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Shuhei Inada: From Administrative Engineering to Business Administration

Publish: January 21, 2025

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  • Shuhei Inada

    Graduate School of Business Administration Associate Professor

    Specialization / Production Policy

    Shuhei Inada

    Graduate School of Business Administration Associate Professor

    Specialization / Production Policy

It has been nearly three years since I transferred from the Faculty of Science and Technology at ÎçÒ¹¾ç³¡ to my current department. Originally, I spent many years researching methodologies to improve factory productivity. My acquaintances frequently ask me why I moved from the Faculty of Science and Technology to a business school, but I usually give a vague answer like "because it seemed interesting." In truth, I decided to transfer because I wanted to broadly explore ideas and methodologies for the sustainable growth of Japanese manufacturing companies, without being confined by the boundaries between the humanities and the sciences.

The average lifespan of a Japanese manufacturing company is said to be just under 40 years. While the lifespan of manufacturing companies is longer compared to other business sectors such as wholesaling, insurance, or finance, it still remains at around 40 years. It is that difficult for a company to survive over the long term.

Fortunately, since moving to the Graduate School of Business Administration, my opportunities to visit factories and speak with corporate executives and management have increased significantly. Among these companies, some are steadily improving their performance, while others are struggling to grow. In the field of business administration, a management theory called "Ambidextrous Management" has long been proposed. Regardless of whether the corporate executives were aware of this theory or not, I strongly feel that the former companies are practicing a well-balanced combination of "exploitation" and "exploration"¡ªthe core of ambidexterity theory. Another characteristic is that corporate operating policies, including management philosophies, have permeated the manufacturing floor, and the entire company is working together to create a workplace that aligns with those policies. In any case, they are not swayed by short-term ups and downs in management, but rather conduct management with a long-term perspective, which seems to be the driving force behind their high level of management.

My current focus is on how to deploy the knowledge gained from these successful companies to other firms and link it to improvements in management quality. From a researcher's perspective, I want to find a path that allows more manufacturing companies to achieve sustainable growth by constructing a theoretical framework based on the actual conditions of companies. Moving to a new base of operations has greatly expanded my research horizons, but at the same time, the amount of things I need to study has also increased significantly. I intend to steadily explore methodologies that will enable more manufacturing companies to achieve sustainable growth.

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.