Opening the central research laboratory: seeding fermentation into genetics (1970)

The gamble of investing in what will not pay soon

The core of this decision is that in the hardest period, the investment chosen was the one furthest from recovery. Committing running costs greater than ordinary profit to a laboratory is difficult to justify on the finances of the time. That Omiya Takashi could nonetheless override the objections was, it seems, because a conviction about the fermentation technology gained in brewing coincided with a fear that contraction alone would leave the company thin. The rhythm of management that decided withdrawal and investment in the same period tells you the character of this judgment.

But to praise this only as foresight, on the grounds that the investment reached as far as the peak of PCR demand half a century later, simplifies the story too much. It took nearly twenty years for the laboratory to produce results, and in between lay patient basic research and the accumulated judgments of the managers who followed. When a single investment bears fruit as a business after a long passage of time, it requires as much decision to continue as the first decision took. The history of the central laboratory says that quietly.