Is The Samurai Ethos Still Valid Today?

July 27th, 2007 by Carmen Schubert

Although knowledge, technology or methodology are main success factors in the modern business world, we believe personal success also depends to a high degree on personal values and ethics. In our opinion, a business codex similar to the “codex” of the samurai of ancient Japan could serve well as a set of guiding principles in today’s business world.

Just think about it for a minute while reading this article and you will find out that there are a lot of similarities between the samurai of ancient Japan and today’s business professionals. Both, the samurai and the professional, are employed or hired because of their personal attributes: their professionalism, their skills and their reputation. It is all about the professional. Their values are not based on external resources, on man power, infrastructure or even money, but just on themselves. Thus, their value can not be observed upfront, but needs to be trusted upon.

However, the value of a samurai or a professional can be judged by looking at the past. Here, results and behaviour are the relevant metrics. While most people pretend to only look at results, behaviour is at least as important. Take an engineer, for example, who is designing an innovative product for a company. If he then turns around and is developing a similar product for a competitor (assuming he is not acting illegally), people will notice. If he does it again, people might become hesitant to involve him in critical situation. One could construct numerous examples where professionals are not only measured by actual results, but also by their behaviour while achieving these results and by their behaviour towards their customers, partners or colleagues.

Here, the need for a business codex comes into play. We believe that such a business codex could draw a lot by having a closer look at the codex of the samurai.

The samurai (business) codex – you might probably ask yourself – what is it? It is a special code of conduct, also known as “Bushido”, that consists of moral principles. Bushido was the guiding philosophy of the samurai regulating their way of life. It is an unwritten code that was passed on among samurai from one generation to another. The samurai codex consists of several key attributes. Those are, for example, loyalty, courage, respect, honour, and self-discipline – just to mention a few.

Loyalty

Let’s take one of those attributes, for example loyalty, and have a closer look at it. What does loyalty mean? Especially in today’s business context? Drawing the analogy to the samurai, the question raises: is it possible in today’s business world to be loyal?

Trying to find an answer to this question, it is necessary to define the term ‘loyalty’. Loyalty stands for faithfulness and involves the adherence of agreements that have been set. The samurai of ancient Japan were once loyal to their master and it was a question of honour to fight for their country and protect it against enemies. They were bound and subordinate to their master serving them till death. This already shows a high degree of loyalty and indicates that loyalty has been very important to the samurai.

On closer examination, parallels to today’s business world can be noticed. In today’s business world, loyalty demands truthfulness and fairness in dealing with supervisors, colleagues, employees and partners. Although we do not have a master anymore like the samurai once had, loyalty to a company can be strong too. Going abroad for business reasons and moving from country to country also represents a certain degree of loyalty of the employee to his company. It is a great challenge, but if you want to be successful, you take this opportunity.

In the business world, we do not “fight” for our country but for our company. And of course, we do not fight physically, but rather with convincing arguments, knowledge and experience as well as brands and new innovations. As complexity in companies grow, people have shifted their loyalty to individuals rather than corporations. Focusing on the individual, it is easier to be loyal to because you can build up trust and hence, strong business relationships. Being loyal to individual persons also involves the risk that by changing the job, they often take clients with them.

By looking at the samurai’s way of living and acting, we can learn a lot from them. Due to the similarities, we are able to apply those principles also in today’s modern business environment and hence, benefit from it.

3 Responses to “Is The Samurai Ethos Still Valid Today?”