Episode 67: The Reality Behind Trinity’s Unique Programs, Part 9: The Office Environment That Supports Peak Performance

“Real Management | The Unscripted Reality of CEOs Speaking Honestly About the Successes and Failures of Running a Company”

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

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

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

Now then, we’ve been talking about the reality of Trinity’s unique systems, and it keeps getting extended further and further.

We’re finally getting into the latter half, but today I’d like to talk about the work environment—things that may not quite count as “unique systems,” but are still important.

As we’ve mentioned several times before, part of it is because we have a small team, but we want to provide an environment where each person can really focus on their work. Of course, in our line of work, some members visit clients, but most of us, like in typical office work, use computers—in our case, Apple products. Basically, we use Macs for our day-to-day work.

Basically, we first provide each person with a laptop Mac, whether that’s a MacBook or a MacBook Pro.

But with laptop computers, even the largest screen size for Apple products tops out at 16 inches. With Windows, there are some larger models, but since we work on Macs, 16 inches is currently the maximum. When it comes to improving work efficiency, the size of the display becomes extremely important.

So basically, we prepare a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or maybe a MacBook Air—whatever is reasonably priced at the time—for everyone first. On top of that, we also provide an external display, usually around 27 inches to somewhere in the 30-inch range, so they can use a larger screen and work more efficiently.

For example, they might look at a Google Sheets spreadsheet while chatting, or post something to groupware while checking something in a browser. If the screen is small, you have to switch between windows, which makes it impossible to “work on one thing while looking at another.” Basically, we provide large displays to improve work efficiency.

And then there are “chairs.”

Chairs really are important.

Exactly. Depending on your work style, you may spend most of the day sitting in one. If the quality of the chair is poor, it can negatively affect your health, causing things like lower back pain or stiff shoulders.

Originally, when we created Trinity’s office, “Zion,” we selected the chairs as part of the overall design.

Earlier,in the Jawbone episode,I touched on this a little, but there’s a chair designed by Jawbone designer Yves Béhar. It’s a product from the famous chair brand “Herman Miller,” and it’s called the “Sayl Chair.” If you’re a chair enthusiast—though I don’t know how many chair enthusiasts there are in the world—haha.

If you like chairs, it’s definitely one you know.

If you search for Sayl Chair, I think many listeners of the podcast will recognize it when they see it. The design is the same, but there are actually lots of color variations.

To begin with, Herman Miller is a high-end brand where products easily cost over 100,000 to 200,000 yen. As for this Sayl Chair, things may be a little different now because of the recent weak yen, but at the time, you could buy it for under 100,000 yen.

It was a reasonably priced and stylish chair.

That said, it still cost around 90,000 yen at the time, so it wasn’t exactly a cheap chair.

On top of that, while its appearance and design are excellent, there were some areas where I felt it was a little lacking in terms of support for the lower back and hips, or maintaining good posture. Then, at some point—I don’t remember exactly when—there’s Kokuyo, the Japanese manufacturer, right?

Kokuyo released a product called “Ing.” When you sit for long periods, not only do your hips and lower back come under strain, but staying in the same posture causes your muscles to stiffen and your circulation to slow down. That can lead to stiff shoulders, and in serious cases, lower back pain.

What’s interesting about this Ing chair is that it has a special mechanism underneath, so it sways back and forth like an exercise ball.

Some people used to use exercise balls, but they don’t provide back support.

This Ing chair gives proper support to your back while also moving around like an exercise ball.

So you can sit without your body becoming stiff and locked up. Since it seemed ideal for people who sit for long periods, I first tried it myself and thought, “This is good.” From there, we started providing this chair to employees who wanted one.

Yes, it’s pretty expensive.

Yes, yes.

I see.

I see.

With this chair, I’m not completely sure whether it’s truly the best option. If you really dig into chairs, there are all kinds of them, including models that cost well over 100,000 yen. That price range is by no means cheap, but it’s not exactly ultra-luxury either.

They do. Dominic, the designer of Bluelounge, a brand we worked with from our early days, first became known for a chair.

I don’t really want to say this because there’s no punchline, but I once asked Tent, the product designer I’m closest to, “Why does everyone make chairs?”

You made a desk with Tent, right?

The first reason was that they wanted to make something large.

Chairs are things that people sit on, so they inevitably need to have a certain size. Then the question becomes whether to pursue design or prioritize practicality. It seems there are all kinds of deep theories involved, including structural design that properly supports a person’s weight.

Even if you simply try to make it look good, there’s no point if it breaks the moment someone sits down. Because there are so many factors and it’s difficult, apparently designers make a chair at least once.

Even if you work eight hours and take a one-hour break, you still spend effectively seven hours sitting in it. When you think about it that way, investment based on how much time you spend using that tool becomes important.

Exactly. I personally have a background in sleep-related initiatives as well, and bedding really is extremely important. Beds, pillows, comforters—these are tools you spend nearly one-third of your life with. So investing in them is extremely valuable from a long-term perspective.

Futons, beds, and pillows aren’t things you replace all that often. It’s not really common to switch them every day like clothes and think, “Today I feel like using this pillow.” I mean, there may be some people who do, but basically, you keep using the same one for a long time.

To begin with, unless a chair breaks, you don’t frequently replace it saying, “Today I feel like using this chair,” right?

Spare equipment takes up space in the first place. Chairs aren’t something you replace often anyway. But if you spend seven hours a day sitting in one, investing in it is extremely important. From the company’s perspective, even if someone leaves the company, the next member can use it.

This is a bit of a side note, but before we moved to our current office, “Zion,” we used to really like chairs fromItoki, a well-known domestic manufacturer.

It’s a little lacking in terms of maintainability, though it looks cool. I used mine for about ten years, but the part where you rest your elbow—the side arm—broke.

So I contacted Itoki, and someone from the company came out. They replaced the part on the spot and fixed it for me.

When I asked, “How much is it?” they said, “It’s within ten years, so it’s free.”

This was about 20 years ago.

I thought that was incredible.

They gave me fantastic support, but I ended up buying a chair from somewhere other than Itoki next, just because of the look.

But I really did think it was amazing. Maybe that’s just how the chair industry is.

That’s true. Of course, the overall design consistency of the office was part of it, but as I mentioned before, another big reason for the selection was that I had gotten to know the designer, Yves Béhar, personally. I felt bad for Itoki, though. So, first of all: chairs.

I think everyone listening to this, including people who work from home, should really invest properly in a chair. You’re going to spend a considerable amount of your life sitting in it, so I don’t think you should skimp on that investment.

So first there’s the Mac, then the external display, and then the chair we just talked about. It would be a problem if someone hurt their back and it affected their work. Next is the “desk.” I may have touched on this before, but at first we used desks made by Bluelounge.

The overseas brand Bluelounge that I mentioned earlier also had desks, so we initially brought those in as well. But those desks were built in a way that took up quite a lot of space. We started to worry, “If more members join in the future, this is going to be a problem.”

After that, we decided to develop a new desk under our own brand. It was a product called “NuAns BASE,” which lets you freely lay out accessories around it. We also had the mindset of, “If we made it ourselves, we should be the first ones to use it.” While all of that was happening, the next trend in desks became the “height-adjustable desk.”

Exactly. Height-adjustable desks came along, and we thought they were great.

Exactly. As I said earlier, we spend most of the day sitting. Of course, we put effort into choosing chairs to reduce strain, but you still can’t avoid being in the same posture for long periods. So we decided to introduce height-adjustable desks. At first, we chose standing desks from a brand called “WAAK.”

The design was really stylish, and I remember they cost around 200,000 yen.

You can use them by switching between standing and sitting at different times. These were also provided to people who wanted them. The idea was to create the best possible environment for employees to do their daily work, with external displays, chairs, and desks.

Really?

Having a height-adjustable desk makes you feel more motivated?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

I see.

No, but in the end, everyone has a different height and sitting height, right? But ready-made products in the world are designed according to certain standards, so inevitably there’s a gap between them and the height that’s optimal for you.

With a typical desk, the standard is usually around 75 cm, and it’s often fixed at about 70 cm on the low end and around 80 cm on the high end. In that respect, with a height-adjustable desk, you can adjust it to the best height for you. Even when sitting, you can fine-tune it freely, like “I’d like it a little higher” or “I’d like it lower,” and recently some can even connect with an app and memorize your preferred heights.

You just press a preset number, and it automatically whirs up or down and sets itself to the optimal position.

The key is to set it to the height that’s best for you, place the display so your line of sight is basically straight and level, and maintain proper posture. As I mentioned at the beginning, precisely because we have a small team, we want to provide each person with the best possible work environment. That idea is what gave rise to Trinity’s system around the work environment.

Speaking of the environment, at Trinity there are iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and AirPods. Later on, there was also Google Pixel.

Especially for people like sales staff who need to make phone calls for work, the company provides dedicated devices. Basically, we have them carry the latest iPhone. That’s because we develop and sell accessories for the latest iPhones.

It’s extremely important for them to visit clients and stores while they themselves are always fully using the latest model.

On the other hand, for staff who mainly work in the office—for example, members in charge of marketing or import operations—it isn’t necessarily essential for their work. However, we felt it was extremely important for them to have the experience of using our latest accessories themselves. So we have a system where the company subsidizes the purchase of an individual’s device—though the wording is a little tricky.

The full amount.

Apple Watch and things like that are also covered.

Basically, the purpose is to actually use and test our own accessories, but the reason I said the wording is difficult is that, formally, it’s loaned to the employee for a certain period of time.

It would be a problem if someone were given a device and then immediately quit. These days, even the most affordable iPhone models cost well over 100,000 yen. I don’t remember the details, but I think the rule was something like, “If you leave within two years of joining the company, please return it.” Since it’s a loan.

There were detailed rules like, if you’ve been with the company for one year, you have to return it, but if two years have passed, you can buy it for half price.

I believe the rule for this system is that once you use it, you have to wait about two or three years before using it again. After all, it would be difficult to replace devices every year. Even so, I think it’s a pretty good system to be able to get the latest model every two or three years at the company’s expense.

For example, it’s important to actually try our accessories while using the latest iPhone. For instance, the camera button lets you launch the camera in a different way than before, but it’s only by using it yourself that concrete ideas like “I want something like this” can emerge.

So the idea is to make sure people are using the latest devices for this kind of personal use as well.

Another interesting thing is the “sharing system.” Calling it “sharing” might be a little misleading, though.

Basically, as we develop various things, we buy other companies’ products and all kinds of gadgets for research purposes. I do that myself, and as a team we also buy various items as samples for testing. When we test them as samples, or when a new model comes out and we buy and use something different, inevitably we end up with items that have served their purpose and are no longer needed.

Another major category is computer-related items. In terms of useful life under tax law, about three years is one benchmark. Apple products can be used for a relatively long time, so in many cases they can last four or five years. But in terms of processing speed, they inevitably become slower.

If you’re trying to work as productively as possible, it’s really a waste to have an old, slow computer that takes time to process things and creates waiting time. So basically, once the three-year useful life under tax law has passed, we upgrade to the latest models. When that happens, naturally, the old models that have finished their role are left over.

Macs that are three years old, slightly older iPhones, and things like that all get released at once during the big cleanup. Most of it comes from me or the development team, but by the time the cleaning is done, there’s a whole pile of items lined up there to be divided up, and people can take them in order.

By order of joining the company.

In terms of the order, yes. But this doesn’t end after one round. It usually goes on for about three or four rounds. For Macs that come up toward the end, we’ve sometimes decided by rock-paper-scissors. But toward the end, there are pitfalls too—there are things nobody wants.

Like calendars left behind by some business partner. Or udon brought over by a nearby real estate agency.

You know, like a year-end gift.

There are all kinds of things people don’t want, and near the end you sometimes hear people mutter, “Ugh, I don’t need this.” But we had a rule that whatever you ended up with, you absolutely had to take it home. It was an annual year-end tradition.

Yes. Though I would lightly warn people, saying, “You’re not going to list this on Mercari, are you? I’ll be searching Mercari, you know.” In reality, I don’t know what other people did, and I never actually searched, so I don’t know whether anything was listed or not.

They might even learn how the Mercari service works.

This area is basically another annual year-end event, you could say. As the closing event on the final day, this sharing-out is always waiting for us.

So with that, I think we’ll bring this section to a close here.

We’ll continue next week with more on Trinity’s unique systems, so please be sure to listen. Thank you very much.

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