A Free Lance

I am going to close Wink Japan at the end of 2001, and I'll be a free lance. Then my wife and I will take a world cruise. We will embark on an American cruise ship at the end of February at Tokyo Port, and will cruise to the west, visiting Angkor Watt, Zululand and Iguazu Falls among others, to disembark at Florida in early May. We'll spend time in Florida and Hawaii before returning to Japan. I am interested to watch in the meantime whether I'll really feel like a retired person with a changed life style, or high spirits will well up to face something new.

In the past 18 months, I have been eager to sell Wink to "Broadcaster S". Interactive TV in Japan is going to be covered by the national standard of "BML", but Wink's possibility was certainly there with Broadcaster S. In this industry, where interactivity means inclination to Internet and PC, only Wink has had a unique business idea. Wink believes: although consumers will be ready to pay fees for PC services involving broadcasting placed in a private room, consumers will not use Internet or PC features on a TV in a drawing room, and consumers will be away quickly if interactivity equipment cost or monthly fees are to be charged. With this belief, Wink has been dedicated to offering TV-unique interactivity for free to consumers.

Broadcaster S appreciated this idea and wanted to realize low cost interactivity. While high definition of BS satellite broadcasting was known not very meaningful on a home-size TV, its sales effort was focused on the other feature, "BS digital broadcasting is interactive." From the competition's viewpoint, Broadcaster S must have wanted interactivity by any means.

Wink US has the business strategy to get revenues from interactive responses, and copnstructs the interactive systems as investment for the future. In Japan where interactive revenues wouldn't come to Wink, Wink US requested Broadcaster S to compensate so that Wink would not lose money in the system construction. Accordingly Broadcaster S had difficulty of justifying P&L. But fortunately Broadcaster S decided to go with Wink even with some difficulty in P&L in order to compete with BS digital. Broadcaster S and Wink executed a provisional agreement in April 2001.

It may have created optimistic mood and both of two vice presidents in US responsible for this project were given sabbatical leaves. Consequently, in this very important timing, I had to do a lone fight from Far East with those nationalists in US who believed "Success in US is the prerequisite. No need to go abroad". At this point, an idea had come to me and I proclaimed, "In case the Broadcaster S deal should not be closed, I'll fire myself". The emotional tactics like this were found effective and very successful as the number one nationalist turned very cooperative to the project. Of course, I had some calculation. Without the Broadcaster S deal, Wink business in Japan will never be successful any way, and my work will not be interesting enough and Wink US will lose justification to keep me in Japan. Above all, however, I thought with "salesman's optimism" that this deal could not be unsuccessful.

Things have been worsened after that. None of receiver manufacturers had accepted Broadcaster S's request to port Wink on their receivers. The propblem was not necessarily whether to port Wink or not. To allocate engineering resources on the receivers for Broadcaster S was difficult because of P&L difficulty with those receivers and tightness of engineering resources. While the deal remains pending for some time, everyone had gradually realized that BS digital would not penetrate into consumers as expected and that it would not become Broadcaster S's competitor for the time being. Then the focus was placed on the P&L issue, and finally in late November, Broadcaster S decided to postpone indefinitely any interactivity on the platform under consideration.

Indefinite postponement is different from sales failure. But indeed we copuld not close the deal. So I decided to fire myself as I proclaimed and close down the company. I have been operating Wink Japan for 5 years and learned a lot by watching the way of operation of a start-up company in US, and I think there have been some contribution and input from me to US operation. But it is my great regret that I could not expand Wink business in Japan. I know that everyone has judged and behaved rationally, and I have no complaints about it. It may be rude to say but I have no regret in my activities. But a businessman must be responsible for the results and I have a kind of self-satisfaction that I can finish up everything by myself.

I ask myself: Are you sure you can be self-satisfied ? Can you put up with the free lance status ? Probably I'll be able to get something and broaden myself. I can observe myself very closely during the world cruise. For the time being, I'll be more diligent as the non-resident directors of the boards of two companies here, and I'll do my best for the invitation as a lecturer in a business seminar in Chubu University in Nagoya.

My wife is pleased. She has been getting up very early in the morning to make breakfast and to drive me to the station. Even when I came home late, she picked me up at the station and suffered from insufficient sleep. She has done so for 25 years and a half since I began to work in the downtown. My company life was really supported by her. Now I'll let her return to sleep for beauty.

End