The History of Success
Nikken Sekkei has been holding the leading position in global architectural industry for several decades. The company’s staff encompasses professionals excellently coping with the most complex architectural and engineering tasks. Its philosophy, structure and management system are positively unique. Mitsuo Nakamura, the Nikken Sekkei Chairman of the Board, unveils the corporate secret of success.
As is known, Nikken Sekkei was established in 1900. Nakamura-san, what is the essence of more than a century of successful development? Is it purely Japanese way of doing business or just thought-out management strategy?
Well, we don’t know ourselves how it happens. Of course, nobody fancied that our company would be viable so. Nikken Sekkei was founded by a small group of team-mates at their own expense. Then, there were just 20 of employees, now there are more than 2500 headcount of staff. The company has never been owned by a single proprietor, and now that’s just the same: there are numerous minor shareholders.
Another unusual thing is absence of the single chief architect. In fact, this is quite unique about the practice of traditional architectural studios, where assistants and apprentices are driven by a single leader. From the outset, the founding fathers of the company realized how much the engineering is important for business of Nikken Sekkei, therefore, from the very first day, civil, structural and MEP engineers have been welcome along with architects.
From the very beginning we were also concerned with environmental issues and the matter of harmony between nature and architecture. That’s why it is crucial to fuse architectural and engineering approaches; and that’s the way we keep on following, which also makes our practice fairly unique. The structure and administering throughout our business is also unorthodox. Nikken Sekkei is not vertically, but horizontally integrated establishment.
Speaking figuratively, the company is not a pyramid, which is rare thing not only for Japanese corporations, but also for firms all over the world. All employees at Nikken Sekkei work on almost equal terms. There is no rigid hierarchy, and no matter how much high is the grade of an officer there are no obstacles for professional communication. Everybody work in synergy, and each team member is challenged. By the way, the salaries paid to executives is comparable with these of the rest of our staff, the gap is by no means great.
For Japan, all this, apparently, is exception rather than a rule. Perhaps only Nikken Sekkei can boast such a state of things. We primarily committed to satisfy expectations of our clients, trying to get an insight into their needs. After all, we work for our clients rather than just clipping coupons. This is another factor of our sustainability.
Nakamura-san, what kind of education has you got? You are the Chairman of the Board, and what’s the election procedure for this position?
I’m a practicing Registered 1st Class Architect. However, architects and engineers at our company also have to perform some executive functions. Since the headcount is so huge, there should be a management body. That’s not the matter of will for power, but there should be somebody to do this job. The Board elects its Chairman annually. For eight consecutive years I’ve been holding this position. Anyway, even if I’m not commissioned for the next term, I’ll remain a corporate employee proceeding my professional activities, whereas now, I’m a practicing architect fulfilling the Chairman’s duties.
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Text by Nina Konovalova, photos by Nikken Sekkei