Nintendo’s CSR Report shares message from late president Satoru Iwata

satoru-iwata-1959-2015

Nintendo has published their new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report 2015, which shares a message from late president Satoru Iwata on the direction that the company is taking.

In light of his recent passing, the topics that he touches on are remarkably poignant – whether that be in his constant desire to make consumers smile whenever they experience Nintendo’s products, the intangible importance that he has always seen in the company’s employees, or how they are now striving to dispel the image that they only make products related to video games with the new Quality of Life initiative.

There’s also discussion around ‘Nintendo DNA,’ which is defined by their three core values – originality, flexibility and sincerity – while Iwata shares how launching amiibo was an opportunity that had allowed them to work with new production partners.

We have copied Iwata-san’s message in full below, for those that wish to read it in entirety.

Sharing Enduring Values

Nintendo has been delivering smiles to consumers through entertainment since its establishment. The existence or nonexistence of hit products causes inevitable fluctuations in the entertainment industry because entertainment is not a daily necessity. Consumers always are seeking new surprises, and they eventually will become tired of even a highly rated product. Precisely for this reason, we must avoid a short-term outlook and always think about how we can make not only consumers, but also everyone involved with Nintendo, smile over the mid-to-long term.

The key to achieving this goal is found in our three core values – originality, flexibility and sincerity – which we define as Nintendo DNA. Since all Nintendo employees fully share the Nintendo DNA and act based on these unwavering values, we have been able to continue taking on new challenges and providing value to society.

Nintendo has continued to offer entertainment products that can be enjoyed regardless of age or gender and, as a result, I hope that as signs of trust in the Nintendo brand, people feel safe letting their children play with our products and know that these products always make their families smile.

Nintendo’s Important Assets are Intangible

As a new challenge, we released “amiibo,” a new product line that uses the IP characters that appear in our games. The year 2015 is the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and one of our goals for these characters, which are loved by so many people, is to take them beyond the game world through this new platform in the form of figures that are compatible with multiple games and create new play styles. We also hope they will bring smiles to the faces of consumers and connect them in a way that transcends the barriers of language and culture in the real world.

amiibo has presented Nintendo with the opportunity to work with new production partners because it is our first full-fledged production of figures. For these partnerships, we first confirm that we share the goals of not only making high-quality products but also contributing to society and collaborating to make a better world through CSR procurement efforts. In order to product high-quality products, we believe it is imperative that we share an understanding with out partners of the kind of business relationship we would like to have, as well as the kinds of products we would like to create.

Our many IP assets, our strong relationships with our business partners, and our employees, are not items that appear on our financial statements. However, I firmly believe that these intangible assets are essential for Nintendo to continue to achieve sustainable growth and to enhance corporate value.

Improving Quality of Life

Nintendo is a company that has innovated flexibly throughout its history to provide a variety of entertainment offerings. However, I feel that having the video game business at our core for such a long time has caused many people to put up an imaginary wall that Nintendo is a company that should only make products related to video games. In order to overcome this belief, we revised our definition of entertainment as “improving people’s QOL (Quality of Life) in enjoyable ways.”

QOL refers to the quality of the content of each individual’s life and lifestyle from a social perspective. Our understanding of what it means to improve people’s QOL does not simply pertain to living a long life but that, through living life in your own way, you will find happiness. Many aspects of our lives require consistent effort and perseverance in order to improve QOL, but if we can leverage our know-how in continues enjoyment that we have cultivated through video games, we can help people to improve their QOL without losing interest.

QOL includes many themes such as good physical health, healthy social relationships, fulfilling work, a comfortable living space, sufficient education, and leisure time. Nevertheless, the first theme we will focus on is health in terms of “sleep and fatigue.” While sleep and fatigue affect everyone throughout the world, many aspects have yet to be sufficiently clarified from a scientific perspective, so I think there is great significance in taking on this challenge. In addition, if we are able to make proposals incorporating systems that, for example, enable people to check the sleep conditions of parents who live far away and watch over them, this theme could provide something of great value to society.

Looking to the future, we hope to create value by making the impossible a reality with Nintendo products, and bringing smiles and surprises to everyone.

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