Eiichi Shibusawa — 500 Companies, Not One Made His Own

Eiichi Shibusawa — now the face of the ten-thousand-yen note — was born a farmer's son, became a shogunal retainer, witnessed European capitalism at the Paris Exposition, served the Meiji government, then plunged into business.

His output defies belief: beginning with the First National Bank, he was involved in roughly five hundred companies — banking, paper, spinning, railways, gas, insurance — single-handedly tilling the foundations of modern Japanese industry.

But his true greatness is not the number: across five hundred companies, he built no zaibatsu, no family empire, believing a company is a vessel of public good, not private gain. He compressed the philosophy into one phrase: "The Analects and the abacus" — morality and profit must coexist, or business cannot last.

When we wrote in our manifesto that profit is fuel for challenge but never the sole purpose, this great senior stood in my mind. The answer was given 150 years ago: it is a matter of sequence.

What do you work for?