Small Metrol’s big ideas Part 2: Organization edition

Metrol cherishes the driving force for creative thinking.
This is achieved through employee "autonomy" and "communication".

Anything that gets in the way of this must be eliminated!

Here are a few of Metrol's unique and startling organizational mechanisms (^O^)/

No. 1 No purely administrative departments

Everyone knows that personnel departments, general affairs departments,
and accounting departments are usually to be found in companies.

Metrol has just one accountant: everyone else is in direct added value divisions such as R&D, manufacturing or marketing.

"As administrative divisions become too big, extra work and regulations that do not generate money increase significantly.
This begins to prevent employees from demonstrating their creativity"

In order to prevent this, indirect tasks are left to executives and external experts,
while employees share side aspects of these in addition to their main job.

For example, seasonal work such as recruiting new graduates is performed by members selected from each department.
The company operates on a project-based system.

No. 2 No walls, no executive offices

Whenever possible, we do not establish fixed partitions in offices and factories.

When you enter the foyer of Metrol you are greeted with a large floor-through office instantly.
This creates a visibly airy working environment ♪

Only the bathrooms and meeting rooms have partitions. There also isn't an office for the company president!
The president's desk is in one corner of the same office, where he works at a standing desk next to the window (lol).

Free-use spaces are established here and there in the office instead of walls, and employees can help themselves to coffee, enabling the typically Metrol situation in which coffee steam and the heat of discussion rise alike.

No. 3 Credit cards for employee use

Sales staff have credit cards under the company name.

For example, the cards can be used for hotels and air tickets for overseas business trips, or other expenses including eating and drinking locally, without requesting approval for each purchase.
Also, domestic transportation expenses, etc., are charged to the company ExpressCard and Suica.

We can do this because we value individual employee independence and believe in our employees.

Previously, the settlement of expenses was handled by accounting personnel on a cash and paper basis,
processing in batches by month,
but e-money has made automatic processing possible in real time.
With 1/4 the work, there's no longer a full-time accountant on staff.

This kind of job with little added value is eliminated wherever possible.

No. 4 Absolutely no internal mail or CC mail

E-mails may be used to send documents, but discussion should take place face-to-face whenever possible.

Face-to-face communication brings out the truth through expressions and motions as written information alone cannot.
By having the parties face each other and properly communicate, we believe that chemical reactions occur and innovative new ideas are born.

"Go ahead and drink coffee while you're at it, but always talk face to face," says President Matsuhashi.

No. 5 The in-house blog turns time to money!

Instead of daily sales reports, information about what is happening outside the company, both good things and bad, is shared on the company's in-house blog.

Since all employees, including staff from the sales offices based in China and Taiwan, transmit information in real time and it is shared between all employees,
Metrol wastes no time on information-sharing meetings.
Discussions at meetings focus on the essence of the issue and always reach a conclusion.

When employees get to work the first thing to check is the company blog!
Based on the information on the blog, it is possible to start work autonomously without waiting for orders from superiors.

No. 6 70% failure is A-OK

Think for yourself and go ahead with what looks right to you!
Employees are urged to have this kind of subjective attitude.

The risk of failure is always a part of work.
Even Ichiro bats only .300.

The company will take responsibility for the results! Being scared of failure will hold you back from gaining experience.

Make yourself a part of the issue, take it seriously, and if you try often enough something will work out.
You're still young; pay your dues and the goddess of victory will smile on you.

All right, let's find a new challenge!