Dragon Quest Management Insights

The other day, I visited the hair salon run by my husband’s Porsche friend, Takuro-san. I had introduced Takuro-san in this article before.

【ポルシェオーナーの仕事の流儀】これぞプロの接客！想像力、知識、提案力に感動した話

It’s been over a year since I started going to Takuro-san’s salon.

Usually, we talk a lot about cars and car life during the treatment, but this time, while coloring my hair, I happened to get a call from a member of my company and ended up talking for about 30 minutes.

After the call ended, my mind was completely in work mode for a while, so I decided to ask Takuro-san a bit about the challenges my company is facing right now.

The challenge is (nothing too serious, really) that work comes in addressed directly to “Mina-san, please,” so how can I delegate more to my team and move on to the next step?

When I asked, “Takuro-san, how have you entrusted and developed your staff?” he answered like this:

That’s right… I totally get it.
If I were to use a Dragon Quest analogy, it’s important to “boldly step back into the carriage.”
People like us who start companies usually have very high combat power. Because of that, we feel confident to start a company, and it tends to go well to some extent.
But this is a big trap.
With high combat power, HP, and MP, we can take hits and keep fighting on the front lines, defeating enemies aggressively. Then the other members feel like “there’s no place for me to step in” and can’t show their true strength.
Unconsciously, we end up stealing opportunities for others to shine.
That way, people never grow.
So, you have to intentionally step back into the carriage. Then fight with a different party.
Instead of defeating enemies alone, you carefully build a team of four, thinking about how to combine members so the team can win. Someone strong with magic, someone strong with bare-handed attacks, someone good at healing… how to complement each other and become stronger as a team—that’s what you watch over and think about thoroughly.
At first, it’s worrying, but somehow it works out, and if things go really bad, you can always step back in at the end.
If you delegate with the stance of being the last fortress who doesn’t fight but is there as a backup, people will grow, don’t you think?

Creating Change Yourself

Using Dragon Quest as an example made it very easy for me, a Dragon Quest generation, to understand, haha.

At the same time, even though I asked suddenly, the fact that his thoughts were so well organized made me realize that he’s constantly thinking, acting, reviewing results, and turning them into his own wisdom.

Takuro-san continued with this:

Also, I try to create change myself.
I believe that for a company to last, it must constantly grow and evolve.
With that in mind, you can’t just do the same thing as last year.
It’s important to try at least one thing different from last year.
For me, that means trying completely different hairstyles or arrangements for customers than last year.
Based on hypotheses I set, I try things myself, explore new methods… sometimes I fail, but in the worst case, it somehow works out.
If you don’t challenge yourself, your output won’t change, and you won’t grow at all.
So, I really value not doing the same thing as last year and creating change myself.

Wow, that’s amazing.

Until now, we mostly talked about cars, but it’s fun to talk about work and management like this.

Many Porsche owners around me take pride and care in their work, so hearing about their ways of working is truly educational.

I immediately put what I learned into practice, and it moved the situation forward more than I expected.

When I got home and told my husband, “I had this kind of conversation!” he said:

“I’m glad you heard such a good story. For Takuro-san, it’s about stepping back into the carriage, but for me, I don’t just step back into the carriage—I disappear into the town and don’t come out. If anything, I’m holed up deep inside the castle, haha.”

There are so many different management styles, huh (laughs).

As for me, I’m still on the front lines, taking hits and fighting bare-handed, but I want to step back into the carriage soon and be able to buy a Porsche in a few years.

I’ll keep working hard!