The Meaning of “Art” in BusinessLeading the Next 30 Years

What keeps aglobal investor likeShuhei Abetransfixed on Wacom
SPARX Asset Management CEOAbe Shuhei has analyzed countlessbusinesses and their managers, startingfrom his time working under George
Soros. So how does Wacom appear toan investor of this caliber? His ‘tough but
fair’ comments suggest a confidence
that Wacom has the potential to rank
among the world’s top enterprises.

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Nobutaka Ide (Nobu): Thank you for joining us today forThe Wacom Story Book . I’ve really been looking forward tospeaking with you. This Story Book is a new project that
only began this year. We labeled it a ‘Story Book’ in thehopes that it could be used as a tool for communicatingwith the stakeholders, a way to share the stories woven by
our Wacom digital pen customers, by the many partners
creating value with us, and by members of the team.
As much as we want our investors and shareholders toread this, we also want to read the story ourselves. Whencolleagues at Wacom express pride in their jobs andtheir company, I want the Story Book to capture thosesentiments.
Shuhei Abe: When we started our own business as justthe five of us, some of my colleagues were ashamed tohave made the change from a large corporation to a small,unknown company. I kept repeating that I wanted to turnus into a company that we could be proud of to our familyand friends. The desire to work for a company that you
can take pride in is universal, no matter if you’re in Japanor abroad.
Nobu: The gathering together of individuals who feelpassionate about their work creates great value as acompany. Today, I hope you’ll tell us how we can achievethis. The first thing I’d like to talk about is the meaning of“art” in the field of business. When managing a corporation,
you need efficiency and productivity if you want to advancetowards a set goal along the shortest possible path. I know
this is necessary for our society to exist, but at the sametime I am also constantly aware of this idea that art, theintuitive side that on first glance may appear frivolous, may
actually carry great significance.
Abe: As an investor, I am proud to say that I’m secondconversation55

special conversation
Abe: Intuition is extremely important. There was a film
called Let It Be back when I was in high school. It wasa documentary that followed the four members of TheBeatles as they holed up in a studio to develop their sound.

intense urgency, is what leads us into the future.
Abe: If there is a line that divides business and art, it’s
probably decided by whether or not something has a

Each artist followed their own intuition while respecting the“now”—the pragmatism of surviving through today. At thesame time, we also want to have a sense of mission that

other band members as things gradually took shape. Only

looks to the future. Without it, the project never becomes

those four could have accomplished that.

anything more than a mere cash grab. I have witnessed

Nobu: Even watching Let It Be, you can feel the value ofthe creative process—why they chose to go with this or

many people who, although their businesses appear

that chord. I believe that the true value of expression lies
precisely there, in the struggle that comes from trying tocreate something. An ongoing project at Wacom called“KISEKI ART” (➡p. 48_ About “KISEKI ART”) is aimed
directly at the creative process. It’s a new approach thatasserts that it isn’t only the end product that can be called
art, but also the process itself. By assigning value to thecreative process, and returning that value to artists andcreators, we can expand how many layers are involved in
the act of creation. That’s the core belief we’re committed
to on the project.
Abe: It sounds like a new business will be born from this.
Back when I was starting out as a securities analyst, word
processors had only just started spreading. This ended
up causing a revival of the novelist profession. University
students and other young authors began to win prestigious
literary awards. In other words, the arrival of this new tool
brought about an evolution in the creative world. It’s that
aspect that draws my attention to Wacom. The digital pen
has no language barrier, right? And you can share yourcreations even if you aren’t physically in the same space. I’mlooking forward to the birth of a tool that can transform thenature of intellectual creativity—one without the limitationsof language or spatial constraints.
Nobu: The greatest strength of digital technology is
its ability to transcend time and space. I think of it as
Wacom’s mission to wipe away those two barriers.

successful from the outside, are in fact only out for profit
and personal gain.
Nobu: I’d like to hear you go more in-depth on that. Overthe last thirty-plus years, you’ve lived through the so-called“Heart of Capitalism.” What kind of connection do you
see between you taking the act of creation seriously as anindividual while knowing the spirit of capitalism?
Abe: That’s a topic I continue to think hard about. Although
my view isn’t an academic one, I can at least share myexperience from these thirty years. The way I see it isthat history is indeed cyclical. People say that capitalism
is changing, but the world always moves towards itsessence. Roughly thirty years ago, the advancement oftechnology brought the world together as one—this iswhat we call globalization. The axis of judgment has shiftedfrom one of scale to one of quality. So, what will happen
next? The last thirty years have been a time of deflation,
where the cost of goods and services has fallen. When
prices are lower, more must be sold. Over the next thirtyyears, the times may change again to an era where value
is emphasized over volume. Further, I believe that humanity
will be valued before profit. The perspective would be of
making people happy—or “profit to humanity.”
Nobu: I feel you really do seem to resonate well withWacom. At Wacom, we’ve launched a concept of“Meaningful Growth.” While of course we aim to maximize

financial growth, the idea behind it was a desire tocontribute to human growth. The target is for everyone
involved with Wacom to achieve growth in a way that ismeaningful to themselves—Wacom’s task in this will be toaccompany them along the way.
Abe: I share the sentiment. I hope that companies like
Wacom, with the potential to become global leaders, canbring products and services to the world without imposing
limits on themselves.

A Wish for Wacom:
The Ambition to Change the World
Abe: When I was young, I made the acquaintance ofrenowned investment genius George Soros, and for

A Perspective for the Next 30 Years
Making People Happy

to none when it comes to the sheer number of business
managers I’ve spoken with. Rather than efficiency orproductivity, my axis of judgment as an investor is much
more rooted in the intuitive side. What every investor needs
is the ability to ascertain value, to find value that others
cannot see. It’s the same as when you look at something
and think, “Wow, that’s beautiful.” An artist might express
their individual sense by turning it into a work of art. The
same goes for business. In the case of Wacom, it’s allabout how to combine the logic of making tools withartistic insights, isn’t it? Legendary investor Warren Buffett
also refers to himself as a businessman, investor, andartist.
Nobu: Not to mention that you yourself are also abusinessman in charge of SPARX Group, an investor, andan artist who paints and creates music.

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Abe: The best businesspeople are pragmatic. Even while
keeping their eye on the future, they know what needs tobe done right now. We sometimes get business managers
who come in for financing advice talking to us excitedly
about something ten years down the line when in reality
they are in the red. If they were wise enough at managing
their businesses, they ought to be able to turn a profit evenat the current stage. You need to work hard and leverage
the small things. That’s essential.

The arrival of a new tool
brings about a creative evolution.
That’s what draws my attention to Wacom.

Nobu: I know what you mean. In One Thousand andOne Nights, Scheherazade—the wife—risks her life everynight, telling King Shahriyar tales so that he will not kill her.
Although the King wants her dead, he has no choice but
to leave her alive each time out of a desire to hear the restof the story the next night. It is that accumulation of day
after day of intense urgency that results in a thousand-dayepic. There was no promise made at the beginning to tella captivating thousand-day saga; it simply happened thata thousand days of storytelling had passed by the end. Itoccurs to me that the same could be said of business. To
tell a thousand-day story, you have to already be telling astory on day one. I think that “today,” with its own kind of57

special conversation

about three years, learned his theories and beliefs about
investment while at his side. He was a Hungarian-born
Jew who moved to England when he was sixteen years
old. That was all just after the conclusion of World War II.
In 1992, he sold a huge sum of British pounds. Britain wasundergoing an economic recession at the time, and thegovernment had yet to hammer out an effective monetary58

Losing Oneself in a Goal
Can Bring Happiness
Nobu: I would really appreciate any advice or precautions
you have for Wacom.

policy. They temporarily tried propping up purchases toAbe: I would advise not to let small successes go toyour head. When I look at the business managers I mostcurb the pound’s decline, but soon abandoned the effort.

admire, I see that they always excel in their ability to keep

As a result of this Sterling crisis (Black Wednesday), theBritish economy started to show signs of improvement.

the gears turning. They’re always thinking about the samething, and the amount of thought they put in is staggering.

Soros felt a great debt of gratitude to Britain for providing

What’s more, successful companies tend to have a color—him with an education. It was a desire to rescue theor you could call it a sense. This is the color, the sense ofcountry from its plight that led him to selling the pound.

the business manager. In that regard, I feel that you, Mr.

There are probably people out there who think that Soros
engaged in currency speculation in order to make aIde, meet all the criteria.
Nobu: Am I keeping the small successes from going to myfortune, but that is absolutely not the case. What he did

head? Am I putting enough thought in? I’ll try to test myself

could be referred to as a “profit to humanity.” He was asole combatant in a fight against the British government.
I remember following behind him as he walked the streetsof London, and I was deeply moved. I want young people
to hold onto aspirations like his, and likewise, I hope thatWacom will carry the ambition to change the world.
Nobu: I’m happy to hear that. I also feel an importantsense of mission. We will continue to advance what weat Wacom call the “instruments” that mankind has heldin their hands for many thousands of years to shapethem into something more “humane.” It may sound likedelusions of grandeur, but that’s what we are prepared todo. Although it may never be welcomed with thunderous
applause, I feel that this is the sense of mission that drives
you and Mr. Soros.
Abe: I learned so much about that kind of spirit and drivefrom Soros, not to mention a sense for making it througheach day. You might call it the survival spirit. Wacom is thekind of company that allows me to expect such things. Asinvestors, we research over three thousand companies ayear, but companies that make me feel this way are few
and far between.

with these questions.
Abe: And finally, you have to be thinking “honorably.”That’s essential. Some business managers who appear
successful may not actually be thinking honorably, butsociety is watching their actions. Business is inherently
about dealing with people. In that sense, the world is fair.
A company that thinks honorably should be able to last forquite some time. Wacom deals in software referred to as
digital ink, but there is something real in that. There’s also
no language barrier. Now that the U.S.-centric economy issaid to be on its way out, the time has come for Japan toShuhei ABESPARX Group Co., Ltd. President & Group CEOSPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd. President & CEOBorn in 1954 in the city of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Abegraduated from the Faculty of Economics at Sophia
University in 1978 before obtaining an MBA from Babson
College in 1980. After returning to Japan, he started
working at Nomura Research Institute, Ltd., where heconducted individual company research of Japanesestocks as a corporate research analyst. In 1982, heheaded off to Nomura Securities International (New York)
where he was engaged in the sales of Japanese stocks
to States-side institutional investors. He founded Abe
Capital Research in New York in 1985. While providing
investment management and advisory services forJapanese equity investments through Western funds suchas George Soros’s Quantum Fund, Abe also conductedasset management for European and U.S. personal assetowners.
He returned to Japan in 1989 to found SPARX Investment
Advisors (now SPARX Group Co., Ltd.), which was listedin 2001. In 2005, he completed an AMP at Harvard
Business School. In 2011, he was appointed to theJapanese government’s Energy & Environment Council
as a member of the Cost Verification Committee, and in2012 as a member of the Supply and Demand Verification
Committee. Also in 2012, he was appointed to the Risk
Advisory Committee of Japan Bank for International
Cooperation (JBIC). In his private time, he likes to write
lyrics, compose music, play the guitar, and paint.

figure out where it stands. A day may come when future
generations recognize Wacom as one of the companies
that led the way forward.
Nobu: Thank you. The human palm is an organ with amassive number of nerves running through it. Once upona time, doctors referred to it as “no man’s land” because
the structures were deemed too complex to risk taking ascalpel to. We at Wacom take pride in making instruments
to be used by the human palm, and we strive never toforget our mission to offer even greater experiences andvalue than before.
Abe: Economies in Europe and the Americas are judged
by statistics and numbers. During the past forty years,
there has been hardly any investment made in the namelive a lifestyle of semi-permanent financial growth in theHeart of Capitalism, but the “enough” I’m envisioning isof a different sort. I don’t mean to say that we should giveup on the prospect of further growth or impose limitations
on ourselves, but instead I want us to ask ourselves—to prepare ourselves—what it is we really need, and whatshould we leave behind? I believe it is important for us toidentify what values are truly essential and to exhibit thewillingness to strive to achieve them.
Abe: I feel the same way. I hope that a company like
Wacom, under the guidance of a unique leader andoutfitted with technology that can stand alongside theworld’s best, will take a more aggressive stance and not
simply say that enough is enough. Very soon now, we willof creating goods in the U.S., and the economy has
been fixated on consumption. Consumer goods are
sold, bought, and thrown away. This is the way the U.S.
economy has prospered. It is also how China will likely
become. But what will Japan do? If we can create realvalue in a way no one had imagined, then people will
gain the ability to be more creative. As it turns out, we’re
happier when we’re working creatively.
Nobu: We have also been thinking about the sensation oftrance-like immersion—the feeling of being totally absorbed
in something. You lose sight of your surroundings, and it
can be quite risky in terms of an organism’s survival. Still,
the fact that we’re all equipped with such a sensation musthave some meaning, don’t you think? Whether it’s time tolearn something or time to create, this realm of immersion
is something that we can recreate through our technology.
This is the aim of Wacom, the dreamer’s tool shop. I also
believe it’s important to know when enough is enough.
Those words might raise objections among those who

witness the rise of the companies that will define the next
thirty years. I believe that Wacom could be among them.
I am very glad that I could join you here today. Thank youvery much.

Wacom can become one of the companies
that define the next thirty years.

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