The book enjoyed glowing coverage in the media as a “business book that makes you cry.” It won high praise in Asahi Shimbun’s section titled, “Books that are Selling,” in Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s “The Insider’s Guide to Bestsellers,” in R25’s “The R25 Book Review,” in the magazine AERA, in TBS’s television programs, “Sunday Japon” and “Hiroshi Kume’s ‘That Thing Called TV!,’” in Fuji TV’s “News Japan,” in TV Tokyo Channel 12’s “World Business Satellite,” in TBS Radio’s “Access,” in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting’s “This Morning’s Cold Cuts with Tetsuya Takeda,” BS 11’s “Bestseller BOOK TV,” in Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, Shizuoka Shimbun, Hokkaido Shimbun, Nikkei MJ, and the Weekly Diamond.

In the first part of the book, the author states that corporate management is an activity for fulfilling missions and responsibilities for five entities. Taking this concept into account, he goes on to establish five objectives of management as follows.

1. Make employees and their families happy
2. Make subcontractors and the employees of subcontractors happy
3. Make clients happy
4. Revitalize local communities and make their members happy
5. Make shareholders happy

Many books on management claim that a company belongs to shareholders. In fact, when discussing “who owns a company,” the dominant thinking is that “a company is owned by shareholders,” and when discussing management objectives, “customer satisfaction” and “the maximization of shareholder value” are brought up as the obvious objectives.

However, the author claims that all such books misunderstand the point. He asserts that the company does not exist for customers and clients, nor does it exist for shareholders. Only when employees feel joy and are actually happy can a company even begin to make its customers happy. By extension, only after a company becomes capable of providing happiness to its customers can it expect to see its profits rise and consequently make its shareholders happy.

Therefore, the happiness of shareholders is not an end itself, but instead, a byproduct — this is the author’s assertion.

With “Japan’s Most Beloved Companies” appearing in the second section, many executives and office staff should find this must-have book very enlightening. It conveys stories from the heart and resonates on a deep level, explaining the meaning of work and the meaning of a company’s reason for being.