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Nintendo : From a Small Card Company to World’s Largest Video Game Maker

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There might merely be a person, who has not heard of Mario. The magical mission game that engaged every single child with entertainment and amusement was not just famous among the children, but, was also the first choice of every teenager, and adult. It is also one of the best-selling video games in history.

Everybody is familiar with this amazing video game, but not every person would have heard of the name of the company that produced it. Nintendo is a name that started with the production of playing cards and ended up in becoming one of the biggest producers of video games in the world. Nintendo not only have Mario to its credits but have introduced multiple entertaining games and gaming consoles to the world.

Nintendo a Playing Card Company

Nintendo was founded by a Japanese entrepreneur, Fusajiro Yamauchi, as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan, on 23 September 1889. At the time, the foreign card games were banned in Japan, and not from twenty or thirty years, but since 1633, almost 250 years. Many people had tried making different card games, but eventually, all of them were banned too.

nintendo
Image Source: nintendolife.com

Meanwhile, a playing card game Hanafuda was developed. The game was played with handmade cards, which instead of numbers had illustrations on it. The game escaped the ban and became popular in no time. Nintendo started making good profits with the production of those cards, and Yamauchi had to employ assistants to lower down the workload.

In 1949, the company was renamed as Nintendo Karuta Co., Ltd., and started operating outside Japan, as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. By the time, Yamauchi’s grandson had also joined the company, and in 1956, he flew to the USA, to expand the business overseas. He found out that the playing card market in the USA had quite limited potential, so he decided to take advantage of this opportunity and got the license from Disney, to print Disney cartoon characters on the playing cards.

Till 1963, the company had experimented with various other businesses as well, including taxi service, a love hotel chain, a TV network, a food company, etc. At the same time, the playing card game was also facing a drop in its popularity.

In 1966, the company entered into the toy business and with the help of maintenance engineer of the company, Gunpei Yokoi, developed the Ultra Hand, an extendable toy arm. The company produced many other toys, but it was taking a little longer for Nintendo to establish itself as one of the leading toy maker company.

In 1973, the company started developing family entertainment venues with the Laser Clay Shooting System, in which the participants used a light gun for shooting. The idea was a hit, but the company had to shut it down soon, maintaining it was way too expensive.

Success in Video Games

In 1974, Nintendo managed to get the rights to distribute the commercial home video game console, Magnavox Odyssey, in Japan. By 1977, the company started the manufacturing of Color TV-Game home video game consoles. It also produced arcade games with EVR Race.

In 1981, with the release of Donkey Kong, Nintendo experienced real success. The next release from Nintendo was a handheld video game, that was also an immediate hit.

In 1985, Nintendo launched a platform video game named the Super Mario Bros., a successor to the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros., for the Famicom, and in North America and Europe for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Along with Super Mario Bros., Nintendo holds the credit of many other famous games including NES, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Advance SP.

In 1995, Nintendo announced that it had sold one billion game cartridges worldwide. At the same time, Nintendo bought 25% shares in another video game development company Rare and developed a CGI game through this partnership. The game was an instant success and became the second best-selling game in the SNES library.

Next big release from Nintendo was the Nintendo DS and Wii, between which, the Wii console became the best seller and was released in 2006. Among the handheld video games, the Nintendo DS Lite is the best-selling handheld console of all time.

Scott Cook : One of the Most Groundbreaking Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

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What can a bad boss lead its employees to? In the case of Scott Cook, his bad boss led him to think of starting his own business and establish a multi-billion empire for himself. Cook, an American billionaire businessman, is one of those people, who got their lives changed with a simple idea. The concept that people had never imagined of and thought as a non-profitable one, too. Not much people are aware of this nerd, who believed in his plan and gave a tough competition to multiple tech giants with his unusual product. But, who knows, are also aware of his management and leadership skills

Early Life

Cook was born and brought up in a suburb of L.A. He was a bright student at the school, and had programmed the school district’s one computer. After graduating from school, he got enrolled at the University of Southern California, to pursue a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics and later, joined the Harvard Business School, from where he received an MBA degree.

Career

After completing his education, Cook, took a job at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he earned much experience in product development and consumer marketing. He also met his future wife Signe Ostby while working at P&G. After leaving the job and marrying Ostby, he with Ostby moved to Menlo Park, California, where he started working at Bain & Company as a consultant in the strategic consulting department.

Founding Intuit

On a fine day, in the early 80s, Cook was sitting in the kitchen of their silicon valley house, with his wife. His wife had complaints about the management and payment of the bills. Cook was prompted by the matter and thought that there might be some more people who find managing the various household bills a bit difficult. He came with an idea to develop software that would help the people to manage and pay their bills. The idea was first of its kind as there were not many users of computers at that time, especially women who stayed at home. Hence, it became difficult for him to raise funding for this idea.

Cook’s interaction with the programming languages had happened last when he was in high school, so he contacted his friend from the Stanford University, Tom Proulx, to help him out with the development process of the software.

In 1983, the two founded Intuit Inc. and launched the first software of their company, the first version of Quicken, written in Microsoft’s BASIC programming language. The software was designed to work on the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple II. The product was a success and soon found a competitor. Microsoft also produced a similar software named Microsoft Money, but Cook had its move and provided its customers a US$15 rebate coupon, redeemable on software purchased in their stores. At the same time, the company got engaged with John Doerr, to expand its product lineup.

In 1993, the company was made public for ICO, and it made a major acquisition, i.e., of Chipsoft (a tax-preparation software company based in San Diego). In 1994, the market capitalization of the company reached US$2 billion, and Microsoft made a buyout offer for the company. But, due to some legal issues, the buyout failed, and Microsoft continued its competition with Intuit. During this time, the company started producing web-based products and invested in some really good projects.

The annual revenue of the company estimated by May 2018, was US$5 billion and its market capitalization was about US$50 billion.

Cook remained the chairman of Intuit from February 1993 to July 1998 and served as the president and the CEO of the company, from April 1983 to April 1994.

Personal Life

Cook and his wife Ostby are the parents of three children and live in Woodside, California. In 2002, the couple established the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Business. In 2005, he was placed at number 320, in the Forbes 400, and his estimated worth was of $1.1 billion. Cook is one of the directors of eBay and Procter & Gamble and serves on the dean’s advisory board of the Harvard Business School. He is also one of the investors in eBay, Amazon, and Snapchat and has been a mentor to entrepreneurs like Larry Page.

Robert Pera : The Wireless Wonder of Silicon Valley

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The CEO of Ubiquiti Networks, Robert Pera, is one of the youngest entrepreneurs and a self-made billionaire of the Silicon Valley. With the passion for designing products, he left a lavish job at Apple and started a company in an economical $650-per-month apartment/office, reminding himself that he must not fail. A media-shy entrepreneur who is living a lean life has the ambition to create internet connectivity that is available everywhere.

Early Life

Robert Pera was born on 10 March 1978 in San Carlos. His father worked as a business consultant, and his mother was a public relation officer. He was always interested in technology and computers. He started his first business when he was still in high school. He used to set up computers, networks, and some databases that ran the software. He was also a member of his school’s basketball team. The same time he was diagnosed by a heart-valve infection and had to leave the school for a year. After completing his school, he joined the University of California in San Diego, where he pursued a B.A. degree in Japanese Language and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He also obtained the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the same university.

Robert Pera
Image Source : networthstat.com

Career

Pera was a Steve Jobs admirer, and after completing his education, he got the opportunity to work at Apple Inc., as a hardware engineer. His work was related to testing the company’s Wi-Fi devices. After working there for some time, he discovered that the signal emitted by the power sources used by the Apple’s WiFi devices were below FCC limits, and the transmission range could be enhanced by boosting their power so that to make internet accessible at the places where the telephone and cable companies did not reach. He consulted his superiors regarding the same matter, but nobody took him seriously.

Founding Ubiquiti Networks

Pera had an idea, and he himself started working on his own low-cost, high-performance WiFi module, at his apartment for a long period of one year, and in early 2005, he quit Apple Inc. to form his own company, i.e., Ubiquiti Networks.

With the savings and credit card cash debt, he managed to raise $30,000 to invest in his company, and started Ubiquiti Networks, in March 2005. The main goal, to start this company was to wirelessly deliver the Internet to the underserved areas, using the existing wifi technologies. The first product series launched by the company included the Super Range mini-PCI radio cards SR2 and SR5.

The Super Range module used the Atheros chipset, operating at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands. The card received a successful welcome and was used by many small and medium scale Wireless Internet service providers, all over the world. Currently, the company deals in the four major products: airMAX, airFiber, airVision, UniFi and has spread its branches to other fields including wireless access points, security cameras and traditional networking equipment, etc., as well. Currently, more than 180 countries are using the equipment from Ubiquiti Networks, around the world.

Personal Life

The American entrepreneur secured a place in the Forbes’ list of 10 youngest billionaires in the world, at the age of 36. He is the 229th richest man in the United States, and the 642nd richest person, in the World Billionaire list. Pera took the company public in 2011 and raised US$ 33.5 million in the IPO. He owns the 64 per cent shares in the company.

In October 2012, he purchased the National Basketball Association franchise Memphis Grizzlies from Michael Heisley paying $350 million. Pera also supports the sports charity named Grizzlies Foundation operating in Memphis.

Jaguar Cars : One of the Most Luxury Automobile Manufacturers in the World

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Jaguar Cars, the name speaks for itself. The brand is almost a hundred years old and has seen its own ups and downs. It has been the provider of most luxurious cars that are at the same time the best at performance and technology. Jaguar is known for its exclusive designs and exceptional comfort and as the producer of one of the fastest cars in the world.

History

Two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, from the UK, came together with an idea to start a business of manufacturing motorcycle sidecars and founded Swallow Sidecar Company, in 1922. In 1934, the company was renamed as the S.S. Cars Limited, making the shares of the company public.

The next year, the company manufactured the first 2½-litre engine sports car, with the name SS Jaguar 2½-litre, followed by another sports model with a 3½-litre engine SS Jaguar 100. After the second world war, the shareholders of S.S. Cars Limited decided to rename the company to Jaguar Cars Limited, in a meeting held on 23 March 1945, so that to have a unique name for the company and to avoid any connection with acronym S.S.

jaguar
Image Source : motortradenews.com

In the late 40s, the company dealt with a huge issue of shortage of materials, particularly steel, becoming entirely dependent for their bodies on external suppliers. But, by the mid-50s, the company started achieving fame after manufacturing a series of powerful sports cars, including Jaguar XK120, Jaguar XK140, Jaguar XK150, and Jaguar E-Type. At the time, all of those sports cars were powered by the jaguar’s twin-cam straight-six engine, that provided the maximum efficiency. The manufacturing of the cars was based on the Lyons’ mantra of “value for money” and followed the slogan “Grace, Space, Pace.”

Winning the Le Mans 24 hours race, firstly in 1951, and again in 1953, were two major benchmarks for Jaguar, in the long history in motorsport. Lyons was always focused on manufacturing the world-class sporting saloons in larger numbers than the sports car market could support, and as a result, Jaguar was able to achieve a financial stability and a status for distinction with a range of elegantly styled luxury saloons manufactured under its name. The luxurious and stylish saloons cars included the 3-litre and 3½ litre cars, the Mark VII, VIII, and IX, the compact Mark I and 2, and the XJ6 and XJ12.

Pressed Steel Company Limited, manufactured all the major parts of the Jaguar cars, and in mid-1965, British Motor Corporation (BMC) and the Austin-Morris, together, acquired the Pressed Steel Company Ltd. Later, BMC also acquired Jaguar and started a joint venture British Motor Limited, in 1965, that was renamed to British Motor Holdings at the end of 1966.

In 1968, British Motor Holdings, under the government pressure got merged with Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd. and was formed as British Leyland. But, the poor decisions made by the company as well as the financial difficulties, could not make the deal last longer, and due to monetary success, the companies eluded. In 1984, Jaguar also emerged as a separate company and under the leadership of chairman, Sir John Egan, started to rise rapidly.

The Jaguar engines became famous due to its ubiquity and longevity, and the next powerful engine introduced by Jaguar was Twin OHC XK Engine, that was used in the XJ6 saloon from 1969 through 1992. It even empowered the British Army’s Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) family of vehicles, the Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle, the Ferret Scout Car, as well as the Stonefield four-wheel-drive all-terrain lorry.

In November 1989, Ford offered the Jaguar’s US and UK shareholders to buy their shares, and in 1999, Jaguar became a part of Ford’s new Premier Automotive Group along with Aston Martin, Volvo Cars and, from 2000, Land Rover. At the same time, Jaguar shared a common sales and distribution network as well as some components with Land Rover. All these years, Jaguar made no profits under Ford’s leadership, and in 2007, Ford announced a sale of Jaguar as well as Land Rover, together. On 2 June 2008, Tata Motors of India, acquired both companies by paying £1.7 billion. The Tata Group further established Jaguar Land Rover Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary and renamed the parent company to Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC.

Currently, Jaguar is a manufacturer of the car models including the F-Type convertible, the Jaguar XF, the Jaguar XJ, the Jaguar XK, and the Jaguar R models. In the future, we can expect to see a C-X17 and a four-door compact saloon known as XE.

Since the beginning of the manufacturing of Jaguar Cars, all of the vehicles had the iconic chrome-plated Leaping Jaguar, known as the “The Leaper” on the cap of the radiator of those vehicles. The same leaper is also a part of the logo of the company. But, due to some safety reasons, the leaper has been dropped from the current Jaguar models.

Zhou Qunfei : The Self-made Billionaire & the Founder of Lens Technology

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Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens Technology, is the world’s richest self-made billionaire, and one of the richest women in the tech sector. She despite facing a lot of difficulties and struggle, managed to accomplish what seemed impossible at a time. She, even, achieving so much in life, is still a grounded person and is not hesitant to sit down and work as a worker in her company. Travelling back and forth between China, Korea and the Silicon Valley, Apple and Samsung are one of the biggest clients of her organisation. Her rags-to-rich story is an inspiration to millions of women in a man dominating society.

Early Life

Zhou Qunfei was born in 1970, in Xiangxiang, Hunan province, in a family with bad financial conditions. Her father had retired from the army. He had become partially blind and lost a finger in an industrial accident before Zhou was born. Zhou lost her mother when she was five. Her father made his living by making bamboo baskets, chairs and repairing bicycles. As a child, Zhou started raising animals to earn a small profit to help her family financially.

zhou-qunfei
Image Source : vivify

Zhou completed her secondary education from a local school and moved to the Guangdong province, to live with her uncle’s family, at the age of sixteen, to become a migrant worker in Shenzhen. She aspired to join a government job, but due to lack of a diploma, she had to drop the idea. But, being a bright student, she took jobs nearby the Shenzhen University so that she could easily complete her studies along with work. With her dedication, she was able to pursue various courses and received multiple certifications in the subjects including accounting, computer operations, customs processing.

Founding Lens Technology

Although Zhou had started earning with her part-time jobs when she was a little kid, her first full-time job was with the small family-run firm making watch parts, where she was paid 180 yuan a month. In just three months, she wrote a humble resignation letter to her boss, as she was unable to co-op with the working conditions of the company. Her resignation moved her boss, who instead of accepting the resignation, promoted Zhou to a higher rank.

After working for a few years in the same company, in 1993, Zhou founded her own company that sold high-quality watch lenses, at the mere age of 22. The company’s first employees included her brother, sister, their spouses, and their cousins, who started their work in a three bedroom apartment. Zhou used her savings of HK$20,000 (~USD$3,000), to start the company. She got involved in every operation of the company and became proficient in each of it, including the repairs and creating improved designs of factory machinery. Her big break came when the Chinese electronics giant TCL Corporation approached her with a contract to make mobile phone screens, in 2001. In 2003, she again received an order from Motorola, to develop glass screens for their Razr V3. By the time, mobile companies had started using glass screens replacing the plastic screens for the mobiles.

Earning major profits in mobile phone screen manufacturing, in 2003, Zhou founded Lens Technology and started producing touch screen for smartphones. The company received its name, in order to be more visible for its potential customers, in the online searches. The company soon received orders from HTC, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and also from Apple, in 2007, the biggest breakthrough for Lens Technology, and became the topmost touchscreen supplier. The company also supplies the watch glass for the apple watches. By the year 2017, the company had established 32 factories at different locations and had hired 90,000 employees. In 2015, Zhou made the company IPO public on the ChiNext A-share market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and Lens Technology became China’s largest technology IPO, in the first quarter of 2015 and raised Zhou’s net worth by 452%.

Personal Life

Zou is married twice, and her first marriage was with her former factory boss. She has a daughter with him. In 2008, she married Zheng Junlong, an old colleague from Lens Technology, and the two have a son together. Along with working as her hobby, she also enjoys mountain climbing and playing ping-pong.

Zhou is China’s richest woman and is listed at number 61, in the Forbes list of 2016 Power Women. She was also named the number 18 on the Fortune 2016 Most Powerful Women of Asia-Pacific list.

Jensen Huang : The CEO & Co-founder of Nvidia

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An American entrepreneur and a businessman, Jensen Huang is the CEO and co-founder of the graphics-processor company Nvidia. Huang is an all-rounder, who as a child was placed third in junior doubles at the U.S Open and at the same time, was deeply in love with his books. He is a fan of tattoos and his love for cars as well as speed, encouraged him to buy a Ferrari 430, a Ferrari 599 and a Swedish Koenigsegg CCX. Huang is never afraid of failures and believes that it is ‘Okay to Fail’, to achieve your goals.

Early Life

Jensen Huang was born on 17 February 1963, in Tainan City, Taiwan. After some time, his family moved to Oneida, Kentucky, and then to Oregon. His family, along with his elder brother, sent him to live with their relatives, in the United States, when he was just 10 years old. There, the two joined the Baptist School, a school for troubled students. After a few years, both of them were back in Oregon, to reunite with their parents. Huang completed his high school education from the Aloha High School, outside Portland.

In 1984, Huang entered the Oregon State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He further joined Stanford University, to complete a master’s degree in the same, in 1992.

Founding Nvidia

After completing his education, Huang started working at LSI Logic as the Director of the company. He then, joined Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., as the microprocessor designer.

jen-hsun-huang
Image Source: idolnetworth.com

Huang knew that graphics is the future of computers and gaming will be the most revenue generating field in the future. In April 1993, along with his partners, Curtis Priem and Chris Malachowsky, Huang co-founded Nvidia, a software and semiconductor maker company, with a capital of $40,000.

Huang was appointed as the CEO of the company, Curtis Priem as the Chief Technical Officer and Chris as the Senior Vice President for Engineering and Operations. Chris worked at the same position for ten long years, and in 2003, he took retirement from his post.

Nvidia deals mainly in four markets including gaming, professional visualization, data centres and auto. The company has also started working in the field of artificial intelligence.

The company received $20 million of venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital and others. In 2018, the company recorded a 40.6% increase in the revenue of the company, with the earnings of US$3.047 billion.

Personal Life

Huang is married to Lori Huang, who was once his Lab partner in College. The couple has two children with their marriage.

Huang is also into Philanthropy and donated US$30 million to build the Jen-Hsun Huang School of Engineering Center to his alma mater Stanford University.

Ernst & Young named him the Entrepreneur of the Year in High Technology, in 1999. In 2003, he was presented with the Dr Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University. Huang was named among the world’s top 50 influencers, in the in the inaugural EDGE 50, in 2018.