What would be LOVE MADE VISIBLE in consulting

Below is a quote from The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.

Work at its best, then, is about connection, engagement, and commitment. As the poet Kahlil Gibran said, "Work is love made visible." Echoing Tolstoy, he gave examples of work done with love:

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

I believe knowledge business like consulting is no different. It may be a little harder to visualize... How do you research "competitive differentiation" with love? How do you write reports on facts and figures with love?

But that's what we have always done at my company. We have always kept our sights on things like consumer lifestyles, values and social consciousness, because we believe businesses start with people. Corporations are made up of "people," and the products and services that they offer are created to serve the needs of people. What we do for our client organizations ultimately serve the needs of our family, friends, and lovers. A simple, but often overlooked fact.

This Monday morning I would like to go into my work with this thought in my heart. How do we bring out LOVE MADE VISIBLE in consulting business? A worthy question which I would like to challenge all my colleagues with.

There is a company in Japan who makes an art out of marketing tofu!!

On page 91 Of Seth Godin's linchpin, there is a little sub-chapter titled "Do You Need to Be an Artist to Market Tofu?" .

Upon reading that chapter, I immediately took to typing and wrote an email to Seth, saying, "but actually there is! There is a company in Japan who makes an art out of marketing tofu!!"

To this day it has been my regret that I did not take the time to properly explain to Seth why I think this company is so remarkable, or why I consider what they do as art. In other words, when I wrote to Seth out of my sheer excitement, it was a premature shipping. So I decided to write this blog post to make up for it. (and I will be sure to send the link to Seth.)

The name of the company is Otokomae-Tofu, which roughly means "Good-looking guy tofu." personally I like "Hot Dude Tofu" better, the naming done by Nina Lalli in her blog .

Otokomae-Tofu is a maker of premium tofu. Just how premium is it? Well, usually a block of tofu costs somewhere between $1 and $2, whereas their stuff range from $1.99 to $6.99. According to Shingo Ito, president of Otokomae Tofuten Corp., they use several times more soybean than regular tofu to create richer taste, and they are flown in from Japan to be on the shelf the day after it is made.

At this point I can almost hear my readers say, "So they make expensive tofu with better quality. What is the big deal?" The deal is that they do not just make better-quality, expensive tofu.

If you are not sure what I mean, please check out their website.

http://www.otokomae.com/

Nuts, I know. Right? They have an obnoxious theme song. They have profiles of their real(?) employees with comic illustrations. They have a weird and wacky story seemingly unrelated to tofu, with characters like Don Fun (Don Juan), Karme (Carmen) and Salome. Their products are emblazoned with a big, bold kanji character for "Otoko (male)." They even have original character goods ranging from T-shirts, beach sandals and music CDs to fashion rings.

My point is that they did not have to do all these to sell premium tofu. They use only the finest ingredients. They have a unique manufacturing process. There is a pretty good chance that they could compete solely on the quality.

I think they go out of their ways to have fun, entertain their audience, and emotionally connect with their customers.

Making of tofu is a relatively conservative industry. If you do something out of ordinary, you are running a risk of being considered a "hype," meaning you are intentionally drawing attention away from the quality of the goods because it will not stack up to the competition. It wasn't the case with Otokomae Tofu, though. They really produce the high-quality goods; tofu connoisseurs who know nothing about their website testify for the unforgettable taste of their products.

Also I might point out that, to Japanese eyes, Tofu is an epitome of simplicity. It is white, square, plain and understated. It does not interfere. Neither does it asserts itself. In miso soup it blends in quietly. In a way, tofu is a symbol of the traditional Japanese virtue.

Otokomae-tofu is none of these things; it is loud and obnoxious. It asserts its presence. It wants to be noticed. It is a diva at the center stage. It disrupts. It is in your face. It might as well be a non-tofu.

Otokomae Tofu took the risk, and it paid off for them. They have gained enthusiastic fans who not only love their tofu, but also love their fun-loving, kitschy, outrageous culture. They come back for more. They talk amongst themselves about their favorites. They are a tribe.

Entertaining and forging emotional connections with their fans is their art. For their U.S. audience, Otokomae Tofu even has an official facebook page.

Linchpins in Japan

During my recent trip to Japan, I had opportunities to meet many linchpins in Japan. I did not name them as such to their face, but I had a quiet pleasure of recognizing them in my mind.

One such occasion was when I accompanied my boss, @s_ishizuka, to a podcast recording session. He recently published a book called The Zappos Miracles in Japanese and was asked to be interviewed for a podcasting program. The producer/interviewer of this program is a young guy in his late 20s to early 30s. He is one of the best-known alpha bloggers in Japan specialized in book reviews.

My boss has never been recorded for podcasting before, so we had no idea what to expect. When we arrived at the studio, we were amazed by how compact the place was! There was a small table where the interviewer and interviewee (my boss) would sit face to face, and five of us, me and my colleague, a sound engineer and two interns who studied journalism in college sat on the floor circling the table, not unlike children eager to hear a bedtime story.

What moved me about this experience was the handmade quality of the setting. There was nothing extravagant about the studio, but it was well set-up. The sound engineer proudly demonstrated the quality of his recording equipment, a nifty-looking gadget the size of an oversized cell phone. Two curtains hang from the pole on two sides of the tiny room so as to absorb the noise, we were told. And the place smelled of dream and ambition! From this tiny studio just big enough for two people to sleep, they were broadcasting their own version of gospels to the world.

The producer/interviewer told us that he used to be a journalist for a traditional newspaper. Just as he was about to embark on his journey, representing the voice of justice and uncovering the truth for all of us general public to read, he fell ill. He suffered depression, and what finally got him out of the darkness and despair was a book.

From then on, he decided to be a book reviewer and to introduce books of inspiration to young readers like himself. Because books change one's life for the better, he said.

I will never forget the simple but extraordinary feeling of excitement that I felt as I sat on the floor of that compact studio, hugging my knees to my chest. As the quiet but confident voice of the interviewer filled the room and streamed into my ears, I felt strangely connected to the thousands of listeners who were listening to the program out in the world over the Internet. I did not know those people and, most likely we would never meet, but at that very moment I was connected to our collective hope for a better life.