Too Small a Business

Hiroshi did …

Hiroshi was excited. He ran Japan’s premier playing card company and now he was in America visiting the much larger, industry-leading United States Playing Card Company … the biggest company in the entire industry worldwide.

Hiroshi’s excitement didn’t last long. He was struck by how tiny the American company’s office was … and immediately realised that the playing card business was way too small … Hiroshi decided that he had better diversify … so after 50 years of making playing cards his company started trying many new businesses … taxis, hotels, a noodle company and even a TV network … they all failed.

With playing card sales falling Hiroshi finally decided to go into the toy business … its first product being a electronic hand developed by the company maintenance man. It was a modest success … but the real benefit was discovering that the maintenance man had really good instincts … soon Hiroshi put the man in charge of new electronic games.

Today, Hiroshi and the maintenance man’s company don’t make playing cards anymore … but it is a company “Wii” all know… Nintendo.

Nintendo is a Great Idea because failure and mistakes are the path to great success.