Raise Your Prices and Shorten Your Business Hours [Before Even Talking About Digital Tools]
When it comes to "productivity improvement," "work-style reform," "life-style reform," and "digital transformation," I see business owners here and there who tend to think "in the era ahead we simply must introduce AI and RPA," but that is a big misunderstanding.
This time, I want to tell you that there are things you'd better take a scalpel to before using digital and technology.
The fact that most existing work is unnecessary
Actually, I'm writing this article in Phuket, Thailand.
I was originally scheduled to go to Shenzhen, China, for work, but the novel coronavirus became more serious than expected, so I called it off.
For several years now, I've usually based myself in Southeast Asia, where daytime temperatures are over 30 degrees, completing my work remotely, and no major problems have arisen.
In Phuket, Russians and other Europeans are lazing around with all their might.
Watching them, I think the Japanese can laze around with all their might too.
Work as hard as you can to live easily
As I wrote in a previous article, productivity improvements can be achieved easily by cutting work, simplifying, or changing your sales policy, without getting stuck on the idea that "you just need to use digital tools".
For example, it has become normal for people in service industries to hardly ever take time off. But try this simple change:
That alone should free up time.
You can imagine that, in addition, using AI and robotics could compress your time even further.
There's real truth in that saying.
In the past, superiors told us, "Don't take it easy at work!", but now it's the exact opposite.
If anything, it would be something like "Don't take shortcuts just to have it easy!"
Digital and technology are said to extend the body, but conversely, if you use your hands and feet the wrong way, you can't move forward at all.
Offline is for enjoying life
To return briefly to Phuket: people in Southeast Asia don't take work very seriously at all.
Probably it works out for them and the national economy is growing, so they're shrewd as a result lol
Diligent Germans have high productivity, but they don't work long hours.
So what about our country, Japan?
I've received many opinions on my tweet "Why is Japan's labor productivity so low?", and my hypothesis is "because the Japanese hate rationality." They love jock-style guts-and-grit theory, and if you say "Wouldn't it be economically rational to do it this way?", you get flamed.
— Akira Tachibana (@ak_tch) March 7, 2019
If that's the life you want, I won't deny it, but which is better: wearing out your one life or enjoying it to the fullest?
Don't be swept along by the "normal" around you.