From Chikuma Real Estate to Starts, absorbing the affiliates (1987)

Binding the name and dividing the responsibility

What marks this reorganisation is that it was carried out while the number of businesses was still increasing. Gathering four separate legal entities into one can be read, for a company that treats its dealings with landowners as long-term relationships, as the practical work of putting the point of contact and the locus of responsibility in one place. The founder’s explanation — that he removed the name of his home region and moved the basis of the name to the employees — can be read sentimentally, but a name tied to one individual requires explanation, inside and out, as the organisation grows. The motive for the change and the demands of the organisation happened to point the same way.

The single-company structure did not last. Eighteen years later, in 2005, Starts moved construction, brokerage, condominium sales and corporate services into subsidiaries and became a holding company. Seen as gathering in 1987 and dividing in 2005, the two look opposed; but what was unified in 1987 was the external name, and what was divided in 2005 was profit responsibility by business. Whether the unit of responsibility alone can be rearranged while the name is held constant — that single question is what the same company asked twice.