Toru Kumon

Kumon was a high school maths teacher in Osaka who in 1954 wrote daily worksheets for his son Takeshi, who was struggling at school. The method, short graded exercises done every day until mastered, was pure classroom experience, and in 1958 he set up a company to teach it through local instructors, often mothers working from home. The franchise-style network that took it to dozens of countries was the business skill he built later.