time visiting poorly performing offices. Air services were often canceled to Nemuro, Kushiro, Wakkanai, Hakodate and elsewhere during the winter, yet he took more than 100 flights over four years.

In June 2001, he became president and took over a project establishing the Millea group. Despite hiccups along the way, such as Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Kyoei Fire & Marine Insurance Co. pulling out, Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire's holding company Millea Holdings Inc. was established in 2002. Following the merger, the combined workforce totaled 17,000 employees and 69,000 agents. It is far from easy to have face-to-face dialogues with such a large number of people, but Ishihara has a few tricks up his sleeve.

He appears every one or two months in in-house broadcasts. Though his secretary and the public relations department prepare scripts, he does not use them and speaks off the cuff. When he speaks, he imagines employees on the other side of the camera. Since becoming president, he stands up when he speaks. Though many directors sit down to talk, Ishihara decided to stand because he believes it is best to maintain the same eye level as the people he is addressing.

Last October, he held an autumn managers' meeting in the main conference room in the new headquarters annex.

Traditionally, the president and executive managers would sit in a row at the front of the room, and other participants were assigned to particular seats according to their ranks at long tables facing them.

However, to the bewilderment of the 250 participants at last fall's meeting, Ishihara removed all of the tables, placed the chairs in a fan shape and let managers sit wherever they wanted. When the meeting started, the speaker stood at the apex of the fan. Ishihara used a teleprompter that the audience could not see so he did not have to look down to read his speech. In it, he talked about three points: policies for the second half of fiscal 2003, activities to improve corporate value, called ``Tokio's Quality,'' and the merger with Nichido Fire.

Kazunari Shiroyama, human resources and planning manager, sat in the fifth row, and his eyes met the president's as he spoke. The new style created more unity, and it was much easier to ask questions. Shiroyama hoped the new seating arrangement would continue even after the merger.

Ishihara also felt a significant change. Since there were no tables, people did not take as many notes and kept their eyes away from their handouts. Everyone listened carefully to the president.

That was exactly what Ishihara wanted.

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* Profile of Ishihara

Born in 1943, Kunio Ishihara graduated from the University of Tokyo's faculty of law in 1966 and joined Tokio Marine. He was posted away from his family twice, to Osaka and Sapporo. He became president in 2001. He stayed on as president of Japan's largest non-life insurance firm after Tokio Marine merged with Nichido Fire and Marine Insurance Co. on Oct. 1. He is always on the go, and eats and drinks quickly as well. He learned to ski when he was posted to Hokkaido, and enjoys schussing down hills. When he falls, he does so dramatically. His dream is to see all of the roughly 30 works by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer that exist around the world. He has seen 22 so far, including ``Girl with a Pearl Earring.''(IHT/Asahi: October 30,2004) (10/30)