The first volume

Japanese

"Teigo Iba (1847 - 1926)" - 2 -

As Teigo Iba witnessed inhospitable mountains, he felt sorry for they have done.
To leave the devastated mountains is to violate against nature law and we should return greens to the mountains as they have before, he thought. Therefore, he made up his mind to move smelting works to uninhabited island Shisakaijima and started an afforestation project aggressively. At the beginning, they had planted 60 - 70 thousand trees every year, but in 1897, they could planted a million trees annually. In 1898, in order to start the full-scale forestry business, they established the Forestry Department, which developed into the present Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd. afterwards. This planting business had continued even after WWII and the number of trees planted until then had reached approx. 50 million. Then full of greens came back to the inhospitable mountains finally. Thus he had put in practice the mission statement of Sumitomo, "Public Benefit and Public Interest."

After Iba settled the Besshi Mining problem, he resigned the manager of Besshi office in 1899 and returned to Osaka and established the foundation of present Sumitomo leading companies, such as Sumitomo Bank, Sumitomo Warehouse, Sumitomo Electric, Sumitomo Light Metal Industries Ltd., etc.
In 1990, Iba assumed office as the second general director of the Sumitomo. However, only four years later, he decided to step aside his post and said, "The most harmful effect to the progress and development of business is not caused by young employee's fault, but by the rampant of the aged person. He entrusted his position to, Masaya Suzuki and he left the Sumitomo at the age of 57-year-old and lived in quiet for the rest of his days in a lakeside house of Biwako Lake.

Teigo Iba left suggestive observation as if he knew the future aspects in 21st Century, such as various problems about corporate ethics, environmental concerns, etc.

"There are only a few times, that a company director really needs to sign the documents at the risk of his life, otherwise, the director should transfer the authority to his men."

"The important thing is to work together for mutual harmony and benefit. It is not correct thing if either one of farmers who cultivate the ancestral land or mining industry operated at the vein prospect enjoy prosperity at the expense of the others."

"You should not come into a new business field which someone else had already launched into. Do not beat down the existing business by the power of money, that will cause huge loss even to nation."

"There is nobody who does not need money even if he is saint, but there are rules we have to follow before making money."

End

References: "Wisdom"