Illustration by Adam Fitzcharles
Joi Ito is at the matrix of a number of Internet initiatives, online social networks and major tech ventures, a position that makes him unique as one of the few truly cross-cultural, Japanese tech innovators able to effectively translate and synthesize the disparate shifts that drive the tech communities inside and outside of Japan.
The Kyoto-born, Japanese technopreneur and venture capitalist counts amongst his investments Flickr, which was later acquired by Yahoo, and blogging platform Six Apart, and he sits on the board of companies such as blog tracker Technorati, Digital Garage and the Mozilla Foundation (the company behind the Firefox Web browser). He also serves as the Board Emeritus for the Open Source Initiative, and is chief executive of the non-profit group Creative Commons which helps the creative community indicate how they’d like their work to be used online.
Q&A
01 | JOURNAL: How visible are you to the people in your organization?
JOI ITO: I think I’m relatively visible. Visibility is really my primary job in most of the organizations I work for. However, I think I’m often more visible through public channels such as the press and large meetings and not as visible at the operating level to the majority of my staff.
02 | JOURNAL: What was your most recent, big mistake?
JOI ITO: It’s more general, but I think I’ve accepted too many roles in too many organizations and I don’t have enough time to execute properly on all of my commitments. I am trying very hard to remove myself from positions where I am not adding enough value to make the commitment worthwhile for myself or the organization.
03 | JOURNAL: What percentage of decisions do you base more on logic than emotion?
JOI ITO: I try not to involve emotion in my decision-making and I believe very little of my decisions are based on emotion. However, logic is also not enough. I always allow a healthy dose of intuition in my decision-making. I believe intuition is very different from emotions. When I am emotional, I will always try to get input from others and try to defer the decision until I am not emotional. However, if something “feels right,” I will often take more risk than logic may dictate.
04 | JOURNAL: When you are away from your office, do you ever worry what is happening in your absence?
JOI ITO: I am often concerned about the general atmosphere and inter-personal issues in the offices, but with all of the tools on the Internet and lots of phone calls, I am not concerned about keeping up with operational issues.
05 | JOURNAL: What are your top three strengths?
JOI ITO: The ability to communicate and understand issues, multi-disciplinary broad understanding and a broad global network.
06 | JOURNAL: Do you take personal responsibility for anything and everything that happens to you?
JOI ITO: Everything that happens to me is my own responsibility and my own fault. Yes.
07 | JOURNAL: If you were stripped of your job title and traits of office, would you still be able to get the best from your people?
JOI ITO: I think so. I don’t think my title or my office have very much to do with my ability to function in my organizations, although it would probably affect my effectiveness in negotiating with external entities.
