Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun  Sonya Park & Shigesato Itoi "Talking Craftsmanship With Our Neighbor Sonya"
 
 
English | Japanese
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4 - Thoughts of a Founder

Itoi How many employees do you have at ARTS&SCIENCE?
Sonya Around fifty right now.
Itoi Same here. Which is unfortunately too many people to keep making decisions on an individual basis.
Sonya Yeah.
Itoi But things get interesting when everyone’s individual specialties allow you to make more things happen. There's a new level of willpower that comes from having a team.
Sonya That's true. It's impossible to single-handedly create something a group would make. If you want to do something alone, then you become an artist, or you paint a picture, or if you're Itoi you write something. But right now I want to do something that requires teamwork.
Itoi Right. Sometimes it's surprising how much freedom is lost by doing something alone.
Sonya My company is turning ten years old next year, so it's a really important time for us. Someone once said that a company is similar to a human being, so until it turns twenty years old, I feel like I've got to take especially good care of it.
Itoi Right, right.
Sonya After that, I'll probably let people do their own thing, but for now…
Itoi It's going to take some time.
Sonya It's different from big corporations where the founder isn't around anymore. I think working directly underneath the company founder is a very unique environment. Even as a founder myself, there's a sense that the business is my own, coupled with the sense of having built it together with everyone. It's complicated.
Itoi You've really thought this over. (laughs)
Sonya Huh?
Itoi It may not look like it, but you've thought about this.
Sonya I guess so.
Itoi I used to be really noncommittal because I'd always been self-employed. But now—if the company fell flat on its face I'd do anything, even if it meant personally standing in the line of fire. I think that's what it means to be a founder.
Sonya That's so true. I had an employee criticize something, but I’ve said the same thing before. Now I'm risking it all, and if it came down to it I'd probably sell my house and everything I own to save it, no matter what.
Itoi Yeah. It's a given.
Sonya So I asked my employee, "Could you do that?” and he said "No way." So I think, well, we're different then. No matter how much loyalty he has to the company, if the company fails, he's not going to sell his house. Some people might, though.
Itoi Yeah. It’s a different story if you started the company with several people. But with a staff that size, if someone lacks the sensation of carrying the weight of the company on his shoulders, he won't have the resolve to do it.
Sonya Yeah.
Itoi This year, just as I'm collaborating with you, I'm working on a planner with Mr. Minagawa from minä perhonen. He's also quite similar to us. When he first started his brand he would sell tuna by day and hover over his sewing machine making clothes by night. But if his shop were to go under, he hoped it would happen slowly, so he opened lots of tiny stores.
Sonya Wow.
Itoi I'm the same way—a lot of people with interests take something small and add onto it like grapes. That way, no matter how strong a wind comes, it all comes apart, you pick up the pieces, and things work out. That's the idea of a man with a real sense of danger. It's not some company he got from someone else.
Sonya Yeah.
Itoi So when the going gets tough, he’s got the gumption to do some hard labor. Mr. Minagawa said he’d be back working at the fish market, though. (laughs)
Sonya Okay, so I'll be a saleswoman. Maybe I'll work at a department store.
Itoi Hey, that sounds good. (laughs)

2012-11-09-FRI

 


Stylist: Michio Hayashi Photographer: Masahiro Sanbe