海角社区

Masamichi Toyama rummages through his pockets for his mask but comes up instead with an acorn that he picked up a few days earlier in Kita-Karuizawa. Pocketing the acorn underscored Mr. Toyama鈥檚 childlike curiosity about the world and his belief that progress in both art and business can derive simply from grasping that something would be nice to have.

Business Insider recently sat down with Ricoh鈥檚 Kazunori Kobayashi and Mr. Toyama to explore common thoughts about discovering the seeds of new business. Mr. Kobayashi, a corporate associate vice president and general manager of the Technology Platform Management Center in the Digital Strategy Division, believes firmly that art and creativity are engineering essentials.

From being business-focused to being lifestyle-centric

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed business and life. How do you think things will change in coming years?

Toyama: Before the pandemic, I had the impression that business determines your day. Time management would pivot around when you start work and how long you commute. Even if you professed to be a family person, in most cases you could only devote time to loved ones after work.

Living became the focus for many people after they started working from home. Corporations and business are just part of the flow of life. I think the pandemic made people realize that not everything is about work.

Kobayashi: Until the pandemic, people essentially paid lip service to work-life balance. Work was essentially the priority. But I sense that in coming years people will focus more on how they live.

海角社区has offered such products as copiers and printers for years, and we expected sales to flatten off from around 2000. We thereafter decided to sell office solutions services. But in recent years, we have focused on workers rather than products and services. That is because we have returned to the basics of the Spirit of Three Loves, our founding principles. These are 鈥淟ove your neighbor鈥�, 鈥淟ove your country鈥�, and 鈥淟ove your work鈥�.

Toyama: Around how many people work for Ricoh? Things must be quite challenging when you have so many people.

Kobayashi: We have about 80,000 people. Their jobs and lifestyles vary. While we want to offer flexible work environments security and governance are also important. It鈥檚 hard to get the balance right.

Toyama: That鈥檚 true. An executive would inevitably view an 80,000-person business in terms of its big-picture infrastructure. Still, it is possible to narrow the focus and look at lesser things. Honda founder Soichiro Honda fitted an engine on a bicycle just it would be easier for his wife to go to the grocery store. This was essentially the first Cub. I think that resolving small problems and having a childlike curiosity offer tremendous potential as they are worlds away from the concerns of big organizations.

Art and business have much in common

Step back from a large organization and you can find inspiration in art. How do you harness art?

Toyama: I鈥檝e spent quite a lot of time recently in Kita-Karuizawa in Gunma Prefecture. That鈥檚 because I bought Tanikawa House, which architect Kazuo Shinohara built in 1974. I never thought I鈥檇 enjoy the solitude and inconvenience there as much I have. One simple joy, for example, is when I take a bath with the lights off. The windows illuminate the water, making it the focus in otherwise dark surroundings.

Kobayashi: That sounds like something you鈥檇 see in a promotional video for a resort hotel.

Toyama: I find the place very comfortable. But I think that鈥檚 because it balances out the life I have in Tokyo.

Kobayashi: I don鈥檛 get a sense of stepping back from the organization. I tend more to combine things. Ideas for work often pop up when I鈥檓 taking it easy in the bath.

This conversation took place at the 海角社区Art Gallery Lounge in Ginza, Tokyo. This is also where Mr. Toyama exhibited his work for the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021 international art festival in July through September 2021. This was his first art presentation as an individual in around 25 years.

Toyama: It鈥檚 the same with art, isn鈥檛 it? I recently exhibited my work at this gallery for the first time in 25 years or so. My business began with a solo exhibition of my work in 1996. I went on from there to create Soup Stock Tokyo. It was a real thrill to conceive and create something on my own and showcase it directly to people for their feedback. I thought I could take that approach in business as well.

Eventually, I began to enjoy business expansion more than painting or drawing pictures. I set out by simply grasping that something would be nice to have. That鈥檚 what art and business have in common, isn鈥檛 it?

Masamichi Toyama鈥檚 Spinout Hours: 2 spin out and some things there is a reflection on the nature of time that Mr. Toyama produced in the 海角社区Art Gallery Lounge, on the ninth floor observation section of the San-ai Dream Center in Ginza. This artwork took advantage of such nearby historic landmarks as the Wako Clock Tower and Mitsukoshi Ginza.
Photo by Yuko Chiba, courtesy of Smiles Co., Ltd.

Kobayashi: I鈥檇 assumed that you and I had totally different upbringings and experiences but I鈥檝e realized that we both believe that art and creativity can make business and engineering happen.

If you want to create brand new software or services, you have to begin by fantasizing that something would be nice to have or by exploring possibilities. Top management sometimes got frustrated with me for not selling anything.

Toyama: But if you can get an idea that starts with childlike curiosity off the ground it means you have 80,000 friends at Ricoh, including its engineers. I鈥檇 envy you for such a fabulous achievement.

Kobayashi: I once proposed a project idea to an overseas customer through a colleague I鈥檇 worked with while assigned abroad. The project got going within a week because the customer wanted an immediate demonstration of how it would work. You can experience roadblocks at big companies but one of pleasures at such organizations is being able to pursue projects that can be both domestic and global.

Casual environs for interesting experiments

Decision-making at Smiles explores what people want to do, the necessity or significance of things, and the value of trying something entirely new. How do you two predict value?

Toyama: I recently inaugurated an online community called New Immigrations. There is no particular mission. The idea is to expand and redistribute happiness by undertaking enjoyable and inspirational activities. It鈥檚 an experiment in running a subscription-based community that leverages input from its switched-on members in brainstorming and seeks to help create a new type of economy.

Kobayashi: Value and novelty tend to trickle in. At Ricoh, we like to engage candidly with customers, and in the process we experience moments in which we think we have a feel for what they may want.

Toyama: It鈥檚 important to try things out when you lack knowledge. You won鈥檛 learn anything by waiting for it to happen. It鈥檚 interesting to launch a community without knowing where it would go and find out that it was good to avoid imposing a mission on it.

The community鈥檚 system draws on 鈥淟ikes鈥� and the ability to amass points by writing comments and blogs. The points seem to flow like a river even if people are unaware of that.

Kobayashi: It鈥檚 important for us that it doesn鈥檛 occur to people that they are 鈥渦sing鈥� our products. As engineers, we consider the vast mechanical complexity under the hood. Customers often use our products simply because they are comfortable doing so. I think that the world is becoming a place in which value circulates without customers being particularly aware of it.

Toyama: That reminds me of a Star Trek movie setting in a world free of war or poverty. That world has gone beyond basic income. There is not even money. A Replicator provides whatever people ask. I guess such an environment is conducive to free thought. Mind you, Captain Jean-Luc Picard鈥檚 only use of this device is to request a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. Maybe too much freedom is choice is hard to use.

Kobayashi: We have a similar notion that something can result from guaranteeing a satisfying environment to an extent. We use the concept of well-being from work practices. Instead of pressuring our people to do something for customers, we try to cut them some slack. Mind you, we don鈥檛 want them all to solely order Earl Grey.

So, you can find value in faraway places and in fulfilling environments. Have you any new experiments or ideas in mind for the years ahead?

Toyama: I鈥檒l be 60 soon, and I see myself as a new type of old man. That鈥檚 because if you start working at 22 and live for a century that鈥檚 78 years of adult life. So, if you鈥檙e 60 you haven鈥檛 yet finished half of your journey. I want to do something productive with the time I have.

Kobayashi: I think that now is the time for change. I want to build the groundwork for generating new value. Traditionally, 海角社区focused relentlessly on manufacturing. I鈥檇 like to create a less austere environment. I want to create a system in which we can come up with a range of assumptions about what is good and bring everything together in the context of a large framework that includes a safety net. I鈥檇 like to help produce three or four smash hits in a few years that help 海角社区remain essential for its customers.