Drivers of “Hello Kitty”

Hello Kitty has been a character that has fascinated women in Japan and around the world for over 50 years.

Ms. Aya Komaki, the director of Sanrio Entertainment, the company that created Hello Kitty, talked about what have driven the success of character business in Sanrio for almost half a century.

His personalities and the expertise as a leader are as follows.

1 Foresight

After the World War II, the founder thought. “There is no doubt that we will live in the future in the world where materials are abundant. Thus, people would definitely seek “add -value”on the simple function of the goods. Value added products are especially important.”

From that foresight, the founder came up with the following ideas.

Putting vinyl flowers on simple flip-flops,

Adding a strawberry pattern to a plain coffee cup,

By implementing above ideas, Sanrio has developed today’s character merchandising giant.

2 Clear management philosophy

The founder, as is Chairman is now 93 years old. He is active and works seven days a week.

When the founder was 18 years old, he experienced the air raid in Kofu prefecture, the adjacent to the greater Tokyo area. From his tragic war experience, he thought:

“Never repeat such wars. It is the most foolish and miserable mistake that humans have ever committed. Innocent people should never get killed such an instant. What could we do to avoid a war? If there is something cute in our lives, people can send such cute stuff each other.

“Hello,” “I’m sorry” or just simply “Thank you”, by sending those messages with “cute “stuff, we would definitely be able to maintain the peace. So, why not creating such a culture?

This is the fundamental management philosophy that Hello Kitty was born with.

Therefore, since its foundation, Sanrio’s philosophy has been “Everyone in the world can be friends and live in peace.”

3 Negotiation skills

Aya talked about the founder’s skills as a business leader as follows.

“I think he looks like Mr. Eiichi Shibusawa’s, well described in his motto: ” Philosophy and Arithmetic “. I think the founder is a unique person who has both business insights and the strong determination towards realizing those ideas. For about 40 years, I have been working with him, and I think he has outstanding imagination, a storytelling technique that involves people intensely, and the insights for future markets. Furthermore, I have witnessed several times when the founder led a meeting including tough negotiation to the agreement with his own negotiation skills. ” That was really impressive, and I found another value of Sanrio.

4 Charming smiles

Aya shared those episodes with members of FBAA, Japan Family Business Advisory Association. Almost every time I go abroad for business, I have brought Hello Kitty goods as souvenirs to my friends or colleagues, especially in countries in South America or Europe. I have chosen those goods simply because their daughters love Hello Kitty. I think Hello Kitty is the strongest export product that Japan can be proud of in the world.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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