Sakura Color Products Corporation President and CEO Hikoshiro Nishimura

We want to build a century that will rival the past century.

President and CEO of Sakura Color Products Corporation　Hikoshiro Nishimura (Hikoshiro Nishimura)

■ Profile

1979年3月 成蹊大学法学部卒業、1980年4月 (株)サクラクレパスに入社。1996年9月より営業企画本部長に就任、2003年12月に常務取締役、2010年3月専務取締役　営業本部長を経て、2014年6月に代表取締役社長に就任、現在に至る。

Sakura Cray-Pas, which we've all been familiar with since childhood, offers products like Cray-Pas and Copic. We asked President Nishimura about the outlook for this company, which has a history of over 100 years, and what kind of mindset goes into creating such attractive products.

I wasn't in a science department at university, so to be honest, I just wanted to get the credits I needed, and I spent a lot of time in the ski club and hanging out with friends. The motivation to study that I had almost none of at university only started to resurface a little later after I entered the workforce.　After joining the company, I fell ill in my mid-twenties and was bedridden for several months, but during this time I got into the habit of reading one or two books a day. From then on, I developed a desire for knowledge, wanting to know more and more, and became more proactive in studying. I actually started taking classes for working adults in the evenings, and I realized that interest is important when it comes to learning, and that if you're interested, studying is fun and you can learn more.　　　

■ Connecting our proud history to the future

Sakura Cray-Pas was founded in the early 1900s as a company that began making cheap, high-quality crayons in response to the shift from model drawing education, where students were required to copy model pictures exactly with a pencil, to the free drawing movement, where students were free to draw what they thought and felt.Rather than visiting schools to promote products, the company focused on spreading the free drawing movement and built a culture in which children drew pictures.
I had a strong desire to go to America, so after graduating I decided to study abroad there. After spending a year at university in the US, I joined Sakura Cray-Pas at my parents' urging. At this point, I had almost no knowledge of the company's history, so I had a lot to learn after joining the company. I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the company before I started working there, but now I'm proud of Sakura Cray-Pas' history.

■I have been working for a company with a 100-year history for 43 years and have been its president for 9 years.

When I became president, I told our employees two things about the company's mission: "To enrich people's hearts and contribute to society," and "To make all employees happy." To become a company that can contribute to society, the employees who make this happen must be happy and fulfilled. In addition to financial happiness, the mental element of being able to grow and find fulfillment in work is also extremely important. To that end, I create an environment in which everyone, from new employees to me as president, can freely and equally express their opinions, and I always encourage everyone to speak up, even if they disagree with something.

■ Creating new value

When planning products and services, we place the utmost importance on creating new value that does not exist anywhere else. This is based on research that found that half of the top-selling products are pioneering products. This means that if you launch a product first, you have a 50/50 chance of becoming the top market share holder, and you have a much higher chance of creating a long-selling product than if you launch a similar product later. To create new value, Sakura Cray-Pas develops products based on two principles: "understanding customer needs" and "developing something completely unique." The latter, in particular, is not easy, and we encourage our employees to keep this in mind on a daily basis. For example, focusing on industries other than stationery is also effective. Educe, a mail-order service for educational facilities inspired by Askul, a mail-order service for businesses, accounts for approximately half of domestic sales. Since ideas can often be found in seemingly unrelated things, constantly thinking also helps to hone your creativity.
Our future goal is to establish the Sakura brand in writing instruments. Sakura Cray-Pas has a strong image of being a children's art supply. In fact, we are generating just as much sales for our writing instruments, so we would like to focus on the Sakura brand in writing instruments, for example by printing the well-known Sakura logo in large letters. We would also like to promote drawing as a hobby for adults, in response to their desire to draw. Just as we saw a lot of sales of oil paint sets during the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe there is a lot of demand from adults as well.

■ The need for a long-term perspective

The two things I look for most when conducting final interviews are honesty and the ability to continue to work hard. Honest people are popular with both superiors and subordinates, and without the ability to overcome good and bad things and continue to work hard, you can't do a good job. Whether someone is quiet or cheerful, or has both strengths and weaknesses, we don't exclude their innate individuality. I think it's important for each person to be able to utilize their individuality where it's appropriate.

I encourage you to experience a variety of things while you're a student. When I became ill, everyone around me was working and having fun, but I couldn't do what I wanted, and I became very negative, thinking, "Why me?" But looking back now, I started to love books, and that period was a really positive one for me. Any failure will surely turn out to be a positive one in the long run, so don't be afraid to try the things you want to do!

Student Newspaper Online, May 18, 2023 Interview by Kawabata Momo, 3rd year student at Sophia University