Steve Jobs and Akio Morita May 5 at 26:16
Although it is an American company, Apple was said to be "half the soul is Japan". There is an Japan entrepreneur that founder Steve Jobs admired. One of the founders of Sony, Akio Morita. When he began visiting Japan for business, he often asked for a meeting and attacked Morita with questions. In the United States, we interviewed people who were allies of Apple with Jobs and who knew the interaction between the two well. What they both have in common is a simple and beautiful design and a commitment to manufacturing. (World News Department, Kentaro Saeki)
Aspiring entrepreneur
Daniel Lewin, who was in charge of marketing at Apple in the early days, met Jobs in 1977. At the time, Lewin was working at Sony.
Daniel Lewin:
"When I started working in April 1977, Apple moved in the same week, and Steve came to my office and asked me a lot of questions about the product. I even touched the quality of the paper in the pamphlets introducing the products."
Sony released innovative products one after another, and was gaining support not only in Japan but also in Europe and the United States. Spearheading this effort was one of the founders, Akio Morita.
In particular, the portable headphone stereo that has taken the world by storm has been made as small as possible and has fewer switches. Its simple design was the object of Jobs' admiration.
According to John Scully, who became Apple's CEO after his marketing skills, every time Jobs went to Japan, he would be invited to Morita's home for dinner.
At one point, the two were presented by Morita with their latest pre-release product that could play CDs (compact discs).
On the flight back to the United States, Jobs asked Scully to hand over the product.
John Scully
: "I said, 'What do you mean, this is what you gave to both of them,' and he said, 'No. Tear them both apart and have Apple technicians look at the details.' He had a lot of respect for the attention to detail."
For Jobs, it was a "textbook" that condensed all of Japan's manufacturing.
What I want to know is the "story" behind the product.
According to Scully, when Jobs met Morita, he was bombarded with questions to find out the secrets of manufacturing. In particular, I wanted to hear the details of the process and how much Morita was involved in the development of the Walkman.
Jobs:
"Mr. Morita, I want to know the story behind the product. How did you work with the development team? How long did you interact with the designers? How much attention did you pay to the manufacturing process and materials?"
As a result, it was found that Morita was involved in many processes. Scully, who was watching the exchange between the two, said.
Scully
: "It was unusual for two founders from different cultures, East and West, to talk about product design."
Apple's early brochures say, "When you get sophisticated, you get simpler." His commitment to simplicity was also something he learned from Morita.
Scully: "The basic idea we always come back to is 'when you get sophisticated, you get simple,' and Steve admired the culture of Japan and the people who make things. Morita-san also said, 'We pay a lot of attention to simplicity, and simplicity is the overriding principle when developing and building products.'"
Morita was very open and answered any questions.
Ms.
Scully: "I was very interested in what Steve was doing, and the relationship was very open. Both Morita-san and Steve saw the world from the perspective of creating products that could change people's lives."
Morita also gave Jobs and others this opportunity.
Scully
: "They allowed me to meet with the engineers and designers who were developing the product, and I was able to see the factory in production. Mr. Morita gave me a chance that I would never get from an American company."
Respect for Japan
Jobs applied the knowledge gained from this exchange to his own product development. In other words, the design is considered first, and based on that, the entire function, structure, and size of the parts are controlled.
Jobs had plucked designers from Sony. It's Hartmut Esslinger.
At Sony, he appreciated that the design studio and the management department had the same position, and that the design was closely tied to production at the factory, and he asked Jobs to do the same.
Esslinger
: "Steve wanted to make Apple's computer the best design in the world, and he was very ambitious. However, we did not know how to make the corporate organization work. My first suggestion was to give design people more say. It was a radical proposal, but if you don't, it won't work. But we had to fight internally. When Steve reformed the organization, the employees sometimes hated it."
Jobs, who had talked about "changing computers in the world" despite hitting various obstacles, poured everything he had learned from Japan into the Macintosh.
Esslinger
: "Steve's connection to Japan and Japan culture was formed during Apple's early product development, and it was the trust we built with the Japan company's systems that led to our success. Apple was based on Japan companies."
Two people who resonated with each other by loving manufacturing
In the 1990s, with the spread of the Internet, personal computers became more accessible. As Jobs envisioned, the time has come for many people to use computers to "express themselves."
Scully said, "Let me show you something that tells the story of the wonderful memories of Steve and I working together," and showed me the study.
It was a surprise gift from Jobs a year after Scully moved to Apple, and there was a diagram written in magic. The diagram depicts the future of the computer industry.
Even in the United States, only a limited number of companies such as Apple will survive. On the other hand, the Japan national flag depicted on it. Jobs predicted that Japan companies like Sony would become rivals.
Scully describes two unique entrepreneurs in Japan and the United States:
Scully
: "The two of them never talked about the business model of how to earn corporate profits, and both Morita-san and Steve resonated with each other because of their love of manufacturing."
Steve Jobs and Japan
Broadcast on NHK WORLD in March
Kentaro Saeki joined
the World News Department
in
Showa 62Steve JobsContinuous coverage of the influence of Japan culture. This year, we covered the testimonies of Jobs' colleagues in the United States, and made a program about the culmination of eight years.