Amana Co., Ltd. President Hironobu Shindo

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2018.5.11

A company working on Japanese premium 
Interview with Hironobu Shindo, President of Amana Co., Ltd.

From advertising photo production company to content partner

Have you ever been aware of a company called "Amana"? Some people may think of us as a photo stock company. However, the company is currently a group company that engages in a wide range of businesses, including not only the rental of photographic materials, but also advertising production, product promotion, events, product development, and publishing.

 

Recently, he has produced a TV commercial series that uses impactful images to express a company's fitness business services and their results. In addition, we are expanding our activities in a wide range of ways, including providing total support from naming, recipe development, and promotion for a restaurant that has been started by a dairy manufacturer as a new business format. It seems that we are exposed to many of Amana's creations without realizing it. So, what kind of company is Amana, which claims to be a content partner with a focus on visuals? We spoke with Hironobu Shindo, the founder and president.

"Currently, our business can be broadly divided into two parts. One is the planning and production of visuals, that is, the production of content parts. The other is the provision of the content itself. Our company was founded in 2. Originally, I was a photographer myself. , I started my business as an advertising photo production company. About eight years after I started my business, I started my stock photo business.

 

Amana started with photography (when it started, it was Urban Publicity. Later, the company name was changed to Ima, and then to Amana), but it also started working on CG and videos. As mentioned above, we are currently accepting orders for events and store development. The output has changed from 2D to 3D and even 4D. "Photography is our starting point, but we can't just stay there. So how should our business help people? When I thought about it, I realized that I wanted to help people through 'visual communication.' , which I noticed relatively early on."

 

Lessons learned from the “Railroad King’s Failure” shared by all employees

Mr. Shindo says that whether he is a new graduate or a mid-career employee, he always has something to talk about directly with his employees. That is the lesson learned from the "Failure of the Railroad King." A railroad magnate on the east coast of the United States thought his mission was to build a transcontinental railroad, and although he spent 20 years making it happen, he went bankrupt the following year. The railroad tycoon who was too particular about the ``media of railways'' is a real model case of ``failing to adapt to the changing times.'' ``What we should learn from this story is that ``business moves with the times.'' To cross continents, you could have used a bus, a car, or an airplane.What a railway tycoon should originally focus on is ``transportation.'' However, because we were too fixated on railways, we were unable to adapt to the changing times.On the other hand, our business style is communication, that is, a business that involves people.As times change, people change. Change, if people change, we have to change too."

 

He also says that the speed of change is also important. ``It would be difficult to follow from behind.That's why we have to constantly change in order to stay half a step ahead of the times and stay in a position to welcome the times from beginning to end.'' In order to respond to these changes, Shindo says that the organization should be a soccer team that values ​​teamwork, but in which each field player independently scores points. "I learned a lot from soccer. When I was a student, my position was as a midfielder who created the game. The military system, which has a fixed hierarchy like baseball, doesn't suit my nature. "We're not aiming to be a company where everyone turns to the right when something happens."

 

According to Shindo, Amana's policy is "white line management." Without white lines on roads, traffic accidents will increase. However, where there are white lines, drivers are not aware that they are being controlled by the white lines, and think that they are driving with care. Although he points out the general direction of the company, he does not give detailed instructions. However, Mr. Shindo says that if employees are given a first-hand experience of the quality that Amana is aiming for, they will naturally produce something that matches that quality.

The appearance of the office, which is a renovated warehouse and has been repeatedly renovated to keep up with the changing times, is one of the directions that Amana is showing both internally and externally. In addition, we have created a database of about 2 collaborating companies and freelancers through the employee-only portal site ``akb (amana knowledge board),'' where you can search for about 2000 success stories out of about 1 cases a year. ``Internal and external creator search system'' launched. At meetings with clients, we are steadily creating an environment in which we can immediately respond to their needs.
"Currently, I'm taking on the challenge of creating a content production environment that uses smartphones to provide high client satisfaction.In addition to managing schedules and sharing meeting information with teams and clients, I would like to change work styles by quickly realizing databases that can generate visual drafts, virtual meetings that include remote staff, and model casting using AI.''

There is a deep reason why Mr. Shindo is striving to streamline and improve efficiency.
“After doing this job for many years, I realized that ``communicating'' and ``communicating'' are completely different things.In visual communication content, ``communicating'' means making the client's thoughts visible.However, when it comes to meetings, In this case, words have a wide range of meaning.Japanese language has a kind of ambiguous and difficult aspect.In order to reduce the gap between the image of the client and the production side due to words, we need to change the system more and more. It must be done.” We catch up on the true ``thoughts'' that lie beyond the Japanese language, and make full use of the expressive power of our team to appeal to the five senses of our clients and the consumers beyond them who receive the information. Towards that goal, Amana is steadily formulating and implementing strategies.

Visually convey your true feelings

In the sense of appealing to the five senses, the gallery cafe "IMA cafe" located within the headquarters and open to the public is also a space typical of Amana. At the counter is a coffee robot made by a venture company in New York. This faithfully reproduces the hand-drip technique of Ryota Nakagawa, a full-time employee and the only coffee specialist in the company, and provides coffee with a refreshing taste without any unpleasant tastes. ``Nakagawa is one of only about 300 people in Japan who holds the Advanced Coffee Meister qualification.All of his techniques, which are digitized, are input to a server in Manhattan, and instructions are sent to the robot.Nakagawa's main My work involves selecting coffee beans and communicating with customers.I believe that the situation is very important in order to visualize the ``thoughts'' and make them feel it with all five senses. It's one of the symbols of our commitment to three-dimensional content."

“The Origin of Photography” displayed in the conference room

At Amana, while expanding the possibilities of visual communication in this way, we also offer services such as the IMA Gallery, which handles art photographs based on the concept of "Living with photography," offering realistic photographs that are different from those seen on smartphones or computers. We are also focusing on activities that convey the power of ``Hiroshi Sugimoto's work ``Pre-Photography, Time Recording Device.'' It is a photograph of a fossil, but if you ask him, this is pre-photography, that is, a photograph before photography.A photograph is a moment in time. Fossils can trap a moment in time from hundreds of millions of years ago, so when you trace back the origins of photography, you come across fossils. Fossils are the origin of photography, so I hang this photo in the largest conference room in my company."

Although our efforts are diverse, photography is the starting point.

Amana continues to open up new businesses while moving back and forth between art and science, using soccer as a model for switching between the right and left brains in a well-balanced manner, but its roots never waver. Yes, Mr. Shindo may want to say that.

 

 

 

*The contents and information contained in this article are as of the time of publication.

<Profile>

Hironobu Shindo

Born in Tokyo in 1951. In 1977, he worked as a freelance photographer, and in 1979 established Urban Publicity Co., Ltd., an advertising photo production company that became Amana. In 1987, he started a stock photo business. Since then, we have rapidly advanced our digitalization and grown into a comprehensive visual communications company that also handles video, CG production, and content production.
http://amana.jp/


Interview by Mio Shimamura Text by Mime Kihara

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