Innovation is critical in creating a sustainable society. The current industrial system need to look at the challenge of ‘sustainability’ as a design and innovation issue.

The Nintendo Wii, the new game console from Nintendo Japan has some interesting lessons for Green companies.

The Nintendo Wii is competing with XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Both of these consoles have gone for faster processing, better graphics, bigger hard-disk, mulitple functions (like BluRay, DVDs etc). However, the Wii went on a different path.

One crucial aspect of Innovation is the need to be open inside the company to facilitate collaboration. The Nintendo team has taken this to the extreme, with the CEO of the company, Iwata, interviewing the main people behind the Wii in an open discussion.

First, the vision.

Listening to everyone here talk about Wii reminds me that the most important thing was clearly defining our vision. Even if it was a vision without a precedent.

That’s really true. Without a goal based on a concrete concept, I don’t think Wii would have become what it is today.

I really believe that we’ve come this far because of our vision. If you simply repeat the process of building up the hardware specs, then you just end up with higher costs and a larger console. I think a better approach is to have a clear vision, decide what you want to accomplish, and then work towards your goal.

Vision is very important in deciding upon the strategy of the company. Sometimes, the vision is found later on, but at some point in time, it is important to have a clear vision ahead.

Second, defying the trend in the Industry.

In the world of technology, there are so-called Roadmaps (overviews of proposed technologies/products) that are used by each industry…This may sound paradoxical, but if we had followed the existing Roadmaps we would have aimed to make it “faster and flashier.” But we could not help but ask ourselves, “How big an impact would that direction really have on our customers?” … the completed Wii, … has turned out to be something completely different from what was predicted in the mainstream technology Roadmaps.

Normally, when making new devices, companies compete with each other on the basis of “How much faster is the CPU, how much more memory is there, and how many more polygons can be displayed?” But Nintendo posed the question “How much can we decrease power consumption and maintain performance?”

To be honest, I even felt quite anxious about it. After all, it takes a lot of courage to divert from the Roadmaps. I was especially concerned when it was still not very clear to me what could be done with such a machine.

If automobiles can be used as a metaphor, our industry has always been trying to compete over horsepower, even though not all cars are made to compete in F1 races. Just as hybrid cars have created a new emphasis on “environmental performance,” I believe that Wii has also discovered new values.

Innovation through collaboration.

“Wii’s one-handed controller is not the great idea of a single person, but a fantastic fusion of ideas from all kinds of people.”

“I first asked a lot of employees for their opinions regarding the hardware.”

“We had to rely on the know-how of Nintendo’s handheld gaming device team.”

“A number of years ago I created somewhere between ten and twenty teams, each consisting of around three people. These teams were given free rein to couple a dedicated controller or peripheral with a GameCube title, and then see whether or not the end result was marketable. This project gave rise not only to the “Donkey Konga” Bongos and the “Dancing Stage Mario Mix” Action Pad, but to a number of ideas and designs that would find their way into the Wii Remote.”

And last, having the capability

Reducing power consumption is something that’s always been considered for handheld gaming devices, but this is the first time it has been thought of for a home console, isn’t it?

Yes, it is. So we had to rely on the know-how of Nintendo’s handheld gaming device team, and the cooperation of the chip manufacturer as well. We also tried to incorporate means of lowering power consumption into the entire system, and not just the IC. It felt like trying to achieve the impossible, but fortunately Nintendo has a history of knowing how to work in unfamiliar situations. A variety of techniques for quickly identifying and solving problems have been accumulated over the years, and I think this was an important factor in achieving our goals.

Innovation is not easy, but it starts in the mind!