I wanted to work for myself. But even so, I continued to work as someone else’s employee until I turned 30.
After graduating, I joined a textiles trading company. Maybe it is due to my growing up near the Port of Yokohama, but I had always been interested in trade. Ever since I was a high-school student, I had an independent streak, and when I was asked “What kind of work would you like to do in future” while training at my new company, I remember replying, “I would like to be the boss.” Even when I started work and realized just how tough selling things was, there was always a part of me wanting to hand in my resignation.
So, at the age 30, I founded TOMORROWLAND, but I think that I would have done anything, just as long as it was something I could do for myself. It has been 30 years since then, but my principles have never changed. I do the things that I can do with my own resources as a person. That was where everything began.
Keeping a company running is not easy. You have to create something new and then develop it. And, there is a level of energy required for that development that you need to maintain. Everyday, I am reminded of our difficult that is.
However, I do think that struggle allows talent to shine, and that companies will always be subject to trials and tribulations.
This company has seen its fair share of tribulations: by the tenth year or so after our founding, we had expanded into Paris and Milan, and were involved in design, opening shops, and running factories. We have managed to survive in these constantly changing times by maintaining a sense of balance when considering what to do next, and this approach has seeped into TOMORROWLAND’s culture. The criteria we use to evaluate our products come from deep within us. We conceive, create, develop and retail our products ourselves. In this age, when companies outsource in order to be at the cutting edge of business, a company which instead does its own planning, production and sales is baring its heart to its customers. As people get through each day and make mistakes, they develop character and learn how to do their jobs. That is my philosophy.
I know a stable life is not for me.
It’s not for my company, either.
Ten years after the founding of TOMORROWLAND, when the Japanese bubble economy collapsed, we hotly debated matters such as how we might get people to understand our products, and what is key for us to be spiritually enriched, for days on end. That passion set the tone of the company. I would not use the word “professionals” to describe us, but we can say that we are never satisfied with the status quo and that our employees are passionate critics of our own products. And we intend to stay this way.
We will not forget our principles when it comes to making something new by fusing together the West and Japan, the traditional and the new, the technical and the stylish. This is what TOMORROWLAND is about.
To me, status, praise and admiration are just embarrassing. They make me feel uncomfortable.
For me, satisfaction is to be found elsewhere.
I believe that anyone looking objectively at the current state of TOMORROWLAND would see us as a “booming company.” However, can it really be said that a company with rising sales is always a great company? Are people who earn lots of money really happy? My answer to both questions is a resounding “no.” Instead, I would like my colleagues at TOMORROWLAND and the world in general to see things from my point of view, and see the joy in planning, creating, selling, buying, and becoming spiritually enriched. This philosophy was behind our ideas to start “TOMORROWLAND Records” and sell CDs, to support traditional classic car racing in Italy, and to collaborate with overseas artists to produce things that are good, appealing, beautiful, and that enrich the spirit.
Everyone is trying to find products that will sell, but this is completely wrong.
They are not trying to find good things, but they should.
Among the world’s top brands, there is not a single product which was created simply to sell.
Behind every product stand the culture, the society, and the family of the creator. This is where styles are created. We are not just trying to imitate traditional French, Italian or English style, but instead have grown to like the people and culture of these countries, and, rather than just admiring foreign countries from a distance, made our experiences of them and their realities a part of ourselves. And by doing so, we want to develop elegant products with an inner uniqueness. At TOMORROWLAND, we consider it vital to concentrate on our essential values, rather than just on selling things.
We have so many ideas that it is sometimes harder not to do anything with them.
So what we do is wait, and test the idea in the here and now.
The essence of things is not something that changes rapidly. It instead changes gradually as it is affected by the changes of the times and by the passing of time. The products offered by TOMORROWLAND may not seem to change very much. Since we adjust them and update to keep up with the contemporary, the products may seem unchanged. We are able to come up with any number of innovative ideas for drastic change, but in this era which is over-supplied with ideas, the difficult thing in fact is avoiding those ideas which call for dramatic innovation.
To create products with more depth it is necessary to make them reflect a distillation of our gradually changing values. This is the value that TOMORROWLAND produces.
It is not possible to distinguish between products just based on their appearance. It is only possible based on their essence.
These days, what differentiates companies is the different ways that they do development.
In these poor economic conditions, an increasing number of companies are outsourcing their planning, production or sales. As a result businesses have been stripped down to the bare minimum, at the expense of originality. TOMORROWLAND is therefore capable of development incorporating high levels of originality, something only possible because it manufactures the goods it sells. The development of materials and design, things which make our products stand out, is only possible from the inside. By having a realistic attitude with regard to our plans and development, we are able both to make ourselves and our products stand out and provide high levels of originality. With a firm grasp of the values that give rise to quality products, we intend to further develop our policy of integrated planning, development and sales, while keeping an eye out for subtle changes of the times.
Filling our products with love, and eliminating bureaucratic thinking.
These have to occur simultaneously.
Instead of aiming for a large-scale expansion, our plan is to carefully reorganize ourselves.
We don’t just develop products and then forget them; rather, we continue to maintain them with affection, like Europeans maintain their houses. Even in Japan, there are some restaurants or sweet shops which have been in business for 100 to 200 years, and we at TOMMORROWLAND have learned to focus on the inner aspect in a similar way. On the other hand, I know that unless people set their sights very high indeed, it is difficult for them to improve. Once your improvement has reached a certain level, you develop tunnel vision, and become fixated on things like making incremental improvements, avoiding failure, and comparing your company with other companies, this year’s results with those of the previous year, and what you are doing now with what you did before. Once a company descends unknowingly into bureaucracy, it can no longer act decisively. So, while we focus on the within, bureaucratic thinking also has to be avoided.
What I am most interested in at the moment are new products inspired by collaboration.
These days, everyone is looking for things that will sell, so the number of people and companies that develop products with originality in mind is falling. Unfortunately, everything from company management to the way meetings are held tends to look the same. The consequence is that companies all bring out products which are all more or less the same.
What customers are looking for today is “something created for me.” What this means is things that are more personal or that are hand made. And so, we look to collaborate with places or professionals with a culture and history of making quality products. If both our partners and ourselves are “the real thing,” then our collaboration is sure to lead to innovation.
Society. I believe that society is killing our innate power and freedom.
Passion and energy—these define youth, rather than how many years of age you are. As people get older psychologically, their passion and energy tend to diminish. As people becomes more senior in their organization, they start to care about their company, responsibilities and job title, and begin to look to protect what they have obtained. This tendency must be overcome. If you manufacture products limited by various restrictions and frameworks, you will tend to believe the products you have manufactured are optimal. This kind of overconfidence is like a chronic disease. Even if a company recruits many young new employees, if their manager has this kind of illness, the new employees will pick up his or her bad habits, and get the disease too. This is a dangerous situation. At TOMORROWLAND, however, we are still young at heart and are free of this sickness.
The power to think is important.
Fighting with second-hand knowledge or superficial logic is impossible.
In spring 2009, we started a new project that involves several fresh approaches. If it is simply a question of us our head office making products and our shops doing as they are told, we will end up not producing anything different from other companies, whether in terms of plans or products. We have decided to form a small team which is capable of shop design, product planning, buying, press, sales and all associated work. They will be going back to the time we were founded, where we accomplished various tasks ourselves rather than delegating them to others. What we want to value is the flow of the world and our own feelings. Our team will decide what kind of shops we will have, what kinds of materials will be used, and what kind of atmosphere we will evoke. Their priority will not be sales, but rather having “organic” instincts and philosophies, something which is likely to become more important in the future.
We would like to do more things that are not “TOMORROWLAND-like.”
We think this will make our time more enjoyable.
The TOMORROWLAND image is one of a company that makes products based on solid principles and that offers select goods in a consistent way. Although the elements in our history and culture that has created this image remain unaltered, we are gradually moving along with the times. Doing “things that are not TOMORROWLAND-like” involves developing our branding based on even stronger principles, and may include giving our clothes even more of a “hand-made” feel and expanding our range of non-clothing products. We do not intend to abandon our principles by introducing advanced operations or by outsourcing management. On the management side, we are thinking of TOMORROWLAND-type ideas such as giving all authority regarding a particular shop to a single employee and turning our hand to clothes repair. We think this will let us have more fun at TOMORROWLAND.
There are things that are only possible for a small company. We don’t have rules, so we can make things up as we go along.
We walk our own path ourselves, making things ourselves.
Having reached our 30th anniversary, we are thinking about redesigning ourselves in our “Re Design30” project. We have customers, shops and products. This time we are thinking about what can be done with clothing and turn the company inside out. We are not going to expand, but rather will intensify the inner aspects of TOMORROWLAND. Looking over our last 30 years allowed us to see what the real TOMORROWLAND is. Of course we are a company so we have to make a profit. That is what our customers think of us. The principles that TOMORROWLAND has always stood by are “design,” “quality,” “individuality,” “dreams,” and “culture.” These cannot be measured using data. If our company became larger, many things would no longer be possible. They are possible now because we are a small company. There is meaning in creating organizational structure and rules as you go.
The TOMORROWLAND tree is broad; unexpected flowers have blossomed and wonderful fruit has been borne.
We aim to be the world’s most foolish, yet attractive company.
Over 30 years many people have helped us. This company works together and belongs to all of its employees.
We want to give other things to them back as well as financial rewards. We want to do the type of thing that will make people say, “companies should care about their financial results—what kind of idiots are you?” We want our staff to try new things without being afraid of failure. We don’t want our staff to work only for TOMORROWLAND, but for themselves too.
We want new hires to overtake the senior employees, not hold back. We believe in promoting capable staff rapidly. With everyone taking care of the roots of the tree, we will see branches freely growing from the broad trunk which will bear various fruit. We are a company in name, but not a typical company. I describe us as being “the world’s most foolish, yet attractive company.” We plan to create a company where all our employees can contribute to the creation of an ideal company, unlike any other before it, and unlike any ever imagined.