9 ideas
The company is divided into small units of roughly five to fifty people, each run like an independent business with its own leader and its own income statement. Each unit must be able to complete a meaningful piece of work on its own and have measurable revenue and costs. Units are split, merged, or dissolved as market conditions change.
Each amoeba's performance is measured as value added per hour. That figure is revenue minus all costs except labor, divided by total hours worked. Because the measure uses hours instead of salaries, frontline workers can compute it, compare it, and improve it themselves.
Amoebas buy and sell intermediate goods and services from each other at negotiated internal prices. This carries the pressure of the external market into every stage of production. Because the pricing creates conflicts over dividing profit, top management must arbitrate fairly using a shared philosophy, not narrow unit self-interest.
When each small unit sees its own numbers daily, ordinary employees start thinking and acting like owners. This builds a deep bench of managerial talent throughout the company. Participation in management, not incentive pay, is the source of motivation.
Strong amoeba performance should earn recognition and gratitude from peers, not large bonuses tied to unit results. Linking pay directly to amoeba profit breeds envy, zero-sum fighting, and resentment when fortunes reverse. Contribution to the whole company should itself be the source of pride.
Management reduces to one principle: raise sales as high as possible and push costs as low as possible. Profit is simply the result of doing both. Every expense should be questioned against this rule instead of being benchmarked against industry norms or past budgets.
Each movement of goods or money should be matched by a corresponding document, and figures must not be manipulated to make results look better. Pairing this with double-checking by separate people helps keep the numbers honest. It protects individuals from temptation and makes each amoeba's figures a trustworthy picture of its actual operations.
In 2010, bankrupt JAL was restructured by Inamori, then nearly 80 and unpaid. He introduced route- and flight-level profitability accounts and philosophy training for employees. Within about a year the airline became highly profitable, and it relisted in 2012, showing the system could transfer beyond manufacturing to a bureaucratic service company.
Decisions should be tested by asking what is right as a human being, not what is profitable or conventional. Inamori treats this moral baseline of fairness, honesty, and selflessness as the foundation that keeps decentralized, competitive units from turning selfish. Without it, amoeba accounting degrades into internal warfare.