Reggie Fils-Aimé came out on top. The former Nintendo of America president and chief operating officer retired in 2019 after 16 years at Nintendo. He came to Nintendo when the GameCube faced serious challenges from Microsoft and Sony, and left when the Nintendo Switch handheld/console hybrid came out as the company’s best-selling console ever.
However, Fils-Aime appears to be ready for a second act.his autobiography Game Disruption: From the Bronx to the pinnacle of NintendoLaunched on May 3, not a play-by-play of the games and console releases he hosted, but a detailed account of his life through the lens of advising others in business or leadership. It spanned his childhood as the son of Haitian immigrants, born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island. It includes every step in his career that has shaped him, including work at Procter & Gamble, Pizza Hut, Panda Express, VH1, and more, as well as his more influential moments at Nintendo.
Polygon interviewed Fils-Aimé a few weeks ago to discuss the book, highlights of his career, and who he hopes to read disrupt the game.
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
Polygon: There are probably a lot of people out there who want behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Nintendo, and they’re probably going to be disappointed by this book. There are some, but it’s not all. Who do you want to read it?
Reggie Fels-Aime: So, while writing this book, I realized there was a group of Nintendo fans for whom a perfect book would tell all the stories about Nintendo products and how we got there and bring them into All these discussions and all these activities. But for me, that’s not satisfying. Because I’m trying to share principles and lessons for anyone — whether you’re a fan or not, whether you’re an executive or not, whether you’re on your own journey, I hope I will — I’ll share some lessons and some Principles that you can apply in the future. That’s why the book is structured this way.That’s why, you know, this So What concept [a section at the end of each chapter where Fils-Aimé breaks down key takeaways for the reader from his experiences] aims to highlight these lessons. So on the one hand, I hope Nintendo fans are not disappointed, because this is not just a Nintendo bug. But in fact, it’s not. It’s really been my personal journey and hopefully people can apply the lessons and insights to their own situations.
What do you most hope to get out of a book? What is the dream interaction of someone who reads it?
For me, the dream interaction would be to meet someone in five years time who has themselves been successful in everything they do, whether it’s business, life, whatever it is. I want to have an interaction five years from now where someone says, “Hey Reggie, I picked up your book. And, you know, these, these two insights really help in my own personal journey. I am. I want to thank you.” I mean, having this kind of interaction with a person, some people in the future means a lot to me.
I really find that many of the points in your book come back to the importance of communication and how you hone these skills. You started your career at Procter & Gamble, and you talk in the book about these memos that you had to write, and to me it’s like any of the different types of work environments we’re going through right now.
I mean, that was really the moment, you know, in the early ’80s, you didn’t have your own personal computer. The way these memos are created is that I’ll be recording into a personal recorder, microphone, and I’m basically dictating a memo that’s going to be sent to the executive supporting the business unit, the brand, and usually it’ll be typed and then returned to you. Then there will be paper-based editing going back and forth. That’s how the perfect P&G memo was born.
We all sat in cubicles. So I would, you know, two or three or four people sitting around us. There is no sense of privacy. I think one might argue that this could be a return to the open-plan, bullpen office. But it was a very different era, a very different era. One of the things I emphasize in the book is that every organization has its own culture. The P&G culture is really on paper based on these perfect memos. So you have to learn to be a very effective business writer, which taught me, at least I’m fresh out of my undergraduate degree, how to be thoughtful in organizing my thoughts and proposals. You know, Chelsea, to this day I can see how this experience has helped the way I think and the way my brain works today.
From there, I went to work at Pizza Hut and PepsiCo, for whom their culture is stand-up presentations. That’s how we move ideas forward. And, for me, the wonderful thing is that I learned how to be a great business writer, and I learned how to be a really good verbal communicator. Then at Nintendo, not only did I combine these two communication skills, but I also mastered a third key communication skill, which is non-verbal communication. That’s because the business will be done through sequential translation. gentlemen. [Satoru] Iwata can speak some words translated from Japanese to English. This is when we are in a group setting. If it was just the two of us, we would speak English, and then there was a large group meeting, and it was in Japanese, from Japanese to English. I replied in English and then translated back to Japanese. So what I’ve learned to do is I’ll look at people who speak Japanese and I’ll try to get as much information as possible. Are they smiling? Are they frowning? Are they excited or not so excited? You know, what the hell happened? Because the Japanese-English translation does not have that kind of emotion. Just these words. So learning to communicate nonverbally was a key skill I took away from Nintendo.
You anticipated the question I was about to ask, which is how you learned to bypass language barriers. But that also means you have to adjust your non-verbal communication skills too, right?
Absolutely. In my early days at Nintendo, I asked a question, “Should I study Japanese?” I got advice, “Look, Reggie, we need you to focus on other things. The business situation is tough. It’s very important for us to gain business knowledge in the process. That’s where we need your attention. We’re going to approach communication differently.”
So, you know, many key executives do speak and understand English, many of them very well. But I have not studied Japanese. So that means any large group meeting is in this sequential translation. It forces me to be very thoughtful in verbal communication.And, you know, when you think about it, we have a lot of idioms, we have a lot of slang terms [that] We, I learned, I have to cut all of that out, I have to be as clear and concise as possible, I need to be very persuasive in my language to move things forward. So in all of these exchanges, it’s certainly something I have to pay attention to. I did this, both in the case of synchronous translations and sequential translations. Or if I’m in a meeting with Mr. or Mr. Iwata. [Shigeru] Miyamoto, know some English and speak some English, I need to be just as clear and use words they can understand.
Does giving a speech so your English is understood changes your general way of speaking and your general way of thinking? Or do you find yourself switching depending on the situation?
I’d say I’ve always been clear and direct, some people will say it’s too direct. But I’ve always been clear. And I always structure my communication according to, What is our goal? What do we want to do? How are we going to do it? How do we build consensus around an idea? If we can’t reach consensus, and I have to be the decision maker. I will decide. I’ll share how I made the decisions we’re making. So this clarity, this immediacy is always there.
In fact, I talk about this in the book. Mr. Iwata gave me advice because I was so clear and direct – he used the word “powerful” – I needed to make sure I heard all the different points of view. Because my bias is to make decisions quickly. My bias is to be the first to speak. My bias is to push things forward.His advice to me was, “Reggie, you need to make sure you’re listening to everyone around you. Because everyone wants to please you, even the NCL guys.” [Nintendo Co. Ltd, the commonly used abbreviation for Nintendo’s Kyoto, Japan headquarters], and you need to make sure that you’re giving your recommendations a good amount of thought. “
It’s thoughtful advice, and it’s gracious. He really makes you successful.
Absolutely. It’s the kind of relationship any executive wants to have with their boss, their mentor. We had difficult conversations. I mean, let’s be clear. It’s not always sunshine and roses. But there is such a deep respect and a deep understanding of where the other party came from. Again, when I highlight the book, we don’t always agree. Sometimes we have to go back and sort through the pieces of a particular decision. But he made me succeed. Without Mr. Iwata’s support, you know, I wouldn’t have been Nintendo for almost 16 years.
We talked about your decisiveness and aggressiveness.Why are you always so confident [to make] Make a quick decision?
This is something I grew up with in the 20 years before Nintendo, if you will. Of course, during my time at Nintendo, I was lucky, and in my history, I was in situations where I needed to be in control, I needed to make recommendations, and I needed to live with the consequences of my decisions, for better or for worse. So I brought all the history to Nintendo. Fortunately, another part of what I bring to Nintendo is that I bring the player’s perspective. When I was in high school, I played video games very early. In my 20s, I stayed away from video games. I think it’s life, having kids and pursuing a career. It then re-entered video games in the early 1990s. And I’ve played a lot of games: SNES games, PS2 games, Xbox games, N64 games. So when I joined the company, I did bring with me the player positioning and knowledge of the franchise, which was very helpful.I think a combination of business experience and a sense of…