Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018

P-Will at DISCO

by Ethan Bernstein, Naoko Jinjo and Yuna Sakuma

Abstract

From the outside, DISCO—a Japan-based manufacturer of precision tools for semiconductor production devices—appeared to be a rather ordinary company that had achieved rather extraordinary success: it had simultaneously achieved 70% global market share, had lifted its profitability from 15% to 30% over the past seven years, and was consistently selected as a "Best Workplace" in Japan. The secret to DISCO’s success, according to Sekiya, lay in its truly individualized management of human capital which they called the P-Will (Personal Will) system.
P-Will was a proprietary managerial accounting system based on Will, a currency that enabled internal market transactions. At DISCO, every hour of labor and every good was associated with a price in Will. Employees were expected to act like independent business owners; they used the P-Will system to manage their own revenue contributions and business expenses in Will. Four times a year, the balances of individual P-Will accounts were converted to real currency and paid out as bonuses.
In the last couple of years, about 10 companies, including other companies in the semiconductor industry, had visited Sekiya wanting to replicate DISCO’s enviable success and introduce the P-Will system at their companies. However, none of these companies had actually implemented it. Seeing off another guest who had visited DISCO, Sekiya asked himself: Why don’t other companies adopt the P-Will system? What were the conditions under which P-Will would work—and not work?

Keywords: human capital; P-Will; DISCO; semiconductors; self-managing organizations; Governance; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Semiconductor Industry; Japan;

Language: English Format: Print 29 pages Educators

Citation:

Bernstein, Ethan, Naoko Jinjo, and Yuna Sakuma. "P-Will at DISCO." Harvard Business School Case 419-035, October 2018.

About the Author

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Ethan S. Bernstein
Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration
Organizational Behavior

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