PSPINC CEO Kenichi Uchikura's Blog

24" Monitor for $199

4月

26日

I found this deal on the net. If you are still using CRT monitor, do yourself a favor and buy this monitor. $199 is a great price and 24 size will make your life much easier.

DELL

#Business #Marketing

Seattle Executives Association

4月

23日

We belong to a very prestigious business networking association called Seattle Executives Association (www.seattleexecs.org). There are 112 businesses around Seattle belonging to this organization and each company holds it own category (classification). The idea is not to step on other companys toes.

PSPINC held Web and Email Hosting and Programming classification since we joined in 2003. Today, the board approved to change our classification to Web and Email Outsourcing and Web Development. The Web Development was not in our classification because there was another company who held that classification. The company that held Web classification quit the association few months ago and the classification opened the door for us to apply.

Many people in the association knew that we develop Web site, but we could not talk about it. This make thing easier for us to explain what we do.

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Frix Technologies

4月

22日

Today, we had Seattle Executives Association meeting at Frix Technologies (www.imajnet.com). He talked about sales philosophy.

His company specializes in Document Scanning and Archiving.

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One point Japanese - - - Mitsumori

4月

21日

It is made out of two words. MI (See) and Tsumori (Add). The idea is to see something and add the components for pricing. Yes, Mitsumori means Estimate in Japanese.

Mitsumori is an art rather than science. In Japan, Mitsumori often is a final price no matter what. So, if you somehow loose the control of the cost and over run your budget, you still have to honor your Mitsumori. That is the reason why someone who knows what he or she is doing should only do it.

It is true in PSPINC business practice. If we tell you what it costs, that is the price that you will be charged even when we screw up in estimate. If you every feel that you are over charged by PSPINC, please let me know personally. I will take care of it.

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Linked In | eMarketing

4月

20日

I belong to a group called eMarketing in Linked In. It sounded like an interesting group with over 100,000 members. But I found that there are just too many people and there is not much one company can do anything with it. Also, when you post something in the discussion, your thread will pushed down by so many posts everyday.

I think I will keep belonging to this group to just keep my eyes on it. Once in a while, there is something that I reply to. I think what this group is good for.

#Business #Marketing

One Point Japanese - - - Zaibatsu

4月

17日

In order to understand Japanese business culture, one needs to understand the history of the Japanese business system. To understand Japanese business history, you need to understand what we call Zai-Batsu. (It is made of two words.)

Zai = Money (Asset)
Batsu = Group based on blood, region or collage (School)

Zaibatsu means, financial relationship of the companies based on family.

You are born belonging to Zaibatsu. It is very rare you become a part of Zaibatsu. Following are the four Zaibatsu.

Mitsubishi
Mitsui
Sumitomo
Yasuda

And there are few more small (still big) Zaibatsu in Japan.

How powerful was (is) Zaibatsu?

One of the largest Zaibatsu in Japan Suzuki Shoten went out of business early 1900s. But this company left following companies.

Kobe Steel
Teijin
Shinko Dentetsu
Sapporo Beer
Showa Shell Oil
Mitsui Toatsu
Fuji Film
Shojitsu
Nippon Seifun
Nihon Kaiun
Taosyo Seimei
Daiwa Seimei

Those are few of the companies that Suzuki Shoten (privately held company) left behind when they close their door. This shows how much influence Zaibatsu have in Japanese economy.

At the end of World War II, zaibatsu became the target of Japanese reform and they were not longer allowed to operate using one Zaibatsu name. When Zaibatsu was no longer, the new name came up Keiretsu is the word used now days to show the preferred relationship of the companies.

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One point Business Japanese - - - Kaizen

4月

17日

Kaizen translated to change for better. Kai = Change Zen = Better

It is often used in manufacturing. In order to Zen (Better), one must find Aku (Bad) or waste. Once Aku is found, find the way to make it better. That process is called Kaizen.

When you really think about Kaizen, that what Japanese do best. Japanese are not known for their invention. They just make things better by making it lighter, smaller, faster, safer and cheaper. Those are Kaizen.

This philosophy works in the backbone of PSPINC business. We see a lot of time, money and sleep wasted in building and maintaining IT infrastructure in the world. By providing hosted solutions for basic needs like Web and Email, we will save people money and time with more reliability. That is Kaizen.

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Do you like one point business Japanese lesson like this?

Look what we have received today!

4月

17日

Thank you, Governor!

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Who needs home inspection?

4月

15日

Mack (Bruce Mackintosh) from Centennial Home Inspection came over today to talk about Web site. We have moved his Web site from the former hosting company to PSPINC but we have not done Web update. So we will be cleaning up his Web. In addition to Web, we talked about Blog using this bloguru.com.

At this point 100% of his business comes from the word of mouth. Thats great, but he could use more exposure. Now a day, everybody can use more exposure. But the economy as bad as we are in now, none of us can allocate money for marketing. By using Blog, we are hoping that we can generate more traffic to his site and possibly more businesses for him.

I learned something today. The buyer, not through realtors or agent, should do home inspection. Realtor or agent, even when the agent is your agent, has an interest in having your purchase the home. And because of that they do not want see any inspector find something that could potentially break a deal. I thought that was really interesting. If I am buying a house, I will definitely call Mack to inspect the home.

I wrote this because he bought me a burger for lunch. (Just kidding.) Please visit Centennial Home Inspection when you are buying a house.

Centennial Home Inspection and Pacific Software Publishing are proud member of Seattle Executives Association

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Another company going down.

4月

12日

I was driving around yesterday and saw what it looks like a picket sign. It was actually a store closing sign that am getting used to see now days. This time, it was a sign from G.I. JOES. I dont usually shop there. As a matter of fact I have been to JOES only once before.

But the sign made me look at the stores web page. (http://www.joessports.com) I learned that they were started in 1952. They have been in business 56 years. That is very long time. It makes me think what happened. Is it another victim of this recession? Or did they left behind in the Internet commerce?

Whatever it is, Pacific Northwest lost another icon.

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