BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 10, 2000 ISSUE
COVER STORY Pokémon Patriarch KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Scored huge hit by bringing Pokémon to U.S. over objections of co-workers and negative market research Pokémon, in all its myriad forms‚‚ cards, toys, video games and a movie ‚‚has racked up $1 billion in sales for Nintendo and its licensees in the U.S. In 1997, Nintendo of America (NTDOY) President MINORU ARAKAWA made the biggest bet of his career. Everyone said he was nuts to import a strange Japanese video game featuring 150 tiny, collectible monsters. Research showed that American kids hated it, and employees dismissed the game as too confusing. But Arakawa persisted--and hit the Pokemon jackpot. Going with his gut has been Arakawa's standard operating procedure since founding Nintendo of America in 1980. Soon after the Pokemon craze began in Japan in 1996, he watched 100,000 people--some of whom had ridden the train two hours to get there--line up for a glimpse of new Pokemon characters at a festival. If U.S. kids showed half the enthusiasm, he figured he'd have a winner. Does he ever. In all its forms, Pokemon includes video games, a movie, cards, and a raft of toys and other merchandise. And Arakawa, who ruled against tailoring Pokemon for American kids, insisted on selling it all. Pokemon sales for Nintendo of America and its licensees have passed $1 billion since its 1998 launch. Still, the 53-year-old Arakawa isn't smug. ''To be honest, I still don't understand the game,'' he says. Arakawa, a civil engineer by training, has made bold bets before. In 1985, Nintendo of America was struggling as the operator of such fading arcade games as Donkey Kong. To revive the company, Arakawa imported Nintendo's home-game console from Japan, even though game makers Atari and Coleco were struggling in the U.S. and the video-game industry was failing fast. The Nintendo system was a huge hit, and many in the industry credit Arakawa with reviving the U.S. video-game market. The son-in-law of Nintendo Chief Executive Hiroshi Yamauchi, Arakawa at first shunned the family business in favor of real estate and construction. But when Yamauchi asked him to create an American unit, he jumped at the chance to return to the U.S., where he had once studied civil engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The shy Arakawa, who rarely talks to the press, is praised by employees as a consensus-builder. Top managers in Seattle meet regularly around his desk, large enough to seat 18. In February, however, when Arakawa takes over as North American chairman, he will have to take on a much more public role. For now, Arakawa is just glad to hide behind that little monster, Pikachu. To read a letter to the editor about this story, click here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS INTRODUCTION MANAGERS TO WATCH THE TOP ENTREPRENEURS THE TOP 25 MANAGERS Minuro Arakawa Bernard Arnault Arthur Blank Peter Bijur Gordon Binder Steve Case John Chambers James Curvey Thierry Desmarest Bernie Ebbers Tom Engibous Chris Gent Irwin Jacobs Steve Jobs Mel Karmazin James Kelly Timothy Koogle Ken Lay Jenny Ming Thomas Siebel Masayoshi Son Martha Stewart Keiji Tachikawa Jack Welch Yun Jong Yong ONLINE EXTRAS TO BUSINESS WEEK INVESTOR INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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