Circular Thinking: Scatter Mode ① (Connecting People, Things, and Events Through Love)

Once you've gathered the raw materials for your ideas, it's time to switch to "scatter mode." In the business world, it might be common sense to immediately "organize" materials once obtained, but here, we scatter them wildly.

That said, blindly charging into chaos won't get you anywhere. Focus on one thing: "new connections between people, things, and events."

Find new connections!

 

 

It's obvious, but people have countless facets. For example, I'm surely kind and quick-tempered, a sweet tooth and a spice lover, sociable and shy, sadistic and masochistic... We're all made up of countless seemingly contradictory sides.

The same applies to things and experiences. In my university classes, I often assign the task of coming up with ideas to get young people to eat more tofu. But as long as they only think of it as "cheap," "healthy," or "white," truly innovative ideas rarely emerge. I prepare every possible aspect – "the samurai's protein source," "the tofu maker's early mornings" – and then, going back and forth persistently, we brainstorm "new connections" to figure out how to get that person to pick up that thing or experience.

New art director Yui Takashima says she was inspired to pursue design after encountering the book Queen Margherita's Pizza*1 during her high school years in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The episode that gives the book its title is famous. It happened when the Queen of Italy, whose country had finally achieved unification in the late 19th century, visited the great southern city of Naples. Seeing a shop sign advertising "pizza" on a street corner, she desperately wanted to try it. Overruling objections, she ordered it delivered immediately. The flustered artisan, Don Raffaele Esposito, improvised a pizza topped with tomato (red), cheese (white), and basil (green) to represent the Italian colors. This became the "Margherita Pizza."

 

 

This is the Margherita from the renowned restaurant "La Baracca" in Meguro. It's exquisite.

 

 

 

Author Takashi Hasumi※2 interprets Raffaele's actions as follows:

When Raffaele received the sudden order from the castle, he intuitively felt a "positive (forward-thinking) inspiration" to "make Her Majesty happy." Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of improvising an original pizza. When embarking on creation, holding the feeling of "wanting to make someone happy" is incredibly important. It is the timeless foundation of communication, something we must never forget. It might sound a bit corny, but "love" is the starting point for all actions.

This quote got a bit long, but it hits a crucial point. When it comes to business, everyone suddenly gets overly serious and forgets this "fundamental." They tend to settle for "Well, this is good enough" as long as some numerical data vaguely proves it's correct. But such half-baked "(self-proclaimed) ideas" can never truly move people. Like Raffaele, who understood the Queen's concern about the stability of Southern Italy and ingeniously crafted pizza toppings (in an extremely simple way), we must seek "new connections" with "love."

 

 

Takashima-san (left), a new AD who also runs the Yon'nana Club, and Ukishima-san, another new AD who helps out with Sessha 1. Both finished everything, dessert included.

 

 

 

We'll continue the story of how things went down around here next time.

Enjoy your meal!

※1 Excerpted from Takashi Hasumi, Queen Margherita's Pizza (Tsukuba Shuppankai, 1997).
※2 President of Sapporo City University. Takashima studied under him at Tsukuba University.