prodrome in Manfredonia - Early History of Ajinomoto- The Chief Executive Officer in August 1965 when I joined the company, the first official native of Manfredonia, the construction of construction work was well under way and began to order the first machines and the first plants. It so happened that I went into business with a conspicuous bandage on his right hand, to be slipped in the hallway of his father's house, beating his hand against the glass of a picture that gave me several stitches.
the morning of Monday, August 2 was accepted by my boss from my accountant and administrative manager, however, he left that day for Manfredonia to perfect the practice in the Harbour for the coastal state concession of deposit of the harbor.
The next day, the chief accountant gave me the cash, stating that the next day left for the holidays. On Wednesday I was the only This clerk and received, as a cashier, the request for an advance for travel expenses by the head of the chemical. As per the instructions received, I made a check for one million lire, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and carried the signature of the CEO, Dr. Fukazawa.
They told me that this administration came from the diplomatic service and, ultimately, was commercial attache at the Japanese embassy in Paris. It was a very kind gentleman by the way, how and most of the other Japanese, and lived in Europe for over twenty years. He was surprised and amazed by my request and, before signing, I asked about my injury and then asked me, always in English, call the Director of Administration:
- 'E' in Manfredonia, Dr. Fukazawa, "- replied.
- "Oh yes! I remember! Let me then be the chief accounting officer. "-
-" No sir, he went on vacation. "-
He was surprised and looked at me in silence. Then he looked at the cards that I had led to the signing, which, in addition to, the included payment orders handwritten by me, his hand bandaged, for payments from me and that he was willing to permit. And he asked:
- 'Who's going then to the bank to change my check? "-
-' I'll go!" - I said sure: - "Yesterday I was introduced to the Cashier of the Bank!" -
But obviously that was not his concern. I went to the bank, but before I entered the bar to get a coffee, then prelevai the money and went back to the office. Returning, I saw her at the entrance to the office boy, slightly older than me, I was recommended to take control of its ease of ambush and pursue their own business.
I put everything in place and to make a gesture of courtesy, I went in person to the money to Dr. Giavelli, the head of the chemical, which I very much appreciate the gesture and stayed for a while 'to speak, of course, of my injury and Manfredonia.
In the hallway, I saw instead the messenger, rather hotly and sweating, looking at me with eyes wide in surprise. Later in my office, I found standing in the middle of the room Dr. Fukazawa waiting for me and asked me
- 'It was fine in the bank? "-
-" Yes Sir, of course! (Yes sir, of course!) "-
Only after a few minutes, thinking it over, I thought there was something strange.
The office was at the center of Rome, Via Bissolati, the street where were the offices of almost all international airlines and certainly the most important. Our office was on the first block to Via Nazionale, while the other extreme, to Via Veneto, the third and last block, almost opposite the U.S. Embassy, \u200b\u200bwas the building of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. Just in front of a secondary entrance to the BNL, on Via San Basilio, behind the main entrance of Via Veneto, there was the bar where I had coffee.
There was a great bar just below our office in Via Bissolati, was an American Bar, in the sense that you could eat a steak or a pasta dish, and here in the morning, before eight-thirty, I breakfast with cappuccino and cornetto, but the preferred mid-morning coffee take it to another bar, because, as I did immediately notice a more senior colleague, in quell'American Bar, after the third hour, the cups we could find traces of lipstick of all nations and continents of the world, and was true.
When the interval for lunch, I asked the messenger because he came out after me, told me that instead of immediately after I was released on Dr. Fukazawa, not before he asked me in an agitated, so that the same boy, worried, thought I had forgotten something that I was bringing back the same director, chasing each other.
In practice, I learned that I had followed Fukazawa at a distance, while I was in the bank entered the back door, I was released immediately after the gate side of Via Bissolati to return to the office, leaving Fukazawa Via San Basilio to spy on and wait. When I saw perhaps more in the bank went to the cashier to ask for news, coming soon after.
- "When I saw him get out," - continued the boy, - "I started running and I shortly before. And he said to me: Accountant? And I, in his office! Then, instead, I saw you reach the other side, on the other aisle, "-
I tried to find an explanation for everything that I heard: I told him that perhaps he had doubts about My ability to be able to withdraw money from the bank, as, indeed, had spoken at the signing of the check, perhaps because he happened to encounter difficulties in the bank.
Instead I had the distinct feeling that he had thought that I could escape with the cash: I own that in my previous job, I often handled more than one million lire. The verification of my first wages received in Rome, where he loses any of my month, could also be justified mistrust of the Administrator. In any case, there was certainly some distrust of the Italians, but even these, the Italians were not free from faults and prejudices towards the Japanese.
The technical staff
The Chinese calendar: I knew there but I had never had occasion to make her acquaintance. I heard about for the first time on the evening of 5 January of 1966, discovering that he had a series of twelve, in the sense that, for twelve years, every year was represented by an animal, the thirteenth year they repeated the performance again as the first.
That evening of January 5, 1966, the eve of a holiday, I was in a private room of the restaurant Sistina, in Via Sistina in Rome, opposite the legendary Temple Theatre and musical show of light and the Italian company's award-winning fitness Garinei & Giovannini and all the other most famous actors and writers of the show more or less light Italian.
at restaurant tables twenty diners, Italian and Japanese mixed, and I was practically one of the last, having been allocated seats in strict compliance of the corporate organization hierarchy, so, my neighbor across was the young designer while, on my left, was my only fellow peers, took less than a month and, before him, was the usher.
A capo tavola, quindi dall’altra parte rispetto al mio posto, sedeva l’anfitrione, l’Amministratore Delegato della nostra Società, il dott. Fukazawa di nazionalità giapponese e di religione buddista.
E fu appunto l’Amministratore Delegato che, prima di iniziare la cena, volle motivare quella serata ricordandoci che, in quel nuovo anno appena iniziato, il nostro Stabilimento di Manfredonia sarebbe stato ultimato entrando in produzione, voleva augurare quindi buon lavoro a noi dipendenti e, soprattutto, una lunga e ricca vita alla nostra Società, sottolineando a questo punto che tutti gli auspici erano favorevoli in quanto, fra pochi giorni, sarebbe iniziato il nuovo anno cinese rappresentato from the "horse", that noble animal gallops and runs and, therefore, would also gallop at our plant, our Company with all its employees.
The construction of the plant was organized and conducted by Japan. All technical drawings arrived from Japan in fact, even if not made directly to the Office, but the homes of Japanese engineers, such as personal effects shipped from one individual to another. This system, which was only predicted by Italian engineers, I had a way of ascertaining when I was then made to share my room with the Japanese engineers, this was not taken until the other reason and, with the Chief Accountant, we could together to create a "department".
But as long as I remained the youngest and the last arrived, I was the first to move to each new arrival, until I settled into the large room of the Japanese, and I had the opportunity to study them and their way of thinking, and even more so when Dr. Yamada arrived in Rome, the only "consultant" administrative.
was a law graduate, who was also a little older than me, and was determined to learn Italian, so we made a pact, he spoke Italian to me and I had to correct any errors and I spoke with him in English, with the same duty for him. To increase the opportunities for "study" evidently, he began to come with us, in the range meridian, to eat in the cafeteria of the nearby Ministry of Agriculture, at least until his family arrived in Rome. Even then he returned to Italy in that fateful year 1976.
In fact, the number of employees varied continuously for new hires and transfers to Manfredonia after the period, more or less short, education in Rome.
For each team of Italians, there was a corresponding team of Japanese. In hierarchical order, after Fukazawa, was the engineer Saito, head of the Japanese construction and chemical chief of industrial production, dr. Komori. The two leaders had to employ teams of Japanese engineers and chemists who performed the work material, the number varies widely.
Against these, there was a group of Italian chemists, led by Dr. Giavelli, from the Swiss Squibb, but from a factory in France, where he met his wife whom he married in a hurry, a few days before going in Japan.
Return of the chemical laboratory there was Dr. Cantarella, Turin by Schiaparelli, then there was Dr. Giappicucci, Roman, who toured the world, and Dr. Fontana bolognese. All these chemicals were very good and very experienced, especially the first three. The last of the chemical was Dr. Giorgio Gilli, born in Trentino, but the son of Bari spouses, young and just graduated.
The other technical staff involved in the construction that was headed by Eng. Ciceri, Milan, clever and experienced, always distracted or lost in thought, very tall and walk lopsided.
The staff of the engineer. Ciceri, all very experienced people, was largely already working at the shipyard in Manfredonia, such as the geom. Caponi, Bari, which virtually all parts built in masonry. There was a good mechanical engineer and a musician Milan Marche tire, it was looking for an electronic instrument.
are instead fixed in Rome the two drafters, a young and very old one. In fact, the Japanese designs were redesigned for the Italian engineers, reviewed by Japanese technicians, approved by Eng. Saito, and thus, signed by Eng. Ciceri. Chemical plants were under the same procedure. The technical came from Japan, translated into English by Japanese engineers, chemists, and retranslated into Italian by Italian technicians.
It lay then the supply order in Italian, however, before it is sent, it was translated into English by the Italians, then by Japanese engineers in Japan, approved by Eng. Saito and signed by Dr. Giavelli or Eng. Ciceri, as well as by the Administrator with value Fukazawa financial commitment. You miss a step when Dr. Komori, the chemist, went to Manfredonia to follow the activity.
However, before leaving, Komori had a long talk with me, just because I was the only local indigenous Manfredonia. He inquired about local customs, the names of doctors, the pediatricians best, restaurants, mechanical repairs on cars, on pharmacies and major shops, taking due note of everything. This is because, towards the end of August, led to Manfredonia wife and daughters.
All orders and contracts for the supply of materials and work were compiled by the Purchasing, Eng. Porcelli, a senior and experienced senior, with long militancy in Breda, flanked by a lawyer from Bari.
All Italian chemists, who had been about a month in Japan for an internship at the parent plants, they treated the corresponding Japanese chemical with respect and sympathy, even though between them they speak against dicendone fever and horns. The other Italian engineers dealt with the Japanese and someone with enough curiosity. Since the company
orbit of state participation was agreed, of course, that the supplies and works were entrusted to the extent possible, other parastatal companies, with preference for Bari and south. This is also the consideration that the contribution to the grant paid by the Fund for the South for new investments in the South, was more for purchases from companies in the South and, similarly, financing loans.
All construction works were entrusted to the Company and masonry "Giovannini & Micheli," introduced at all parastatal companies, electrical equipment to the "energy", based in Bari, a company that had absorbed various other small southern firms.
Two engineers of this society, the energy exactly, were called to discuss their drawings with the engineer. Saito Ing. Ciceri, in my presence, since I shared a room with Saito and two other Japanese engineers.
In practice, Saito had found many things wrong in the wiring diagrams and drawings prepared. He had discussed, as usual animated, with Cicero that he had referred to the energy and that had challenged the findings because unjustified.
When were the two young engineers, they sat down in front of Saito with a lot of self-importance and sufficiency. After the first preamble, Saito took the picture and began to do it on their desk and, with a red marker, began to score with big strokes, bad points, like a teacher who corrects the work of students.
Engineers Energies of the first reacted timidly, then began to protest, saying he followed the directives and instructions received from our supply order, but when Ciceri invited them to review the order, confessed to not having brought with them, demonstrating the lack of preparation or the lack of importance given to the meeting. Ciceri took his copy for me to bother to copy to the two engineers, and Saito put out their own copy in Japanese.
In the end, despite not understanding what they said, being strictly technical terms, with Cicero in speaking English and Italian Saito with two guests, I gathered that they had really wrong, proving that he has performed with great accuracy the their work, thereby underestimating the clients and, most importantly, they did not understand the meaning of many technical solutions chosen or requested only by the Japanese, solutions in Italy, at the time were unknown or not applicable, deemed unnecessary or unnecessarily expensive. In practice, before a technical solution for their new or just unknown, had ignored its own or adopting one known to them, assuming that the Japanese were wrong.
few months later, in Manfredonia, I had become a friend of the foreman of Energy Bari, who directed the work, and I could not help but tell him the scene I had witnessed.
From him I had confirmation that the two engineers of Energy had not understood a thing, that the Company had signed a supply contract on the basis of drawings prepared by the two but, when they were rebuilt and adjusted according to the exact interpretation of the requirements, it turned out that the agreed price was abnormally low and not very profitable , and the two were fired.
same attitude I saw in the technical sufficiency of a great and historic Genoese steel company, Ansaldo, which had been ordered two stainless steel fermenters, that is where the huge tanks for fermentation of molasses, the first and most delicate phase of the process. In this case they were older and were discussed in advance and no drawings.
Here, at the very beginning, it happened that one of the engineers remarked that perhaps there had been a mistake, as was predicted some kind of special stainless steel for bolts and nuts, while it was common knowledge that in fact no one had ever used bolts of such material. At the insistence of Saito, one of the engineers turned in Milan in Cicero:
- 'Go! Do not waste time! I convinced her that these types of bolts do not exist in Europe, let alone if you have them! "-
-" Gentlemen! "- Ciceri said: -" If they have provided, it means that "they" have them and use them too! "-
Saito was a true Samurai and had more than forty years. The Samurai, they explained, was the hereditary chief of a great and noble family and, therefore, in addition to technical subjects of his faculties, he had a reigning prince type education, humanistic education that is Eastern Europe, the Japanese martial arts, use of ancient weapons and technical studies at top universities, with Master and Stage at major University of California, USA.
He was tall and massive, with great big head, so that, seeing him from afar, one would have thought it was a "little guy" like his compatriots, his gait reminded me of the typical one seen in the film, with low waist under the belly and light step, almost on tiptoe. He spoke in an English office and primary rough, with his guttural voice, and understand Italian well enough, even if it gave to see and do not ever spoke.
This is to explain that she understood the call of Italian and, in fact, left a curt order in Japanese to his collaborator, who immediately went out and returned after a quarter of an hour with a telex and one of their usual sheets of rice paper on which they wrote by hand, was a list of all the factories that produced the bolts in that special kind of steel, in Europe there were two Swedes, two Germans and one Italian, and six in Japan in Singapore.
Reports working between Ciceri and Saito were very stormy and animated, and I was, in spite of myself, a witness. I had seen so much discussion and bickering, but I understood that, after all, an estimated one another. Naturally, disagreements arose about the different views about the technical solutions to take and the price to be paid to suppliers, and always took place in English, both obviously mastered.
If the subject was chemical, then alongside Dr. Giavelli Ciceri intervened and, with him, Saito was less impetuous and had a conversation on a more quiet and subdued.
One of these three discussions was particularly long and complex, dragging for several days. When the two spoke to each other Italians, who would often converse in French, perhaps because they knew that Saito did not understand, but once, instead of talking about technical terms, rather salacious Giavelli made a comment about Saito.
I had my head on my work, but I understood the comment, and I had an involuntary smile shot and then, alarmed, I lifted my head and looked at first and then Giavelli Saito: Saito was looking at me with eyes smart, Giavelli looked first at him then at me, alarmed . From that day our two technicians did not use more French, but spoke in German, a language of which hardly knew the meaning of a dozen words, or a language for me really tricky and quite incomprehensible: from Bergamo.
The production process in the production of glutamate, the Japanese had, as already mentioned, an experience more than a century and, as a system, they used to record and preserve the history all accidents and incidents that had occurred and met during the production process of every type and genre.
Their technicians before being hired, the company did an internship and had to memorize all of the problems with all of its remedies and the solutions adopted and practiced, and showed how many more episodes to know, were more likely to be engaged and used on the production departments. In the offices
Romans as normal working hours, we had a lunch break for more than two hours, just enough for those who came to eat at home, but too long for me to eat at the table of the Ministry of Agriculture , fifty yards from the office, and that in about half an hour, I had finished all that well.
There was always some fellow coaching staff made me company at the table, while the oldest of the artists remained in office with a sandwich, and then happened very often that you return to the office well before the scheduled time, remaining at large in the chat room of designers, among others the only one with windows on the Via Bissolati.
It was in these talks with senior designer with colleagues and technicians who learned all the more interesting aspects and details of the establishment and production. Indeed, not to disprove an afternoon dr. Fukazawa, before the work, he surprised me and talk to the designer before the design techniques of the process, and turned with a smile, a polite and gentle reminder to the elderly artist and to me to ignore and forget all that c ' we were told, as it is reserved.
Among other things I immediately jumped in the eyes of the strange name given to the various production departments: they left from, "H2", per andare poi a “H4”, “H5” e “H6”, saltando il numero uno e il numero tre. Appresi che l’H1 sarebbe stato il reparto per ottenere la melassa di barbabietola ma, la cosa più interessante, il reparto H3 poteva essere il reparto più importante dello stabilimento in quanto, con l’utilizzo di una parte della sostanza fermentata, vi si poteva produrre molti tipi di aminoacidi e in quantità industriali.
I reparti H2 e H5 formavano un unico blocco, avendo vari piani di lavoro in comune tra loro, anche se ben separati. Nello stesso blocco, al piano terra, c’era il reparto H6, dove si insaccava e confezionava il prodotto che, attraversando una cancellata, veniva stowed in the warehouse. The department H4, perhaps more than any other big three put together, was blocking him and separated.
I mean, in practice, that the factory was built with a modular structure in that it had enough space to build the famous department "H3" missing from the source and provided the opportunity to double the existing plants, even for the so-called utilities , ie compressed air, steam boilers and electricity.
The only structure that, even to the untrained eye, was proof of "largheggiare" as space and dimension, was the chemical laboratory, and then ready for any expansion project. In fact, the whole process Industrial production was repeated on a reduced scale, in the halls of the chemical laboratory from where it started, in fact, the entire production process.
After a few years since the beginning of the production, talking to an Italian chemist who worked in the lab, told me that he had started as an experiment, in agreement with the Japanese chemical, a kind of department H3, in order to quantify reduced scale, the product that could be achieved in any industrial processing.
He showed me a glass container, containing a couple of gallons, a fine powder and white, saying that it had obtained from the fermented material which normally was thrown in the sewer, an amino acid that the dust was in great demand by pharmaceutical companies that paid the price of 40,000 lire (the seventies) per gram, and he was produced in a few days in my spare time, more than two pounds.
Dr. Cantarella was a chemist of wide experience and documented, and was destined to become the Head of the Laboratory. When he was transferred from Rome to Manfredonia, was soon to look for asking for information. We agreed to go along with car Manfredonia a Saturday, and moved with his wife in a hotel, and I to bring home the dirty clothes to wash, saving the cost of the train.
I got to know him and his wife, having confirmed that Turin was a true gentleman and courteous manners purposes, not expert in car trips, so that, he said, "would also miss a turn in" Sahara. " I do not know what happened in his few months of work in Manfredonia, I only know that even before the plant for industrial production, Mr. Cantarella he returned, insalutato host its Turin and its Schiaparelli, gathering laurels successes, as I learn, later, by the press.
Almost all Japanese, and at this stage before moving to Manfredonia, came to me for advice on village life at Manfredonia, making me the usual questions about hotels and restaurants, or the doctors or the mechanical per auto. Ci fu uno solo, il Dr. Okada, un chimico piccoletto e sempre sorridente, che venne con una agenda multilingue, comprata in cartoleria, e mi chiese notizie e spiegazioni su tutte le festività italiane, ovvero le numerose giornate in cui, all’epoca, normalmente non si lavorava.
Ad ogni mia spiegazione, lui annotava con una matita a mina Pilot, naturalmente in giapponese, ciò che gli dicevo sulla pagina dell’agenda del giorno in questione. Poi rileggeva quanto scritto e ripeteva: - «A-scen-sio-ne, ne-skà? Ah so de-skà!» - e restava per un lungo minuto in silenzio.
Avevo iniziato a spiegare dettagliatamente le ragioni della festività, poi, specialmente per le religiose, mi trovai in difficoltà, perché, per esempio, tra Pasqua, Ascensione e Corpus Domini, il festeggiato era sempre lo stesso e lui mi chiese: - «Ancora per Gesù?» - e sorrideva scuotendo la testa.
Stesso commento per le festività della Madonna, finché arrivammo all’8 dicembre, che io non nominai ma che lui lesse distintamente e poi mi formulò la temuta domanda:
- «Che significa Imma-co-la-ta Con-ce-zione?» -
Ci pensai bene prima di rispondere e, infine, con un po’ d’inglese e un po’ di italiano, cercai di spiegargli il Dogma della Vergine e Madre.
Ci pensò sopra per parecchi minuti, guardando alternativamente me agenda, then looking at me straight in the eye: - "Do you know it's impossible? Ne-ska? (You know that is impossible? Is not it?) "-
Courtesy of Rag. Michele Brunetti
