Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.173 2026.03.01 Takahashi Minoru

Attributing the elimination of individual dependency to lowering barriers to entry

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


Many company presidents have likely heard a systems vendor’s salesperson say,
"Let’s eliminate reliance on specific individuals."


They say, “Standardize operations” or “Create a system where anyone can do the same work,”
It is not uncommon for this to be defined
defined as one of the goals of system implementation.


In fact, even in today’s highly digitized world,
there are many companies where certain tasks are understood only by specific employees.
You may have even experienced a situation where
you may have experienced this yourself.


That’s why the argument that “person-dependent work is bad” and “eliminating it is the right thing to do”
sound perfectly reasonable at first glance.
This is a very useful sales pitch for IT vendors,
and today, these phrases are used in meeting rooms and online across Japan.


However, when it comes to whether eliminating reliance on specific individuals is truly a purely good thing,
that is often not the case.


To reduce reliance on specific individuals,
we need to streamline operations to some extent.
To rephrase “making it so anyone can do the same work,”
"it is a task that anyone can learn."


In other words, while we reduce the complexity of work to eliminate reliance on specific individuals,
and that very reduction in complexity
is often the very strength
.


The artisanal judgment honed over many years,
meticulous attention to each customer, and service quality backed by tacit knowledge
may only be possible because they rely on individual expertise.
We must avoid a situation where it turns out that
we must avoid a situation where this turns out to be nothing more than a pie-in-the-sky ideal.


We must avoid a situation where, in an effort to eliminate reliance on specific individuals and simplify and standardize operations,
we end up eliminating our own strengths along with the complexity—
is entirely possible.


Furthermore, even if we were to eliminate all reliance on specific individuals and successfully standardize operations,
we must also keep in mind
.
That know-how will inevitably leak to competitors in the industry.
It may also provide employees with an easy opportunity to strike out on their own.


Standardized know-how is documented and first disseminated within the company.
Employees will eventually leave, and some will go on to start their own businesses in the same industry.
Employees who leave to start their own businesses in the same industry will inevitably take that standardized know-how with them.
In other words, the act of organizing know-how
is tantamount to voluntarily creating a pathway for that know-how to flow to competitors.


If knowledge remains tied to specific individuals, at the very least that specific knowledge—
the know-how that exists solely in the mind of that specific employee is robust,
and will not be easily taken away.
Headhunting and poaching are possible,
it is undoubtedly much more difficult than simply taking documents out of the company.


Of course, there is the risk of an unexpected resignation by a specific employee, so
and while the argument that "know-how tied to specific individuals is a bad thing" has some validity,
that is not the whole story.


Retaining a degree of reliance on individual expertise is also a way to protect the company’s know-how.
It maintains barriers to entry against competitors and employees planning to go independent
should also be viewed as a useful management strategy.


However, making everything standardized, transparent, and accessible to anyone
is not necessarily the right answer.
What matters is that the business owner
with a clear intention.
You must not leave that decision up to the sales pitch of a systems vendor.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

------------------------------

■ Previous / Next Column ■

※This is the latest column. There are no newer articles.

＞＞＞ Previous Column Vol.172 - Eliminating individual dependency lowers the barrier to entry for competitors 2026.02.01

Back to Column List