A corporation’s personnel system usually involves a probationary period for new recruits. It’s a step that lasts for a fixed period after the new employee enters the company in April, and before being accepted formally into the organization.

At Sony the probationary period lasts 3 months and Akio explained his feels about this time to the new recruits as follows. “Many believe the probationary period is an additional time for the company to test its new employees, but I don’t believe this. This is a time for you to test Sony, the company in which you have entrusted your youth. If this company is not what you thought it would be, for your own sake, change jobs….you only live once and it would not be good for you to spend it in a place that does not satisfy you.”

In Japan, which offered lifetime job security, it was rare for a welcome speech for new recruits to include a recommendation to seek other means of employment and the recruits said they were always surprised and confused by this at first.

With Masaru Ibuka, Akio entrusted his youth to developing a company and he knew well the importance of throwing all one’s strength into one’s work, as well as the joys that that can bring.

Akio continues, “I often hear businessmen complaining over a drink that their boss doesn’t understand them, or that their job is boring. I wonder why they spend their life in a place they complain about. I find that hard to understand. There are so many other roads in life.”

There are many businessmen that wouldn’t want to hear such a home truth.
It is important to think about whether a company is the right one, and if it is, to be proactive and determined in working diligently to give strength to the company. Addressing the new recruits at the initiation ceremony, Akio’s speech was on the one hand extremely obvious and yet also quite complex.

From:The Sayings of Akio Morita, published by Sony Magazines.