Chapter 477 381 Drinking Wine and Discussing Heroes

Chapter 477 381. Discussing Heroes Over Wine

Satoru Iwata, born in 1959, is 39 years old this year.

He is very young, but he is already the president of HAL Research Institute.

In 1982, Satoru Iwata graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

HAL's initial founding team had only 5 people. Among the graduates of the same year, Satoru Iwata undoubtedly joined the [smallest] company.

At Nintendo, Satoru Iwata spent most of his time working at HAL Research Institute, mainly writing game programs, and was called a [genius programmer] in the early days.

Because of the shortage of manpower, everyone at HAL had to take on multiple roles.

While serving as a programmer, Satoru Iwata was also responsible for game design and promotion, and even helped everyone order food and clean up, but he enjoyed it.

In February 1984, the FC game "Pinball" was released. This was the first FC game that HAL participated in developing. Their work was appreciated by Nintendo, and the two sides established a very close relationship.

Satoru Iwata's first work was to assist Nintendo in developing the FC version of "Golf" and achieved sales of more than one million.

Afterwards, HAL continued to contribute several well-known works to Nintendo, including "Kirby" and "Earthbound"...

In the fall of 1992, HAL Research Institute President Masahito Tanimura invested a large amount of funds in securities, real estate and other real estate investments, and the company was in a desperate situation of bankruptcy.

Iwata thought of Nintendo, with whom he had always cooperated, and went to Kyoto alone to meet with Yamauchi Hiroshi.

Yamauchi Hiroshi provided a guarantee on the condition that [Iwata became the president], which helped HAL Research Institute overcome the difficulties. It was with the help of Yamauchi Hiroshi-

In 1993, Iwata was promoted to the position of president of HAL Research Institute.

Yamauchi Hiroshi liked this young man very much. From this perspective, Yamauchi Hiroshi was grateful to Iwata for his help.

...

Iwata showed his outstanding talents very early, not only in the field of games, but also in business and management. When Iwata became the president of HAL Research Institute, he was burdened with a debt of 2 billion as soon as he took office.

But the amazing sales of Kirby finally helped HAL turn losses into profits.

After that, various game works were also well received. Since then, the money borrowed from Nintendo has been gradually repaid, and HAL has successfully become Nintendo's most important second partner in Japan.

In his previous life, Yamauchi Hiroshi recruited the young man Satoru Iwata to Rentendo as the director of the business planning department in 2000 and paved the way for him.

Two years later, Satoru Iwata became the fourth president of Nintendo and the first president who was not a member of the Yamauchi family.

The most brilliant things Yamauchi Hiroshi did in his life were: the first was to transfer Rentendo's main business from fireworks to video games.

The second was to support Satoru Iwata when he was unable to do it and was about to step down, and handed over the presidency of Rentendo to him.

These two decisions helped Rentendo become the leader of the game industry, and it has always been evergreen.

Although Yamauchi Hiroshi was somewhat overbearing and dictatorial, he had an extremely accurate vision when it came to judging people. His iron-blooded style of work continued until his retirement. When he was leaving, he still used thunderous means to find the next captain for Rentendo, instead of using his close family member Arakawa Minoru, or Shigeru Miyamoto, who had always followed him and was like a family member even though he was not a family member.

It must be said that Yamauchi Hiroshi was quite courageous.

However, it was not easy for an outsider to convince the public. Arakawa Minoru was very dissatisfied with this matter.

In order to help Iwata Satoshi take the position, Yamauchi Hiroshi even kicked his son-in-law out of the house. Arakawa Minoru resigned in 2002, and then Yamauchi took back all the power of Kitami and handed over Rentendo completely to Iwata Satoshi.

The legend of Arakawa was abruptly called "stuck" before it was finished.

The wound at the end made the original legend forever unfinished.

No one blames Yamauchi. Judging from Nintendo's later achievements, choosing the gentle and humble Iwata was undoubtedly a wise decision.

There is no "if" in reality, but if old Yamauchi really chose Arakawa as his successor, would the future Nintendo really be successful, and would it have the same achievements as Iwata?

No one can be sure.

Perhaps, leaving helplessly that day can be regarded as another perfect curtain call.

After Iwata took over Rentendo, he successfully developed and expanded Rentendo, and subsequently launched NDS and WII, making many imaginative changes in game equipment and game design.

Moreover, compared with Arakawa, Iwata really loves games, and it is precisely because of this that he can think about problems from the perspective of players, such as how to make more fun games and how to make games more attractive to players...

These are the issues he has been committed to studying.

Under his leadership, Rentendo not only got out of the predicament, but also grew step by step.

It's a pity that Iwata's life was too short and he died of bile duct tumor hyperplasia in 2015. He was 55 years old.

It can be said that God is jealous of talented people.

…

However, the present is different from the past.

In this timeline, Rentenda did not obtain the Pokémon IP, so Satoru Iwata had not participated in the development of Rentendao's "Pokémon Gold and Silver" as a collaborator before this. , naturally there is no such thing as the so-called deep feelings and the establishment of revolutionary friendship with the employees of Rentiantang.

Iwata's main focus is on HAL, and he leads the development of the "Kirby" and "Earth Adventure" series...

Therefore, even though he knew that Hiroshi Yamauchi was kind to him in supporting him to become the president of the research institute, Qing Zhiyuan still wanted to give it a try.

Whether you can dig it out depends on your sincerity and what you can give.

…

After cooking a pot of sake, Qing Zhiyuan looked very happy.

I think back on those days when Boss Cao and Mr. Xuande drank together to discuss heroes. Today, having him and Satoru Iwata discuss the future together is truly a joy in life.

The two sat down to eat for a while and chatted briefly to get to know each other. Qing Zhiyuan got straight to the point and said:

"Iwata-san, I am a straightforward person, so I won't beat around the bush. I invited you here today because I want to invite you, Iwata-san, to come to our company."

"Um?"

In fact, before coming to the appointment, Iwata Satoru had some premonitions in his heart, but he didn't really think much about it——

Why poach him?

Thinking about it, he and Qing Zhiyuan didn't seem to have much interaction. At most, they had attended some events together, but they didn't speak to each other.

Not even an acquaintance.

Seriously, this is their first meeting.

However, with such a relationship, Qing Zhiyuan actually wanted to invite him to pokeni. Why?

"President Yamauchi is kind to me. In fact, I shouldn't be here today. If I knew that President Ao wanted to poach me...

I just came to the appointment considering that everyone is a game maker, not to mention Pokeni is a company I like very much. If it is poaching..."

"Listen to what I have to say first, and then consider whether to come to our company."

Qing Zhiyuan quickly interrupted him, and then explained with a smile:

"Is such that."

"Our pokeni is now quite big. Mr. Iwata, guess what our game sales were last year?"

Iwata lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said hesitantly, "30 million copies? The results of the Pokémon series have always been very good."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled, stretched out his hand and said, "50 million copies."

Hiss...

Satoru Iwata gasped, this number was much more exaggerated than he imagined.

You must know that Rentiantian’s game sales last year were only 26 million copies.

In other words, pokeni is almost twice as good.

"Just from a game perspective, we are now definitely the number one in the world, and our game sales are definitely crushing other companies."

"Before, I definitely wouldn't have invited you, but now pokeni is no longer what it used to be. pokeni has matured and become a major gaming company that can be compared with Rentendo.

Although I might be boasting a bit when I say this, Mr. Iwata, please believe that what I say is true. "

Iwata lowered his eyelids and shook his head, "I believe what President Ao said."

“The fields we are now involved in are not just in the gaming field, but also in film and television, the Internet, light novels and comic publishing... we are involved in game peripherals, all of these.

You may not be able to see their value yet, but I guarantee that in a few years, within 5 years, after these planted seeds have taken root and sprouted, you will see a huge pokeni empire. "

When Satoru Iwata heard this, although he remained silent and calm on the surface, he was extremely shocked in his heart.

What Qing Zhiyuan mentioned has actually been reported in the news, but as President Qing said, because they have not yet produced value and are only in the seed stage, they have not been shown.

Pokeni is not a listed company until now, so without disclosing financial reports, what assets does this company have and what is its revenue status? From the outside, it has always been a fan of the group.

However, Satoru Iwata vaguely feels that Qing Zhiyuan's layout is amazing. These industries are inextricably linked. Although it has not been reflected yet, I am afraid they will all become stars in the sky and shine brightly in the future.

Qing Zhiyuan first showed the company's strength, mainly for comparison with Rentian Paradise, and told Satoru Iwata——

Our pokeni are no worse than Rentian.

Qing Zhiyuan did not say how much revenue it generated last year, nor how much less Pokeni earned than Rentiantang. Just by spreading the industry and showing the sales data, it is already very shocking.

Satoru Iwata appears calm on the surface, but in fact he is already in turmoil inside.

I guessed that pokeni was very powerful, but I didn't expect it to be this powerful.

"After that, I will establish the pokeni group and reorganize the company into a group system."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and expressed his plan in front of Satoru Iwata, "The current pokeni game company will be taken out, and then you will be the CEO of the group."

"Eh?!"

Hearing the word CEO, Iwata was stunned.

In his previous expectations, he thought that Qing Zhiyuan was just going to recruit him to be the head of a department, or to put it simply, just a supervisor or producer.

Iwata had developed Kirby, so he definitely had the ability.

But——

I never expected that Qing Zhiyuan would directly give him the position of CEO!

"But, two years!" Qing Zhiyuan raised two fingers, "I need two years. Within two years of joining the company, you need to convince the public with your achievements."

It was not overnight that Iwata became the next president of Rentendo. After being recruited into Rentendo in 2000, he took two years to prove his worth.

Otherwise, how could an outsider suppress a group of veterans?

However, in addition to Yamauchi's support behind the scenes, Iwata's own talents also played a crucial role in his promotion to the position of president in two years.

Why should you be the president if you can't make achievements?

Qing Zhiyuan wanted Iwata to free himself from the tedious daily management and company strategy execution.

After thinking about it, Iwata is actually the most suitable candidate.

After the group restructuring is completed, Qing Zhiyuan will still serve as the chairman, that is, the company's top leader and decision-maker, leading the board of directors, and Iwata will serve as CEO, equivalent to the position of general manager.

…

"After you come to Pokeni and the group restructuring is completed, I will set up a strategic planning department, you can also call it the secretariat.

Then let you be the director.

This department is mainly responsible for all strategic operations of the company.

The strategic planning department can determine the company's future strategic direction and operation through analysis reports, and at the same time has the power to appoint and replace the presidents of subsidiaries, which is equivalent to the brain of the company.

And you are the brain in this brain department.

Mr. Iwata, what do you think?"

The secretariat is actually the operating model of the Samsung Group. It is precisely because the secretariat has huge power, controls the direction, and makes macro-strategic adjustments, so there is no need to worry about resource squeezing and infighting among multiple subsidiaries.

Just as Qing Zhiyuan said, the strategic planning department is equivalent to the brain, responsible for allocating the operations of all departments and controlling the direction at the same time.

Otherwise, like Sega and Sony, internal friction caused by everyone's scrambling for resources is not a good thing. Instead, it will lead to the company's decline after expanding to a certain extent, or even disintegration.

Iwata is a smart man. As soon as he heard Qing Zhiyuan's words, he immediately understood the value of this strategic planning department.

To be honest, it is very exciting. Once it is successfully set up, this is the most important core department of POKENI, which controls the company's resource allocation and the power of life and death, which is equivalent to handing over the rudder of the Pokeni ship to him.

This sense of trust shocked Iwata.

This is the guarantee of strength.

If it were Pokeni a few years ago, it would definitely not be so attractive.

So the number of chips in a person's hand also determines how big a thing you can accomplish. For people with capital and resources, success is easier than ordinary people.

…

“But… why me?” Iwata asked in confusion, “I’m an outsider, and as you know, HAL is the second partner of Rentendo, and we have a good relationship with Rentendo and President Yamauchi.”

…

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There is another chapter in the evening

The difference between the chairman and the CEO

Position and status: The chairman and the CEO are both key leadership roles in the company, but their responsibilities and status are different.

The chairman is the highest leader of the company, leading the board of directors, while the CEO is the chief executive officer, equivalent to the general manager.

Job content: The chairman is mainly responsible for decision-making, while the CEO is responsible for execution in addition to decision-making.

The chairman’s main work includes organizing and implementing the resolutions of the board of directors, being responsible for the company’s business management system, and presiding over the company’s business management work; the CEO is mainly responsible for the company’s daily affairs management, presiding over daily business activities, and executing the resolutions of the board of directors.

Responsibilities and powers: The chairman has the right to make decisions, the right to handle business execution, and the right to nominate the appointment and removal of senior management personnel; the CEO is responsible for specific execution and implementation, appointing and removing managers, and presiding over daily business activities.

Superior-subordinate relationship: There is a superior-subordinate relationship between the chairman and the CEO, and the CEO is the chairman's direct subordinate.

Whether a company employee: The chairman is usually not an employee of the company, but the boss of the company. They do not need to abide by the company's rules and regulations, but only need to share the profits. The CEO is a company employee hired by the board of directors and needs to abide by the company's rules.

In short, the chairman is the company's investor and makes decisions on the company on behalf of the board of directors, while the CEO is the highest executive leader of the company and is responsible for the company's daily management.