This series focuses on how to interact with people related to public relations, and tells about many mistakes and special experiences with current affairs. It's been a while, but I had a lot of experience in the field for the first time in a while, and I had some ideals that I wish I had. There is a limit to what we can do in public relations, but this time I would like to talk about what I felt after finishing the UHKB project.
While the number of exhibitors at CES has decreased, it seems that there have been major changes in the companies participating and the media participating in the adjustment until the end of the year. It's natural that there are changes, and I'm always worried about how to respond at that time and how to link them according to the movement. It may be better for more people to work on their own, but that's ideal, and it's hard to do so.
In that sense, the external keyboard UHKB, which was crowdfunded at the end of the year, was also important-although I talked about this project before.
Being involved in manufacturing is valuable
It is a commercialization plan for an external keyboard that started last year led by an idea from the media, but in the conventional process, the business division identifies the technical part, the product planning identifies the market trend, and the sales promotion cooperates with the sales department. It was about making products.
However, it is a well-known fact that there are many options other than the theory in every world. I want to make new things, and if I make something like this, I think it will sell. Not everyone has the same idea about manufacturing. For example, depending on which section of the company you work in, you may or may not be able to shape it.
Some people think about it every day, and are forced to think about it, even if their ideas are naturally exhausted. Or even if you're not interested in something new in the first place, you have to think about it. I think it's a tough “work”. On the other hand, even if you think about interesting things every day or become interested in manufacturing, you may be assigned to a manufacturer that is far from manufacturing. Even if you have an idea there, talk a little on the additional agenda "Do you have anything else you would like to share?" At a meeting within the department, or tell your boss what you want to do at the performance evaluation interview. I think I can only do it.
Regardless of the size of the company, it's hard to convey the thoughts of everyone, and it's rare that what you want to do and what you're good at is tied to the work of your department. The bigger the company, the stronger the tendency. Still, it seems that there are some opportunities in this era compared to the past.
People who got a job in the Showa era may have been told by their boss an incomprehensible theory that "I can never get a job that I wanted to do." "I remember the job, I can't just do what I want to do, I don't choose this job because I like it, but it's important to do it well when given." It is difficult for the generation, who has been told, "Because you can go up only after experiencing various departments, do your best", cannot justify "what you want to do". It is also a generation with an unwritten rule that "business trips are painful, and you should never talk about fun."
Although there are differences depending on the company, the job you want to do and the job you got are different as a big flow. Under such circumstances, it is close to a miracle that a person who wants to do something like this can work in a department that can realize it, but even if that miracle is just waiting, it can be said that it is a rare encounter rate of astronomical numbers. Probably. However, even if you don't hit it directly, you should be able to see the chance if you are near it. If you're on a lap orbit and you're about to get close to your destination, it's a good idea to take a little adventure and jump out to get involved in the work you want to do. You may be able to achieve the first step with just a little "look away" instead of a big challenge. People who work in companies are cramped. The crampedness can be alleviated and accepted at the size of what is achieved.
Until now, and in the future, the laid rails will make the economy worse, and if the world changes, the future is uncertain. That's why it's also important to show new opportunities, awareness, fun and opportunities to look for success. Achieving one case is only one goal, and the most important thing is to have a slightly new way of thinking, to be allowed to challenge things that have never been done before, and to evaluate with a moderate success with new efforts. It's important to be done, to do something new, to make everyone think that they should say what they were thinking, and to have a manager who appreciates it. I think that it is to convey firmly from the bottom of.
The success of one effort is terrifyingly energetic. It would be difficult for everyone to carry it on their backs. It's correct in theory, but few people can do that. In the first place, people with such a sense of challenge may not enter a large company. Still, the manufacturing that many excellent employees draw in their hearts. I think that if we put together those thoughts, we will be able to exert more power, and we will be able to increase our power as a company.
Where are those thoughts and ideas? I think it's in the hearts of employees. However, as mentioned above, it does not come out due to various environments and reasons. Let's take the national election as an example. In the country's most important general election, which spends hundreds of billions of dollars, candidates run around town, trying to convey their claims on the streets, on television, and on the web media. The media will report until midnight as an election bulletin, and the public will surrender to the new government. Even though it is such an important election, half of the people in the world do not vote. I'm not interested in why I don't vote. And I'm not interested because I don't think it has anything to do with me. More specifically, I think that the candidate will not convey his thoughts. In order to get interested, it is only necessary to be able to convey from the bottom of your heart that "your thoughts will take shape." By doing so, they may go to the election and vote "then". To realize my thoughts.
Let's get back to the company. I joined a PC maker, and when I joined the company, I wanted to make something useful to the world, if I could express all of them. I think it is possible to extract ideas, not whether they can or cannot. You should be interested from the beginning because you got a job at the company, not a mass of indifference that divides 50% like an election.
I haven't researched it, but I think that about 60% or 80% of people who joined a PC maker have some thoughts or ideas about manufacturing. There are various opinions such as outrageous opinions, mundane opinions, novel opinions that no one noticed, and opinions that include awareness that matches the times. Until now, 10% and 20% of employees have been making full rotations and giving their opinions, but if a large reinforcement is added, it should be more active.
Ideas are endless, and the more people there are, the more ideas will be born. It can be the same as a person, or it can be an opinion that has already been given. By speaking and speaking, there will be mutations unique to that person. Each person has a different head structure, and no one has 100% the same opinion. I wanted to collect a lot of such small opinions, and I always thought that if they were collected, the company would become stronger.
This UHKB project may be just the beginning, but I think I was able to create an opportunity. I felt once again that it is the job of public relations to create new awareness feedback as a company and help express it. Appeal the company's products. Appeal the management of the company. Appeal the future of the company you want to add to it. In other words, I felt that it was the starting point of public relations activities on how to make the world aware of the power generated from within the company.
Is "anyone can do it just by thinking" a bad thing?
This is also old-fashioned, but there are negative people who say, "Anyone can do it just by thinking."
But is that really the case? There are many people in a company, and they are born, raised, and have different historical backgrounds. Why is a company that is a group of such people hiring a wide variety of people? I think there is also the idea that the company will grow by incorporating many opinions from a large number of employees.
The way of thinking may change depending on the manager, but the current trend is to incorporate new opinions more and more. Even so, it is sometimes said that "anyone can do it just by thinking".
And "that's unrealistic" "who buys it" "who sells it" "who makes it" "who makes it" The weak person will lock in the idea when the repeated questions and answers of "I will do it" and "Such a thing" begin. If you are a clever person, you may not use extra physical strength and may save your opinion for the coming timing. It takes courage to try new things. Even if you maintain the status quo, if you take on challenges in difficult times and fail, management will be in jeopardy. Still, thinking that you do not know where the chance is, first of all, it would be a more constructive organization to say, "If you just think, anyone can do it, please think, please tell me what you thought." I think.
I've heard that officials spend their time thinking about why they can't. Of course, there are many excellent officials, and it is necessary to think about various things and say "no" as a result, which is not a bad thing. However, some people simply say "no". executive? Executive employee? There may be somebody who regulates it. Regulations necessary to stabilize society. It's very important, but if it gets too strong, it will crush new shoots.
The era of little information and the era of innovative product systems have passed, and commoditized PC-related products. The form of manufacturing itself has changed due to the drastic changes in society due to the spread of the Internet and the recent online life. It is an era in which students who have not joined the company have the same or greater value as the voices of people with decades of experience. At such times, I think the most important thing is to "listen to your thoughts."
The ability to listen is taken, but listening really requires physical strength. If the manager has that feeling, you will be able to hear a lot of voices. It's the same with customer feedback. Now that we have a lot of user support, we can hear the voices of our customers, but we still can't hear the voices of less than our customers. Where should I get the voices that did not become customers, and how did they become customers? I think that the antenna power of public relations will be demonstrated here.
In such a severe reality, the external keyboard was trying to form a shape by collecting small voices. It may no longer be about manufacturing, but about corporate transformation.
Next time, I would like to talk about how public relations promoted this business as the project progressed.
List of PC public relations Fuunden serialization
Takehisa Akiyama
From the heyday of PCs and the midst of the bubble to the PC business Fengyunkyu era, PC makers have consistently walked through the media field with sales promotion and public relations, but in 2019, they will change to a completely different world of entertainment. Enjoying the life of Marco Polo in the 21st century with the themes of "public relations," "music," and "Asia." The common point of these three themes is "people are everything". My dream is to publicize Japan.
