On Leading This Studio

Since we're still pretty small, I usually just call us a "studio,"

but at the end of the day, we're a properly registered corporation,

so here on our own blog, let me actually go ahead and call us a company.

From the moment I founded the company and started formally hiring people,

I knew there'd be a ton of responsibilities on my plate beyond just my own Live2D work.

(and there was already plenty of that to begin with)

Mainly because, going forward, it also meant collaborating alongside other teammates,

which meant I needed to set clear goals and direction for them to follow.

I used to work at a Taiwanese game company, and spent a long time as a manager there,

but the ten years I spent working my way through a Japanese company taught me a lot that's genuinely helped me here.

The disciplined, rule-following way Japanese companies operate,

compared to how things are done in Taiwan,

the Japanese approach can be more tedious and might slow things down,

but it moves forward one careful step at a time,

and it's a lot less likely to head off in the wrong direction.

Looking back at the company I used to work at in Taiwan, though,

things were very free-form, everyone had strong opinions,

and everyone wanted to do things their own way.

Meetings would often turn into everyone talking over each other with no real direction by the end,

and honestly, things ended up pretty loose and disorganized.

If it actually got results in the end, fine,

but when things failed, nobody wanted to take responsibility either.

Japanese companies, on the other hand, are very clear about this.

Whatever the manager says to do, there's no one running around like a headless chicken throwing out random opinions and derailing the team.

Because in the end, the manager is the one who's accountable.

That's not to say Japanese companies are strictly top-down obedience,

it's that even voicing an opinion goes through a proper channel.

So anyone who wants to speak up gets a legitimate chance to be heard and discussed.

And naturally, whoever gives that input also has to be willing to own the responsibility for it.

Comparing all this isn't me saying I want everyone to just do what I say,

it's that I want to be someone who actually takes responsibility,

and of course, I don't want to be some insufferable boss,

but when it comes to the work itself, I do want to be the kind of boss who holds quality to a high standard.

There's a responsibility I carry toward our clients, toward the students who take our courses, toward the audience watching, and toward the company's future.

Let's hold each other to that~ (how old-fashioned of me)