Group:
Date:
Students:
9
17th November 2004
Selami Boran
Sara Borrovecchio
Iiris Lestelä
Lutz Walther
Zoltan Petroczki
Table of contents
1.
Introduction.......................................................................................................... 3
2.
General description ............................................................................................. 4
2.1
History .......................................................................................................... 4
2.2
Products ....................................................................................................... 4
2.3
Competitors .................................................................................................. 4
3.
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
Structure .......................................................................................................... 5
Branches ...................................................................................................... 5
Hierarchy ...................................................................................................... 5
Men/ Women ................................................................................................ 5
Nationalities .................................................................................................. 5
4. Human resources ................................................................................................... 6
4.1 Recruitment ....................................................................................................... 6
4.1.1
Means of recruitment. ........................................................................... 6
4.1.2
Requirements ........................................................................................ 6
4.2 Management style ............................................................................................. 6
4.2.1
International .......................................................................................... 6
4.2.2
Europe................................................................................................... 7
5. Our impression ....................................................................................................... 8
5.1
The company outlook ................................................................................... 8
5.2
The people ................................................................................................... 8
5.3
The interview ................................................................................................ 8
Group: 9
Page 2 of 8
ICM
1.
Introduction
For our presentation we had to take an interview by Nintendo in Großostheim.
Nintendo is the acknowledged worldwide leader in the creation of interactive
entertainment.
To date, Nintendo has sold more than 1.4 billion video games worldwide.
Our meeting was scheduled on Tuesday the 16th of November at 10.30 am, where
we would speak to the Human resources and Administration director Europe,
Thomas Rück and his assistant Daniela Nagel.
Of course you cannot attend such a meeting just relying on your improvising skills to
ask interesting questions, so we met the day before to discuss what we wanted to
know and how we would convert those things into clear questions.
The most important thing for us was the internal structure of the company and the
human relations within the company. In our seminar we learn mostly about cultural
differences so we were hoping to find out more about them within a corporate
environment such as Nintendo
Tuesday morning we were up and ready with about 20 questions. It would be a lie to
say we were not nervous at all but over all we felt quite confident.
You can read the result of our Nintendo adventure on the next pages. We enjoyed
writing this report, we hope you enjoy reading it.
Group: 9
Page 3 of 8
ICM
2.
General description
In this chapter their will be given an overview of Nintendo.
2.1
History
It started all in 1889, and a Japanese man named Fusajiro Yamauchi founded
Nintendo Koppai, a Kyoto-based card manufacturer. The cards that he made were
hanafuda playing cards, all this cards were hand crafted and painted. The hanafuda
game consists of 48 cards in 12 suits, the cards display natural symbols used in
gameplay. The cards were sold in Kyoto and Osaka in Yamauchi's own Nintendo
stores. Once the card business picked up, Nintendo Koppai hanafuda started
changing the symbols, and he made them quite collectable.
Over the next ten years, Hiroshi changed the card distributor's name to Nintendo
Karuta Co. Ltd., he also moved the Nintendo headquarters to a new building,
consolidated the production plants in Kyoto, and made the move to plastic-coated
playing cards.
In 1959 Hiroshi struck a deal with Walt Disney to produce playing cards featuring
Disney characters. Nintendo took it upon themselves to market them heavily, and
with successful results.
In 1963 Hiroshi changed the company's name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The name has
stayed the same ever since. One of the reasons Hiroshi Yamauchi changed the
company name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. was so that he could expand the company into
products other than playing cards. Some of these products were a little unusual for a
company that had spent the last 79 years making playing cards.
Following on from a string of failed ventures, Hiroshi set up Nintendo's first research
and development department, simply named "Games" in 1964. It was set up in a new
Kyoto production plant, and their first product was a game called Rabbit Coaster.
And so ends Nintendo's long and painful transformation from a card manufacturer to
videogame giant.
2.2
Products
Nintendo sells all there products in these categories




Parts and accessories, manuals
Magazines and player’s guides
Systems and games
Toys, clothing and gifts
2.3
Competitors
Nintendo has some competitors, these are;

Playstation “Sony computer entertainment Inc. “

X Box “Microsoft Corporation”
Group: 9
Page 4 of 8
ICM
3.
Structure
3.1
Branches
Nintendo has branches all over the world: America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Their
headquarters are located in Japan and the European headquarters “Nintendo of
Europe GmbH“is located in Germany, Großostheim. The content of this report will be
based on findings from the latter.
3.2
Hierarchy
The headquarters in Japan are at the top of the hierarchy, they give direct orders to
Nintendono of Europe GmbH, which is under the supervision of a president. The
company in Germany consists of many different parts: Legal services, administration
and marketing and sales. In charge of those are senior managers who report directly
to the president. Those senior managers are in charge of a team of directors, to
whom the employees must report to.
3.3
Men/ Women
There is a majority of women in the German Headquarters. An estimated 70% of the
employees are women. However, the top positions in the company, for example
management positions, are still mainly occupied by men. This might have something
to do with the fact that the Japanese headquarters are in charge and that they much
rather work with men than women.
3.4
Nationalities
There are about 25 different nationalities working in Nintendo Germany, they come
from all different branches all over the world. This causes little difficulties. Of course
there are always some minor issues but nothing really worth mentioning. The biggest
problems occur when doing business with the Japanese because their culture is so
very different. Due to all these different nationalities the company language is
English.
Group: 9
Page 5 of 8
ICM
4. Human resources
4.1 Recruitment
4.1.1 Means of recruitment.
Nintendo is constantly recruiting people. There are different possibilities to recruit
employees, depending on the position. For important positions such as management,
they tend to use headhunters. There is also an online application form, where people
can apply for a job. Quite often they put advertisements in newspapers and
magazines. Another common way of filling in vacancies is recruiting within the
company or you can find the person you need through connections such as friends or
former colleagues etc.
4.1.2 Requirements
The requirements are very different, depending on the job. When it comes to finding
warehouse workers training is of course the most important. In higher positions
however, a good combination of training and social skills is inevitable. Naturally, the
importance of the latter is higher in positions where there is a lot of interaction with
other people, for example customer services and sales.
When it comes to appearances we could say that there is no real formal dress code,
mainly because there are a lot of young people in the company.
4.2 Management style
4.2.1 International
Nintendo of Europe GmbH does not experience many problems within Europe or with
the USA, but due to enormous cultural differences there are quite a few problems
when it comes to dealing with Japan. The Japanese headquarters want to be in
control at all times. They are not trusting towards the Europeans and want them to do
everything like it is done in Japan. Their way of doing business is very dominating.
For instance in Japan the Human Resource department is situated above the
company entrance, so they can check the exact times when the employees arrive
and leave again.
They try to make the Europeans do the same and of course this is not possible
because in most companies we fill in our timesheets manually and in general, bosses
and employees are happy with that way of working, which is very hard to understand
for the Japanese. When it comes to dealing with problem situations, and there are
meetings with Europeans and Japanese, everyone can sense that the Japanese are
not really taking the European opinions into account. At the end of the day, they feel
it is their decision and they solve the problems their way.
Group: 9
Page 6 of 8
ICM
4.2.2 Europe
- Interpersonal
There is of course a difference between the managers. Some are very open minded
and you can even turn to them with problems regarding your personal life. Then
again there are others who are very arrogant and they prefer not to mingle with their
subordinates. The human resources director we talked to approaches his staff in a
paternal way: He likes to describe their team as one big family where there is more
than just work.
- Working hours
In general we can state that there is a quite trusting atmosphere within the German
branch of Nintendo, unlike the Japanese branch. There is still a difference between
the people who work in the warehouse and the people in the offices. For the
warehouse they apply an automatic time system, so the workers cannot leave the
building early or take longer breaks for lunch, they are quite restricted. The office staff
use time sheets which they fill in manually, although the Japanese would like to
change that. A normal working week consists of 38, 5 hours but there is a lot of
overtime. Weekend work is not unusual, especially not for the management people. A
lot of people do not take their full holiday, not because it is seen as impolite to take it,
but for the simple reason that they do not get their work done on time.
- Training and Seminars
Nintendo does not accept any graduating students to do their internship there. They
do organize English classes for their employees, as well as seminars in order to
educate their employees on different subjects so that they can function better within
the company.
- Events
They took on an American habit called “Casual Friday”. This means that on Friday no
one wears ties or suits, everyone comes to work in a casual, comfortable outfit. As
there are a lot of young people in the company this initiative is very appreciated
among the employees. Team building events are organized every now and then to
strengthen the bond between the employees. There are several parties during the
year, they have a Christmas party and a summer party. They are very important for
the staff and whenever the management tries to move one of these to a later date the
employees are not very happy. Events like these are very important to maintain a
positive atmosphere within the company.
Group: 9
Page 7 of 8
ICM
5. Our impression
5.1
The company outlook
Nintendo is a worldwide corporation, which you can see as soon as you enter the
parking. The building is nicely maintained and as soon as you enter you can see that
this is a well-organized corporation. Visitors had to sign in giving their name and
reason of visit, then we were given a badge, which is required in order to be able to
walk freely around the company: There were different glass cupboard everywhere
displaying their products, new ones as well as old. Everything reminded you that this
is a big international company with a good reputation who takes itself seriously.
5.2
The people
One of the things that stood out the most was the service. We were kindly guided to a
well-prepared meeting room, where we could dispose of coffee, water and biscuits.
We were received by the director of human resources and his assistant, both very
nice people prepared to give us the answers we were looking for. They were both
very honest, which was something we all appreciated very much. Although they
talked a lot about several problems with Japan they wanted to underline the fact that
it is a very nice company to work for and that they feel as if they are a big family: We
were under the impression that the atmosphere between the employees and their
immediate bosses was very good and quite relaxed. We promised that we would
hand in our report and presentation to them as they seemed interested in what we
did and why we were there.
5.3
The interview
We had about 14 large questions prepared with about 6 additional questions. There
was a relaxed atmosphere and we had enough time to get all our questions
answered. We felt that all our questions were answered quite thoroughly and they did
not try to avoid any of them which we initially feared. The only thing they did not want
to mention were facts and figures concerning salaries, that was not a surprise
though.
Group: 9
Page 8 of 8
ICM