Taking a very, very, very long view of your mission

The Hasegawa’s family sells toasted mochi out of a small timber shop next to an old shrine in Kyoto that started to provide refreshments to weary travellers in the year 1000. Now, more than a millennium later, COVID 19 has devastated the economy, and its once reliable stream of tourists has evaporated. But Ms. Hasegawa is not concerned about her shops' finances. Like many businesses in Japan, her family’s shop, Ichiwa, takes a long view — a really long view. By putting family tradition and legacy over profit and growth, Ichiwa has weathered wars, plagues, natural disasters, and the rise and fall of empires. Through it all, its rice flour cakes, the mochi, have remained the same. This company's operating principles and beliefs are completely different, their first priority is carrying on… to pass the baton to the next generation. To survive for a millennium, Ms. Hasegawa said, a business cannot just chase profits, it has to have a higher purpose. In the case of Ichiwa, that was a religious calling: serving the shrine’s pilgrims. There is so much to be learnt from this message. GB