Big in Japan

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In 1994, Paul Addison joined Bloomberg in Tokyo and was soon tasked with managing a plan to compete more effectively with the Japanese domestic press.

Bloomberg News, launched in 1990, was trying to go head to head with Nikkei, which dominated business news. Paul was asked to use technology to level the playing field, starting with earnings coverage.

It was going to be a steep climb as Nikkei had 1,000 reporters covering Japanese companies versus Bloomberg’s six.

At that time, companies “released” earnings by dropping a sheet of paper into a “mailbox” for each media firm at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nikkei’s box was first in line; Bloomberg’s was last, giving Nikkei a big advantage.

Moreover, the exchange allocated desks to a dozen Nikkei reporters and located them closer to the boxes than Bloomberg’s single desk.

The reporters would take the sheets of paper and rush to their phones to call in the results.

Bloomberg’s plan called for the installation of a high-speed Hitachi fax machine and the hiring of almost two dozen skilled typists to work in a temporary newsroom set up in a windowless warehouse near the Tsukiji fish market.

A software engineer, James Rolle, wrote a program to add numbers automatically into templated stories and calculate the change.

When a fax arrived, a reporter would shout out the number corresponding to the company followed by four numbers in a specific order – EPS, profit, sales and forecast.

Another worker would type them into a template with a third person watching over their shoulder to verify the accuracy.

A sequence might look like: 6758 for the company and then 32.37. 23399. 935132. 900000.

The computer generated story appeared in both Japanese and English.

Bloomberg sent hundreds of stories like that and managed to beat Nikkei on some.

Paul told me Bloomberg’s sales reps would then use those victories to pitch clients.

It wasn’t a serious threat to Nikkei’s dominance.

But it was the crack Bloomberg needed to make inroads and build a business.

There are so many lessons here.

The biggest is that however much the deck is stacked against you, however great the odds, there is always a way to compete. All you need is ambition, teamwork and a high-speed Hitachi fax machine.

Also, that it’s a really bad idea to rely on the placement of mailboxes and proximity of desks to protect your competitive advantage. You need a bigger moat.

Three decades later Nikkei remains a huge player in the media landscape both in Japan and outside, through its ownership of the Financial Times.

Bloomberg meanwhile has become arguably as dominant in financial news in the U.S. as Nikkei was in Japan.

Paul Addison went on to become Bloomberg’s Tokyo bureau chief from 1996 to 1999 before he co-founded the company's Global News Training program which he ran for many years.

He retired in September and recently shared this story with me.

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

ART DECO: Walked past this art deco masterpiece in a random lobby on the way to meeting. New York is filled with small gems like this.   

TIME MAGAZINE: This happened just 25 years ago. Puts a lot of things into perspective.

ALWAYS BE SELLING: It’s always hard at the beginning.

THIRTY YEARS AGO: Bezos started with more hair, fewer abs and no money. A lot has changed in three decades.

MORTGAGE RATES: Love this perspective from Doug Boneparth.