Masaaki Morita, 96 years old. He is a former Vice President of Sony and is one of the people who built the company into a global company. Mr. Morita recently published his first book, “Leadership that Uses the Power of People” through our company One Publishing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OnePub). The person who supervised the editing was Yuji Hirose, President and Representative Director of OnePub. I asked the president why he edited the book himself and the background behind it.
An imaginary project that one day disappeared. The management team’s intuition brought it back to life.
“In fact, the plan for this book almost disappeared at one point.”
Right out of the gate, he told me something I never expected. “Leadership that Leverages the Power of People” is a book that depicts the management style of Masaaki Morita, who has supported Sony’s development since its dawn. After retiring from Sony at the age of 70, he founded the Masaaki Morita Tennis Fund and is known for his efforts in developing several players, including Kei Nishikori.
The person who brought this project to OnePub is Hitoshi Kami, another author of this book. After working as a reporter for a tennis magazine, he became a freelancer and currently not only writes articles but also works as a sports commentator.
“More than a year ago, Mr. Kami, who had a close friendship with Mr. Morita, approached us with a project to tell the world about Mr. Morita’s life and human resource development theory. Kensuke Matsui asked the General Book Department to look into the matter for the project, but the Business Department seemed to be reluctant to “He decided not to do it. Although it was a good project, it was a type that OnePub had never worked on before. I heard that was the reason why the business department couldn’t get going.” (Heroes)
However, Mr. Matsui’s intuition that “this project deserves to be known by the world” worked, and he left the final decision to Mr. Hirose, the president.
“Mr. Matsui emailed me a proposal. I asked him: ‘What do you think?’ I immediately read the proposal and found it interesting. As a company, publishing this type of business book is a challenge. However, I agreed with Mr. Matsui that it would be a shame to We lose him.
So, I decided to meet Mr. Morita in person and hear his story, so I visited Mr. Morita at his home. Since he served as the director of such a large company and achieved amazing achievements even after his retirement, I thought he would be very firm… but in reality, Mr. Morita is very kind and noble. And he’s always smiling and smiling. Treat me nicely. He was truly charming and I fell in love with his character instantly. Let’s publish a book about this! If I was going to publish it, I wouldn’t leave it up to someone else to edit it myself! That’s what I announced.” (Heroes)
The president himself then made a presentation at the final planning meeting within OnePub, and the company officially decided to publish the book. Mr. Hirose has been an editor for more than 20 years and served as editor-in-chief of several magazines including GetNavi, but since founding One Pub in 2020, he has focused on management and stopped editing books. R. Was it difficult working as an editor for the first time in a long time and balancing that with management duties?
“I was ready to be busy, but I thought I could barely do it to my current ability. This is because I was able to gather a reliable production team.
The fun, or rather the real fun, of being an editor is how you build a team while creating a piece of content.
Regarding this book, it was Mr. Kamei who gave me the idea, who wrote the manuscript, and the person who was responsible for the editorial work from a position closer to the author was Tennis magazine where Mr. Kamei was working as a reporter. In the past, his name is Ei Suzuki, and he was the editor-in-chief of . In other words, superiors and subordinates who were previously part of the same team were reunited.
Mr. Suzuki also has significant business experience, having earned an MBA from a business school after leaving his editorial job. Thanks to the participation of editor Suzuki, who is well-versed in both business and tennis, the two main subjects of this book, the quality of production has improved dramatically.” (Hirose)
No problems at all. The reason for winning is the team building and Mr. Morita’s personality.
Although this project was started with all possible precautions, there were always problems during deployment. Moreover, the author of this article is one of Japan’s leading businessmen and is very busy. The interview and application are expected to be difficult…
“There were no problems at all. The proofreading has been completed ahead of schedule by the printing press. All I had to do was focus on my days off to check the manuscript. The project continued without any disruption to business operations. It is truly an unprecedentedly successful operation. I’m sorry we couldn’t talk about it in an interesting way (lol).” (Mr. Hirose)
Maybe the reason for the win was good teamwork. We have a unique vibe that comes from being friends who created the same magazine together. Hirose’s hunch was initially correct.
“In addition, I was grateful that Mr. Morita was so helpful with the interviews, writing, and photography. He seemed to be having fun, but he also made his point firmly. For example, Mr. Morita is very into fashion and she is very into her work, and even though she did her own hair and makeup during the photo shoot, she provided all of her own clothes and shoes.
When I ordered a white shirt, they chose a color with a white base with a slight blue undertone. Blue is Sony’s corporate colour. I don’t know if it’s because he loves Sony or just personal preference, but it suits him well.
The words on the obi were written by Kei Nishikori. Normally, it would be a difficult request to ask a world-famous athlete, but since this is a book by Mr. Morita, who has made his mark on the world stage, I got two answers and a yes. I feel like everything worked together to create this book, including Mr. Morita’s personality and his good relationships with those around him.” (Mr. Hirose)
My editorial spirit has been restored after a long period of working on the site! Creating a vision after retirement
Since he started working on this book, Hirose-san seems more aggressive in his daily work than before, but could it just be his imagination?
“In fact, even the employees at OnePub say, “Recently, the boss has been very energetic” (lol). It’s really fun working on set. When it comes to cover design, different departments like editorial, sales, and public relations work together. For the first time in a long time, I experienced the process of making something better together, like asking employees for their input.
I was nervous going into the planning meeting, and when I finally signed off on the proofreading, my hands were shaking because I was worried about what would happen if I missed too many things.
The release date has arrived safely and we are currently in the middle of the promotion process. I again feel that an editor’s job does not end with publishing a book, but rather promoting the book to convey its merits is an important role. I think manufacturing and selling are one and the same thing.
By the way, I hop between different media outlets with my internal MR (media relations) team, but since I don’t tell them upfront that I’m the head of the company, they’re usually surprised. I feel like the editor in charge.” (Heroes)
Hirose is currently 58 years old. He says he has gradually become more aware of his post-retirement life. Did you get a clear vision after working on Morita’s book?
“Mr. Morita’s message, ‘No matter how old you are, you can enjoy different things by drawing on your past experiences,’ resonated with me even as I was writing the book. Then, I took up tennis. As a business owner, I am constantly fighting for success Or failure, but I believe that even when I retire, I will be able to build a future that is more enjoyable than before. I felt encouraged.
Specifically, this is the first time I’ve written a book as an editor in a long time, and I thought it might be nice to have an editorial product that takes full advantage of my connections. One day, One Pub published a book called “Textbook for Introduction to Generative AI,” and the author Ozakin (Kenio Ozawa) said that now there is an excellent assistant called generative AI, so physical work can be done by AI: You say that you should To leave it up to them and put yourself in a position to expand your network and come up with projects that haven’t come up yet. I also plan to take on the challenge of editing books and creating content that only I can do, while making effective use of generative AI.” (Heroes)
We can also look forward to the second edition, which will be written by Editor-in-Chief Hirose.
Click here for details on “Leadership that Uses the Power of People”
Photography: Kensuke Suzuki
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