Episode 59: The Reality of Trinity’s Unique Practices, Part 1: The Nickname System and Naming Rules

“Real Management | The Real, Unscripted Stories of a President Talking Honestly About the Successes and Failures of Running a Company”

In this program, I, Hossy—also known as Tetsumi Hoshikawa—talk candidly about management and what goes on behind the scenes, based on my own experiences.

Real Management isreleased every Friday at 6:00 a.m.

Good morning. I’m Hossy, also known as Tetsumi Hoshikawa, a free spirit.

Up through the last episode, we talked at length about “the reality of brand stories.” Among those, I had a particularly strong attachment to the wearable device that ended in failure,“weara,”and we even talked about things that never made it out into the world, after all kinds of twists and turns. So with that, the discussion about brands is more or less finished, and today we’ll be starting a new series.

I don’t know whether it will actually become a series until we start talking, but we’ll cover things like the nickname people often ask about, and comments like, “Trinity has systems you don’t usually see at ordinary companies, doesn’t it?”

People do ask me about these things from time to time, and some of them also came up when we were discussing ideas for this “Real Management” project, like, “How about something like this?” It probably won’t all fit into one episode, so it may end up being two or three. I hope we can introduce some systems that are a bit interesting and that you probably won’t find elsewhere.

First is the nickname system. This really does come up a lot, and I wonder how it actually is out there. To be honest, I haven’t researched how many companies in the world have a nickname system, so I don’t know. But as far as I know, I don’t know of any companies around me where everyone is required to have a nickname and where calling each other by those names has become firmly established as a system.

Do you know any, Gajirou?

So they decide on a nickname when you join the company, that kind of thing?

I see. I’d like to hear more about that later, but first let’s talk about Trinity’s nickname system.

The Episode When Yohei CameI mentioned this a little before, but the very beginning was that we originally met through a game. In my case, I did have my real name, “Hoshikawa,” and “Hossy” wasn’t that far removed from it. But someone who came in through gaming and was there around the time of the founding was a guy called “Douglas.”

His nickname was “Douglas,” but since that was long, he was called “Doug.” Because of that, once we suddenly started operating as a company, it felt strange to call him by his real name, so Douglas naturally became Doug.

Also, there was someone who joined us from my previous company called “Mogutan.”

And he was actually the second-generation Mogutan. The origin of the name was that he often ate snacks, munching away—mogu mogu—so he became “Mogutan.”

There was that person, and then another person inherited the name from him, and that person became Trinity’s Mogutan. Gajirou, do you know “Mogutan,” the character?

Ah, you don’t know it. There’s a pink character called Mogutan. I don’t know what kind of creature it is, but it appears in the anime “Manga Hajimete Monogatari,” and we even had a stuffed toy of it at the company. In the early days, there were already people who had nicknames. And Yohei, actually, was “Yohei.”

Even during the gaming days.

Right. So it was his first name, but in Japan it would be like calling someone “Yamamoto-san”; still, Yohei was Yohei. That’s how it started, and at some point we began recruiting new people. At first they were people we knew, but after a little time had passed since the founding, when someone we didn’t know at all was going to join, we wondered, “What should we do?”

So we started by saying, “Well then, let’s give them a nickname.”

In the beginning, we would just kind of come up with nicknames ourselves on our own.

There were various patterns, including the way the kanji looked. I’ll refrain from saying real names too much now, but for example, there’s someone called “Asasuke.” Normally, when you hear “Asasuke,” because it has “suke” in it, like “Korosuke,” you might get a masculine impression, but she is actually a woman. The characters used in her real name can be read as “Asasuke.”

Right. So that’s how she became “Asasuke.” In the early days, it was things like the appearance of the characters. There was also a member named Yaguchi. He was one of the really early members, but you know how people have email addresses? When he applied, his email address was written on his résumé. The address was “yagoo,” read as “Yagoo.”

He probably made it “yagoo,” like a play on “Yahoo.”

So when he joined, we said, “From today, you’re Yagoo.”

Right. If someone had a slightly interesting email address, we would take it from there. At Trinity, email addresses are also made using these nicknames. So in my case, my email address would be “hossy@trinity.jp.” By the way, that address can no longer be used, so even if you send something there, it won’t reach me.

In that way, for Yagoo, though this one can no longer be used either, an email address like “yagoo@” would be created, and it would be printed on his business card. His business card would also say “Yagoo.”

In terms of familiarity, rather than saying “Yaguchi-san,” “Yaguchi,” or “Yamamoto-san,” calling someone “Hey, Yagoo” or “Hey, Asasuke” makes you feel closer to them, doesn’t it?

Yes, the sense of distance was good, so it became established. But gradually, as the number of people increased, and as some people left while new people joined, it became harder to name everyone, so it started turning into, “Let’s all decide together.” We had grown to a certain size by then too.

So at Trinity, we had a social gathering once a month, and we would have people join before officially entering the company. There, everyone would introduce themselves, and then ask questions to the new person who was about to join.

When you ask questions and have them answer, if there are ten people, there are ten questions; if there are fifteen, there are fifteen; and later on, there would be around twenty questions. If something a bit interesting came out in those exchanges, that would become the person’s name.

She appears publicly quite a lot now, so I think it’s okay to talk about her, but there’s “Pink,” who handles public relations.

Among the various questions, when someone asked, “What’s your favorite color?” she said, “Pink,” so it became something like, “Then how about Pink?” Basically, the existing members would each ask questions, listen to the answers, and then suggest candidates. After that, we would decide by majority vote.

Yes, that’s how it works. Basically, in the early days, there was no right of refusal.

Later on, it became a little more relaxed, like, “If there’s something you absolutely hate, let’s rule that out.”

From among the candidates. Like, “I really, absolutely cannot accept this one.”

The funniest thing I remember where someone said, “I really don’t want that,” was because, since we were deciding at a social gathering, the people who drank alcohol were drinking.

Yes, sometimes it would get a little random. This also depends on the person’s character. Depending on that person’s character, people might say, “Maybe it’s okay to joke around a little.”

The one I remember where someone said, “I absolutely do not want this one,” was this: near the company where Trinity is located, there’s a station on the Tobu Tojo Line called Shiki Station, and near it there’s a shabu-shabu hot pot restaurant called “Onyasai.”

So we were holding a social gathering and deciding a nickname. Then, completely unrelated to the new employee, someone suggested “Onyasai.” The person said, “Please, I’m really begging you, don’t make me be called Onyasai at this company from now on. Anything but that.” So Onyasai was avoided. (Laughs)

So the way we decide has changed somewhat over time, but I think that’s probably still how nicknames are decided now.

Right. I think I mentioned this early on, but Trinity actually doesn’t have that many customers, or client companies. We deal with a relatively consistent group of people, like the distribution reps at SoftBank Group and buyers at mass retailers.

So they pretty much already know us, and even when a new person takes over, they start with something like, “What’s your nickname?” It’s become that firmly established. So I think that part is pretty interesting. By the way, this system sounds really good, doesn’t it? But it does have downsides.

Well, even if people get too friendly, I don’t think that’s really a problem in itself.

Exactly.

From the moment someone joins the company, it’s nicknames all the way. Of course their email address uses it too, and we have internal groupware, where naturally they’re displayed by nickname as well. We don’t seem to do it much lately, but people used to write blog posts under their nicknames too.

Well, for blogs, it might actually be good in the sense that you don’t have to reveal your real name. These days, even staff at cafés and places like that used to all wear name tags with their real names, but because it can cause various problems if their real names become known, quite a few shops now use nicknames instead.

Including that kind of thing, I think not revealing real names is itself moving in a good direction for the times we live in. But on the other hand, you really don’t know people’s real names. So when does that become a problem? When you get calls from outside the company.

In my case, since I’m Hossy, I think people can still figure it out if someone asks, “Is Mr. Hoshikawa there?” But for example, there’s a sales person who is one of the key figures at Trinity, besides Yohei and Bon, whom I’ve mentioned before and definitely want to have on as a guest someday. His nickname is Toppo.

Since he’s Toppo, there’s no way you’d know his real name.

By the way,Toppo GigioHe’s called Toppo because he looks like Toppo Gigio.

Do you know Toppo Gigio?

Toppo Gigio is something quite a lot of people probably don’t know.

If you look at the picture, he does kind of look like him, right?

What the heck is that? Haha.

Well, I won’t say his real name here, but even if someone said his real name, I really wouldn’t know who it was. So, for example, if a contractor for some kind of build-out work called asking for him, I’d have no idea who they were talking about.

It’s the same with deliveries. They send things under real names, so we’re like, “Huh, who is this?” In that way, not knowing people’s real names has the downside of making interactions with people outside the company a little more difficult.

That’s true. Ah, yes, especially in this context.

True.

Your business cards?

Have I ever gotten one of those? I haven’t, right?

I see.

Ah. That makes sense.

Well, that makes sense. People might wonder whether there’s some reason you can’t use your real name, or whether it’s like a stage name for a comedian.

I see. So there are aspects like that too.

Exactly. If there’s impact, people remember you more easily. So basically, we call each other by nicknames, and from the outside I’m seen as “the president.” I may have said this before, but outside people who call me “President” are usually not very good news.

Salespeople, yes, and also often people who are trying to sell us something. People I’m somewhat close to call me “Hossy-san,” and people who are really close to me, or people senior to me, may call me “Hossy.” Rika calls me “Hossy,” and Gajiro says “Hossy-san,” that kind of thing. People who call me “President” are usually either extremely distant from me or trying to sell me something. Haha.

Inside the company, of course, no one calls me “President.” Yohei sometimes jokingly calls me “Mr. Hoshikawa,” but usually it’s “Hossy.” I guess “Hossy-san” is the standard.

So we don’t call each other “President,” and in reality, we do have job titles. In Yohei’s case, for example, before that he had titles like vice president or director. But basically, we don’t call people by their titles, and of course we don’t call them by their real names either. As a corporate culture, I’d recommend it because it lets people work in a friendly atmosphere.

By the way, Chinese members basically have English names to begin with.

I wonder how it is for Japanese people. Maybe it’s because Japan doesn’t do that much work oriented toward overseas markets. But Chinese people, perhaps because they are trying to export things overseas and so on—though maybe not people who only operate domestically—basically, their names tend to be hard to pronounce.

So they use English names to make themselves easier to understand. My name, for example, “Hoshikawa,” might sound like “Hoshikah-wa,” and from their perspective it’s hard to say and sounds like a strange name. But something like “Hossy” is easy, so people can remember me as Hossy.

Chinese names are generally a bit difficult too, so people use English names. For Trinity’s Chinese members, it wasn’t the process I mentioned earlier. If they already had an English name, they used that as is. If they didn’t, they chose one based on what they liked.

For example, the manager in China is called Sophia, and I think she liked the actor Sophia Loren, if I remember correctly.

But this also sometimes leads to quite a few people in China having the same name.

Like John.

They choose names that Americans can pronounce easily, names that anyone in America can understand right away. Then names like John come up. So there was the issue of names overlapping.

Another story related to names is that the company name is Trinity. I think I may have mentioned this before, but there’s the movie The Matrix. When we made a mobile phone, we named it after the main character, Neo. The heroine was Trinity, and the main character was Neo. So Trinity has continued to be used as the company name, and Neo is used as a product name.

People who have seen The Matrix will understand, but to put it simply, The Matrix is set in a future world where AI controls humanity.

The AI that rules over humans controls their brains and shows them a virtual reality. In the real world, there is humanity’s last stronghold, where oppressed humans have gathered. That is calledZionSo Trinity’s office is also named Zion.

Right. If you say Trinity’s headquarters is called Zion, I think people who get it will get it. The movie The Matrix is really amazing.

Even though it’s probably a movie from about 24 or 25 years ago, it depicts a world where AI rules over humans, sends signals directly to their brains, shows them a virtual reality, and keeps them satisfied by letting them enjoy it. Meanwhile, real humans in the real world are cultivated in these strange capsule-like things as a source of power that generates electricity for the AI.

Exactly. For example, Elon Musk’s Neuralink is a startup working on implanting chips in the brain, right? For now, it’s only about digitizing brain waves or brain activity to convey what a person is thinking, but it feels like the reverse will become possible too.

It’s an amazing movie that foresaw things like that, so if you really haven’t seen it, I definitely want you to watch the Matrix trilogy. It’s technically a four-part series now, but the trilogy is the real Matrix, and the fourth one was made recently for various reasons, so personally I don’t think it’s really worth watching.

So, with databases, you have servers that manage data, and those are“Oracle”That’s what they’re called.

And while that’s a play on that, Oracle is also the prophet who appears in The Matrix. People who’ve seen the movie will know, but that older woman who’s the prophet—she’s Oracle.

Another big one is our sales management system. It’s a sales management system that handles data, like entering orders, issuing estimates, and issuing invoices. At Trinity, we use a system from FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple.

FileMaker is a relatively low-profile company that many people don’t know, even if they know Apple, but it makes databases and has a reputation for being easy to use. So we created and use our own original sales management system, and its name is“Smith”That’s what it’s called.

Smith is the enemy.

Right, the guy in the black suit wearing sunglasses. In the movie, he’s Agent Smith.

Because he’s an agent—that’s why we made it Smith.

Because it’s a system that acts on our behalf.

In the company, the name “Smith” is used in phrases like, “Did you enter it into Smith?” or “Get it from Smith.”

And on top of that, there’s an older man who’s a kung fu fighter and protects Oracle, the prophet. He briefly fights the main character, Neo, in kung fu, and his name is“Seraph”That’s what he’s called. And Trinity’s customer support system is named “Seraph.”

So that’s the idea. When we name something, instead of calling it “the office” or “the sales management system” or “the support system,” we give it a nickname, and the key point is that there’s a proper origin behind it. By the way, if you’ve seen The Matrix and are wondering, “What happened to that person?” then there’s“Morpheus”

Yes, Lawrence Fishburne. Well, if you think of the three main-character-level people, they’re Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. As for Morpheus, Trinity used to have its own IP phone server. We used it for things like internal extensions and routing calls from outside to internal extensions, and that server was Morpheus.

So the phone system was Morpheus.

Right, we ended up changing it partway through, so we stopped using it. So, when it comes to names, we give nicknames to various internal systems and places as well. And all of them come from the movie The Matrix. I think that when something has meaning attached to it, it makes it easier to remember and also helps people feel attached to it, so that’s why we’ve done it that way.

So, Gajirou, I think I did some preliminary research on the things I came up with and various others, and sent you a text beforehand saying, “There’s this one, and this one,” and so on. We’ve just covered the first and second ones, but I’m pretty sure there are 24 or 25 in total.

We’re still not sure how many episodes we’ll split this into, so I hope everyone listening will take their time and enjoy it.

Yes. Well then, we’ll see you again next week.

Real Management | The Successes and Failures of Corporate Management, Told Candidly and Unscripted by a CEO”

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This has been Hossy, also known as Hoshikawa Tetsushi, and

We’ll be back in your ears next week.