Hi! This is Shizuka. Suddenly, I would like to share with you one of our interactions at the company.
“Thank you so much to our company!”
ーーHmmm. Who is everybody talking to? Today, please listen to the story of “Our Company” which has surprised me when I joined mgn.
In the past, I often used the term “Kaisha-san (-sama)” to address to the other party, such as “Kaisha-san (-sama)” of a business partner.
After I joined mgn for a while, I found out that mgn has another culture in which we called “mgn”, the company where we members belonged to, as “Kaisha-san” (a.k.a. our company). When members in our company receive our mid-year gift or year-end gift, everyone would say, “Kaisha-san, we have received the mid-year gift! Thank you!”. When purchasing equipments or supplies, we would also ask the company, “Kaisha-san, can I purchase this item?”.
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Of course, it is our CEO, Megane-san who will respond… and even so, Megane-san also says, “Thank you to our company / Kaisha-san!”. What exactly is the meaning behind this?
Let me explain. “Kaisha-san” (company) is what we call legal entity personality. So, what is legal entity personality?
What is legal entity personality?
Before we get into the legal entity personality, let’s start with the legal entity. According to the Japanese law, a corporation has an identity that is the same as what a normal person has. The legal entity personality is a qualification established by law so that it is able to have rights and obligations as an entity.
To be able to conduct transactions and perform actions that were done in the name of an individual – for example, to own capitals, goods, workers, technology, etc. – in the name of a corporation. This is what’s called as a legal entity.
By the way, there are two types of legal entity personality, and each of us, as individuals, are considered as “natural persons” that acquire this rights and obligations since birth. Anyway, it is difficult for me to explain further (laughs), so if you are interested, please look it up to know more.
A corporation, such as a company, is considered to have a personality just like a “person”. The key point is here.
Corporate Legal Entity Personality from the Inside
As I wrote in the beginning of this article, when I say “the other business partner’s Kaisha-sama,” I naturally acknowledging the other party’s legal entity personality. It is like “Company OO co., Ltd” (or ’kabushiki kaisha-sama’ meaning corporation in Japanese).
On the other hand, although the organization in which I belonged to has a legal entity personality, the internal employees perceive it differently. Perhaps it is because we employees are on the inside so it’s difficult to think of the company as one.
Since mgn is a legal entity, it also has a legal entity personality. In mgn, each members including our CEO, Megane-san calls mgn as “Kaisha-san”. We view the corporate entity of mgn as one personality and we say things like, “Thank you, Kaisha-san! My delicious meat delivery has arrived!”. In other words, we recognize the existence of the company itself.
The company includes each and everyone of us, yet it is still formed as a single entity. Now, even I myself will say things like, “Thank you, Kaisha-san” when I receive a mid-year gift or “Congratulations, Kaisha-san” on the company’s anniversary (laughs).
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“Kaisha-san”, a special someone who is shaped by everyone’s feelings
When I first joined the company, I heard someone said, “I hope that mgn as a legal entity personality will grow more and more as a special figure shaped by everyone’s emotions”.
Now that I think about it again, it is actually turning into what it was supposed to be.
The shape of the company is not formed solely by the CEO, Megane-san himself. Rather, it is constantly growing by combining and adjusting to the shape of each members in the company.
Since the number of mgn members is gradually increasing, we move towards a culture of “consulting together”.
When deciding on something, we will decide on things such as, a leader or a ‘summary group’. Then, some degree of finalization, opinions, policies, and more are decided before the final decision is made by our CEO.
According to our Principle, each person works at his or her own initiatives, in which they will consults, and corporate together based on each persons’ strengths and personal issues.
As a result, I believe that “mgn-san” is growing, not as the CEO Megane-san alone, but as a “whole team” together.
Finally.
In this article, I discussed what a legal entity personality is and what is mgn’s legal entity personality and how it grows. When I first joined the company, I thought that “growth of legal entity = ????”. However, I have come to be able to define our company as “Kaisha-san (“legal entity personality”) and our growth”. From now, what kind of shape will mgn be in the future, and how will that appear to you? With this perspective in mind, I would like to keep growing with “My Company” (my Kaisha-san).