For decades, efficiency has been one of the most unquestioned virtues of business. Leaders are taught to do more with less, cut costs and optimize resources. But according to Toru Takahashi, Global Chief Strategy Officer at GLOBIS Corporation, that mindset carries a hidden and growing cost.
“We tend to think of people as a cost or expense,” Takahashi says. “And if we think about human resources as a cost, we think we can do more with less.”
Speaking on CEO: Behind the Scenes, Takahashi challenges the idea that efficiency, when applied to people, delivers sustainable value. In fact, he argues, it often undermines it. But when people are seen as human capital, the logic changes entirely.
“Human capital means the people are the asset,” Takahashi explains. “So we need to invest in the people.”
That distinction, he says, demands a new understanding of ROI. Traditional metrics tend to favor short-term efficiency, rewarding immediate output and cost reduction. But investments in people rarely deliver instant returns.
Takahashi points to sabbaticals as an example. In the short term, they appear inefficient – an employee is absent, productivity slows and costs continue.
“But in the long time, it’s efficient,” he points out.
Bringing together leadership qualities
This tension between short-term performance and long-term value sits at the heart of many leadership failures. And it’s closely linked, Takahashi believes, to a lack of purpose.
Central to his work is the concept of kokorozashi – a Japanese word that can be loosely translated as ‘leader’s mind’, referring to a leader’s will, ambition and sense of purpose. For Takahashi, it represents the alignment between individual fulfillment and contribution to society.
“It’s the connection between individual happiness and social happiness,” he explains.
For leaders, discovering that alignment requires reflection rather than strategy decks. Takahashi encourages leaders to examine the most difficult decisions they’ve made – moments when no option was clearly right – and ask why they chose the path they did. Those decisions, he says, often reveal underlying values.
His reflective mindset was sharpened early in his career during his first overseas assignment in Iran – an experience that dismantled many of his assumptions about culture, media narratives and leadership itself.
“I found that I was biased by Western media,” he says. “When I went there, I found a different situation. There’s nice people, it’s very safe.”
“If you don’t believe yourself, people don’t believe.”
That experience stayed with him, reinforcing the importance of stepping back from single narratives, seeking multiple perspectives and leading with humility.
Today, it informs his approach to global leadership – one that prioritizes human connection over politics and people over systems.
At GLOBIS, this philosophy underpins a broader mission: not simply to educate leaders, but to develop individuals committed to improving society. In an era defined by rapid technological change, Takahashi believes the solution to challenges lies, once again, with people.
“The problem is not technology,” he says. “The problem is the mindset.”
And for leaders struggling to embed purpose into their organizations, his advice is blunt. Culture, he says, is a mirror.
“If you don’t believe yourself, people don’t believe,” he emphasizes.
Treating people as expenses may look like efficiency in the short term. But as Takahashi makes clear, the long-term cost – to engagement, innovation and sustainability – is far higher than most leaders realize.
Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with Toru Takahashi on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.
