In May 1972 our company launched Audio Senka to commemorate the twenty-fourth anniversary of its founding. The inaugural issue of the magazine received enormous praise and support from the industry. I understood this positive response to mean that the industry had great expectations in us as the top batter for its development and was entrusting us with a huge mission.
To fulfill that responsibility, on May 13 of that year, at the age of 28, I embarked together with President Iwama toward a shining future. Under the philosophy of “contributing to the constructive development of the industry,” we set off with the basic idea of “nurturing creations with value.”
In my own way, I had been studying all kinds of things as well. Around the age of 23, I had enjoyed reading Konosuke Matsushita’s Shobai kokoroecho (later translated as Not for Bread Alone), and a sentence in that book stuck in my mind: “Yours must be an industry that is envied by others.” I kept asking myself what exactly the industry was, and in the end I came up with my trinity theory of makers, retailers, and users.
Generally speaking, an industry is said to be composed of makers and distributors. But as an editor, I realized that it was users who were the foundation of the industry. By organically expanding this recognition, I finally arrived at my own original business theory and epistemology. I was certain that users were the most important existence, the foundation of the industry, and that business was going to be decided by user trends. Furthermore, I concluded that the active linkage of user behavior would influence the survival of the industry.
Consumer behavior is also connected to the universality of demand creation. I understood the importance of thoroughly user-oriented marketing and realized that the “essence” of the industry lay in putting such an approach into practice. Users are the nub of the industry, and it is from them that retailers and makers take their cue. I knew that this essential maxim must transcend the present and go on far into the future.
If I had not become aware of this essence, I would not have been able to move forward. Once I started moving, I was able to put my thoughts into practice without losing sight of the goal. The proof surely can be seen in where we are today. Responding to the expectations of the industry, we have come up with strategies to perform our work in line with the abovementioned thinking and taken action to steer us in the right direction. It is no exaggeration to say that my own personal way of thinking also decided the future of Ongen Publishing.
May 1972, when I was 28 years of age, was a time of particularly new ideas and action. It was a period when our industry flew into a new, completely unknown world. Appointed as editor of the inaugural issue of Audio Senka, I polished my own thinking and began to step forward along my personal path. Gaining overwhelming support in my endeavor, I moved farther and farther along the road.
The inaugural issue of Audio Senka brought about an increase in the number of subscribers and advertisers. It probably smashed the conventional wisdom about what a special industrial journal should be like to smithereens. Subsequently the magazine expanded, with the 1974 New Year issue having 376 pages. Its growth was testimony to the fact that we were properly fulfilling the mandate given to us by the industry and had reached a point where we were looking toward the future.
In May the inaugural issue of Audio Senka came out, and in September our company began its life as a publishing enterprise, changing its name to Ongen Publishing Co., Ltd. Even when I look back now, 1972 stands out as a really glittering year. And today, under our philosophy of “contributing to the constructive development of the industry,” our company is moving forward even more strongly, deeply, and broadly toward our seventieth anniversary in May 2019.