<p>This article aims to clarify the attributes and career paths of top management of KYOCERA from the 1960s to the 1990s.</p><p>Compared to companies such as Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony, KYOCERA had a shorter tenure from entry of each firms to entering directorship, especially for mid-career recurits. Correspondingly, the age at which they took executive offices was also lower than other companies. However, over time, the tenure from entry to executive positions has tended to become longer in KYOCERA as well as Panasonic, Hitachi and SONY.</p><p>The mid-career recruits assumed directorship shortly after joining KYOCERA or a short time afterwards. In addition, there were only few job rotations before they became directors of KYOCERA.</p><p>In the case of executives from new graduates, they were nurtured over time and groomed to become key players in management. After joining the company, they would typically become department heads such as the head of a business unit, manufacturing department, or sales department within 15 to 18 years. Accumulating 5 to 10 years of experience in that position, they would then be promoted to director. Additionally, it was not uncommon for individuals who joined the company as new graduates to rotate through various businesses and jobs before being promoted to director.</p><p>Even after becoming executives, they often hold high-ranking positions in various departments. The career path after becoming the executives was also the process of being nurtured as general managers. In that process, there were many persons who experienced job rotation while the others did not. This job rotation was one of important reasons why KYOCERA tended to have longer tenures for its executives.</p><p>At the same time, a series of proactive consolidations and mergers by KYOCERA resulted in a greater need for managerial manpower. Consequently, there were many cases of executives being dispatched from KYOCERA to its subsidiaries, or of KYOCERA headquarters’ executives concurrently serving as executives of subsidiary companies. There were also a lot of cases where KYOCERA top management served as executives of multiple subsidiaries. This practice of appointing executives from KYOCERA to subsidiary companies was also a strategy to cultivate young business leaders of it.</p>