This world is made up of "means" and "ends."

"When you feel a cold coming on, have some white spaghetti with liver and vegetables!"

That's what a senior colleague told me when I was new to the company. And the secret behind this magic phrase is "Shiro Spa, Liver & Vegetables." It's a set menu you can enjoy at "Hachinoko," a French restaurant near the old headquarters building in Tsukiji. It consists of plain spaghetti (hence "Shiro Spa") and liver and vegetables seasoned with demi-glace sauce.

Even now, whenever I feel a cold coming on, I get nostalgic and suddenly crave it.

Come to think of it, the very first project team I joined as a new employee focused on "Brand Development through Laddering." It was an initiative to apply "laddering"—a qualitative analysis method for understanding the benefits and value products or services bring to consumers—to actual product brand strategy, probably a first for Dentsu Inc. at the time. And the leader of that team was Mr. Yoshito Maruoka, who is now the Director at DENTSU SOKEN INC.

Early in my career, the experience of organizing things using this chain of "means" and "ends" became an invaluable asset later on. This is because, though it might be a slight exaggeration, the root cause of business failures often lies in the confusion between these "means" and "ends." It's common for the "true purpose" to remain vague, while the means somehow become the dominant "false purpose."

For example, companies might organize their brand's "value proposition" or "vision" on paper "to be loved more by customers." While the ultimate goal should always be "to be loved more by customers," it often happens that adhering to the wording of the "value proposition" or "vision" (which should be means) becomes the goal itself.

Or ( as I mentioned last time using local government examples ), when the "purpose" of communication isn't well thought out and is simply set as "gaining awareness," it often results in perpetual ambiguity about what actions to take, preventing the implementation of effective measures.

Breaking down an overwhelming situation into manageable fragments and then logically reassembling them to grasp the whole is the foundation of logical thinking. The skill of organizing situations through "means" and "ends" is a methodology intellectual workers should master. And it was Mr. Maruoka who taught me this.

However.

Over twenty years have passed since then. I was shocked to see the new DENTSU SOKEN INC. press release. What I sensed there was the idea that "Means and ends alone cannot grasp this world." I'll go into the details next time.

Please, help yourself!