Greg Hoffmanの経歴とリーダーシップ
This is Reinamoto's Podcast, The Creative Mindset.
Hi everyone, welcome to The Creative Mindset, a podcast about what the future holds at the
intersection of creativity and technology. I am Reinamoto, the founding partner of I&CO,
a global innovation firm based in New York and Tokyo. As we talk with various guests on this
show, there is an underlying theme in all of the conversations we have, and that is the link
between creativity and leadership. Creativity is a prerequisite for leadership, and I am very
excited to share this conversation with you today. The guest is Greg Hoffman, the former
chief marketing officer of Nike. As a 27-year veteran at Nike who rose through the ranks from
design intern to chief marketing officer, Greg knows a thing or two about how the brand has
retained its iconic status. Since retiring from Nike in 2020, Greg has had the chance to reflect
on his illustrious career, and in his recent book, Emotion by Design, he shares valuable lessons from
his experience spearheading the brand's storytelling, consumer experience, and brand strategies.
The book has been translated into 14 different languages, so I encourage everybody around the
world to pick up a copy. It's written as a sequence of professional and personal stories,
so it's a very natural read as a business book. Today, Greg spends his time guiding Fortune 500
companies, as well as startups and non-profits, on how to drive business growth, strengthen their
brands, and achieve social impact through his brand advisory group, Modern Arena. He also imparts
his wisdom to students in his role as a branding instructor at the University of Oregon's Lundquist
College of Business. My conversation with Greg was one of the most inspiring conversations I've had,
and I think you'll really like both Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 1, I talked with him about his
personal background and upbringing, then how he made his way into a leadership role at one of the
most innovative and respected companies in the world. So, let's get started. Greg, good to see
you. Good to see you as well, coming in from Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest today.
I think we've met a few times in meetings, but it's not like we know each other that well,
so I appreciate you responding to my random message over Instagram. Yeah, well, my pleasure.
It's always a privilege to talk to people that run in the same circles and are passionate about
the same disciplines and things around the world that I am. Yeah, I would like to start off with
my episode of meeting you for the first time, and I don't know if you... I don't think you
would remember this. It was back in 2001 or 2002. I started working on Nike in 2001, so I think you
were almost a decade into your tenure at Nike. And back then, I was a designer in my 20s,
and I was at RGA. And one of the first projects that I worked on was redesigning
nike.com. Nice. And yeah, back in... Probably 99 or 2000. Yeah, around that time. Yeah. Yes. So, I was a
young designer at RGA, and yeah, happened to meet you for the first time. And I remember,
you know, who is this good-looking guy? You know, you had an aura about yourself, and I was... Yeah,
I was in awe, you know, at that young age. And you must have been in your early 30s, I would imagine?
Yeah, well, I was an graphic design intern in 1992. I started designing logos, basically. That
was my first role there. But by 2000, I was now managing the very team I had been interning for.
Right. I had to learn a lot on the fly, right? I had not managed people before. Right. So, here I was,
probably when we met for the first time, I was just starting my journey as someone who is actually
responsible and accountable for growing a team. Yeah. So, in the book, you mentioned about how you
went to talk to your boss, and, you know, your boss was leaving, and it was before he left,
but you basically asked for his job, correct? That is correct. Yeah. Not sure where I got the
courage at that time. Yeah. And, you know, you must have been in your late 20s, early 30s, and that's
relatively young to be leading. And how big was the team at the time that you took over?
The team was responsible for the visual identity of the brand, right? And also the experience of
the brand in built environments. So, whether it's retail stores or events, etc. So, you not only
had a team there in Oregon, but you also had teams in Shanghai and Amsterdam. So, it was a fairly
large team. Yeah. But, hey, at the end of the day, being in an environment where risk-taking
and jumping into situations where you don't have all the answers, but you're willing to learn.
So, I guess I built up that level of both confidence as well as wanting to, you know,
find out what I had. Just like I think a lot of athletes do, right? Yeah. And so, that's kind of
how I found my way into that position. Yeah. And, of course, never left. Right, right, right. Could
you talk briefly about the team that you were, how it was structured? You know, you mentioned about
some of the roles that you've had and what your remit was within or for the team, but within Nike.
Sure. Well, just a brief history maybe on the teams that were responsible for building the
brand identity at Nike over the years. And so, when I started as an intern, that team was called
Image Design, right? So, we were responsible for, but it was a bit limiting when you think of what
that title means that you're, because we weren't just responsible for the image of the brand.
ブランディングとブランドデザイン
There was so much more than that. Now, with that said, when you think of in branding terms,
when you think of the brand image, it's never just about the visual image of a brand, right?
Every different output from a brand forms that image and that feeling of the brand. And so,
essentially, a lot of what we were doing is doing that and connecting the dots as well.
So, when I took over that job, it was called Communication Design, right? So, we had evolved
and started to understand that at the end of the day, what we were doing ultimately, regardless
of what the medium was, was telling stories, right? Communicating the values and ideals
of this company, Nike. But you know what? That still felt limiting as a title.
So, one of the first things I worked on with the team was we need to involve the identity of the
group. And that's how we came to be called Brand Design. Because at the end of the day,
you're designing all the different expressions, the outputs, and the experiences that a customer
is having with the brand. So, brand design seemed to be appropriate. And the word design, of course,
is the largest definition of design that you can think of, right? Because you're designing
strategies and plans as well as designing the voice and identity and the feeling of the brand
as well. Yeah. So, when you started to manage and you were managing many people,
multiple projects at the time, and I remember I was the beneficiary of some of the work that
you had done personally, the Shox logo. That's right. Yeah. I was on the receiving end of the
logo that you designed and implemented on the web. Well, that's incredible. You know, as I said,
新しいロゴの選定プロセス
I started my career at Nike as an intern designing logos. And then the last logo I
officially designed was the Shox logo. Oh, that was the last logo that you designed?
Yeah. And because at that point, I was starting to manage a larger team.
Right, right.
And it didn't make sense. And at the end of the day, you've got to empower the team to,
you know, find those solutions and dream about the future and what's next. And so,
but what's unique about that story around the Shox logo for this revolutionary new
outsole and midsole technology that Nike brought to the world is that was the very first sketch
that I did. Right, right. But I didn't know that was going to be the logo. And then we went out
and we hired two different design firms to design around 80 different logos.
Right. And ultimately, when we were going through the process and trying to figure out
what logo really was going to communicate both the benefit, the technology and the pursuit of
what this product would allow you to do. And that's where we kept going back to that original sketch.
And ultimately, that is what we went with.
So let me run with that story, because I think it tells a few different aspects of
making something, but also creative leadership. And just to get the timing straight. So you said
it was the last logo that you designed yourself specifically, and you were starting to lead
a much, much larger team. So, you know, your job is not to do the hands-on design, but your job
is to form teams, create teams, hire people and direct the teams to execute a certain vision.
For almost every product that Nike would put out, you would create a visual identity for that,
particularly, you know, like a temple product like Nike Shox.
That's right.
Right. You would create a visual identity and almost create a mini brand around it to
make it recognizable. Nike Shox is the spring technology, so that there's a lot of cushioning
at the bottom of the shoe. And the logo that you designed has two bars, if I remember,
two bars at the bottom and top. And it is that little Z like or S like.
That's right.
So that it visually represents the springy shock absorbing system that the shoe had used
that technology to make it possible. But the part that I got curious about, that was one of the
first sketches that you had done. You had hired two additional firms to execute it. But then for
you or somebody to say, you know what, we should go back to the first one, even though we've come,
we've done 80 different versions. Tell us about what that's like and how do you manage
the egos of designers and especially outside design firms? You know, they may not have
appreciated it, right?
Well, that's a great question. Not only that, but managing my own ego, right? And making sure that
I, you know, because at the end of the day, a great team, you do need self-confidence,
but you also need self-awareness and selflessness, right? Those different
characteristics coming together ultimately are going to allow you to create the level of teamwork
that I think you need to put new thoughts, new concepts and innovations into the world that
people haven't seen before. So in this case, one is just to have the discipline to want to
create a variety of, because hey, at the end of the day, you have to make sure that your branding
and your brand identity and your communication is as innovative as the innovation and the product
itself. It's the respect you need to give to that product, right? So which means you need a wide,
fair way of solutions that you're exploring. So then you can come back together as a team
and really put that up on the wall and start to go through that editing process.
It's really hard to get to that point if you do one solution and it's not an objective process
チャプター1
and you say, this is good enough and we need to move forward now. And I always believed in a
continuum of solutions that you could really as a team edit down to three, right? And at the end of
the day, we got to three solutions and yes, the spring solution that I created was one of those,
but there was also two other strong solutions. And so we started to shop those around and present
those to stakeholders around the company. And ultimately the votes kept going back
to that first solution. So the worst situation would have been me saying, well, this is clearly
the best solution because I did it. Like that's really poor leadership, okay?
So in some cases, great leadership is allowing room for other voices in the room to come forward,
especially quite frankly, the quiet voices. Because oftentimes they're observing and
picking up details that the loudest voices in the room are not. And so it's making space
and making sure you have that diverse team in the room so you can get different points of view,
right? And quite frankly, those different points of view are forged by unique perspectives from
different life experiences. So I've always believed in that, right? And so shocks really
represented that. And what's great about that launch back in 2000 is every single aspect of
that innovation launch was disruptive and defied convention. All of the advertising that
Widening Kennedy did around that innovation was highly creative and in my biased opinion,
very profound in a positive way. And then it helped, of course, that Vince Carter,
the amazing NBA basketball player at that time, dunked over a seven foot player in the Olympics
with the shocks sneaker on. You cannot script. There's no commercial you could script that
could equal how amazing that was to see. So all the stars aligned with that launch.
Can you talk to us a little bit about other elements of the launch and what you did to create
the excitement about the product, but also the athlete and other elements of the launch campaign?
You get to start with such rich territory when you have a product that shows visible innovation.
You can actually see the technology and you can actually, in your mind, visualizing jumping higher
when you put this sneaker on because it's got these visible shocks in it. So our job in any
different medium was to ensure that we were reinforcing that idea of responsiveness.
And that this explosive speed or explosive vertical leap, whatever you call. So even
the retail presentation and how we display the shoe, we wanted to essentially make sure that
that shoe was in some ways floating on air, like we have liftoff, if you will.
So it couldn't just be sneakers on the wall or on a table.
Because again, as I said, the way you express the story of the product and the benefits has to be
as innovative as the way the product was designed. And so we designed these very engaging,
creative table and wall displays that allowed the product to look like it had just
propelled into the air, if you will. And then there's the legendary, famous
Wyden and Kennedy streaker commercial. So it looks like this incredible football
match has been interrupted. And the problem is security. No one can catch this
individual, this streaker, who's running around without clothes on because he's wearing the Nike
Shox. Right, right, right.
So it's pretty genius and incredibly distinctive. In a crowded space, that's a spot,
that's a commercial that really stood out at the time. Very clever. And so at the end of the day,
great storytelling, of course, starts with finding a unique insight or truth and then
revealing that in a very profound way. And that's certainly what the creative teams,
both inside Nike, as well as the agency partners did.
And the commercial that you mentioned, the streaker commercial. And again, I remember it
because I was on the receiving end of that as well as part of the team. And there was the
triangle of your team, my team at RGA and the team at Wyden and Kennedy. And we would often
collaborate with the creatives of Wyden and Kennedy. And I remember talking, I think his
name was Jonathan. He was a copywriter. And about a year before that, I remember that he had
pitched a script for a running campaign where there were naked runners, completely naked from
head to toe, completely naked, only wearing shoes. That was shut down. And then like a year later,
I saw the script in a different context for a different product. And in this case,
the famous streaker script where, like you said, this, if I might say so, chubby,
naked guy with the scarf around his neck. He runs on to in a stadium, he runs on to the pitch
when a game is happening and nobody can catch him because he's wearing Nike socks.
Yeah. And yeah, that's that. I mean, a lot of the stories that you
talked about and you told in the book, I knew about 80 to almost 90%,
but it was great to hear the background story of those campaigns. Yeah.
Yeah. That particular commercial, right, is the definition of being able to take risks
and not playing it safe. And that's the role oftentimes of an agency partner
is to really push a brand to go beyond what's safe and be able to bring things into the world
that not only engage customers on an emotional level, but really take an entire category
to someplace new or even really take your place in the cultural conversation, right?
Because you've introduced something that deserves to be talked about. Like I say in the book,
any great story deserves to be remembered, not forgotten, right?
Dare to be remembered. That's right.
Right. If you had to pick one piece of work, your work, as your, hey, this is,
if you could only take one piece of work to your grave, what would it be?
Well, that I was a part of or...
That you had a significant hand in.
Man. You know, that's a tough, tough question, right?
Yes. I know.
Yeah. But because it's a team sport on that, right?
Creativity is a team sport, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And so success should be shared by everyone on that. So man,
you really put me on the spot there. And then the other thing here is like a lot of,
I think, creative types, I'm never satisfied, ultimately. You're always looking back on,
you know, what else could have been done on that. So I was just really lucky to work on, I guess,
a timeline of just memorable moments. But I do have, I would say, an affinity for
a lot of the football work from the 90s.
Because it was at a time where we were really far away from being in first place.
Oh, Nike has a brand within the football category.
Yeah. In football, yeah. And so for the fact that my real big first shot was
the fact that I got to do all of the brand design work for the 1994 World Cup.
Um, if you're asking me, like, what maybe made everyone kind of take notice, it was that moment.
Okay. I'll take that 1994 brand World Cup.
Yeah. So at the beginning of the book, you talk a little bit about your background and how you
come from a mixed race background and you were adopted. And then I actually,
you don't talk about in the book about your background. You touch upon it at the beginning.
You don't talk about it throughout. And then I think the second to the last chapter,
or the last chapter, you talk about how you get reconnected with your sister.
That's right.
Yeah. And by the way, I have to say, because the stories that I read in the book,
I knew most of them. And it was interesting to hear the backstory that I didn't know. And
some things I knew and sort of a lot of the characters I knew connecting the dots.
Right.
少数派背景でのチャレンジ
But the last two chapters where you talk about your background and how you rediscover yourself was,
that part was really emotional to me in a very unexpected way. So could you talk a little bit
about the fact that you come from an unusual background and also a minority background?
Sure.
Was there ever a moment where you felt that was working against you? I have my own shares of
those types of stories, but I'd love to hear a little bit about your personal
and professional challenges and how you've overcome those.
Yeah, no, look, our early experiences shaped so much of who we are. And certainly in the
industries and disciplines of marketing and design and innovation, where so much your
superpowers are the way you see, feel and hear the world around you. And so much of that sight
and your ability to feel and listen is forged by those early life experiences.
And so for me, oftentimes, while a lot of my experiences growing up were quite challenging,
oftentimes being the only person of color in the room and quite frankly, for years,
right, both in school and outside, even in my home life. And so but ultimately that's
started to become an advantage, certainly in a professional sense,
because I think it increased my ability to lead with empathy.
When you do feel like you're excluded, right, or you're on the outside, you know,
you're probably going to most likely see others that are in the same situation.
You're going to be tuned in maybe to people that face barriers and walls and don't have that
invitation. Right. So when I got to Nike, you know, that started to be something that was actually an
advantage because maybe I had had some of those experiences and that I work with a brand that was
open to reaching out, you know, at the end of the day to work at a brand that believed every person
on earth was an athlete, no matter your skill level, your body type or your age, what have you,
you're an athlete. And our job was to invite everyone, especially people that didn't see
themselves as athletes on that movement. And so I think because of those different experiences,
I had a sensitivity and an empathy for communities that maybe weren't,
didn't see themselves in the story, didn't see themselves on that journey. Right. And even within
Nike, a lot of my work in the Black Employee Network was in the work I do now is to try to
create better representation within the fields and industries that I love. Again, traditionally,
marketing and design and advertising don't have a very good diverse representation
for a long time. And all you have to do is look at the history of the design, the design books,
history of advertising, history of marketing. It's very rare that you're going to see
faces and people that look like you. Right. And when I say that, I mean, all aspects of diversity,
and certainly within my role over the years at Nike, it was focused on, you know,
black and brown employees on that. So in any event, yeah, I mean, it's it's it it was,
you know, the other thing about the 70s and early 80s that I grew up in, is it was noble
to have this idea and this goal of never seeing color, like, okay, so if that's what we're preaching
DNAテストと再会の発見
to everyone and to kids, like, you know, love sees no color. Well, that's an inspirational and
aspirational vision of the future and a way to behave. The problem with that is the whole point
of empathy is imagining and putting yourself in the shoes of your neighbor, your peer, the person
you're shoulder and shoulder to and realizing that the way you're walking through life is not the
same way they walk through life. Right. And so unfortunately, I didn't have people to talk to
about what I was experiencing and particularly around racism as I grew up. Right. And I'm
thankful that we are in a moment in time in a day where there are as open conversations and avenues
where people can express how they feel. Children can express how they feel. And quite frankly,
it wasn't until really recently with the innovations of DNA testing and the the advent
of companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com where people were even talking about what it meant to
be adopted. Right. I think, you know, growing up, it was you should just simply be thankful.
Right. But there's a lot going on, you know, when when you are adopted and some things can be
verbalized and some things are in your subconscious, I guess, as an adoptee. Right. But today,
we're in a point in time where people can talk about what those experiences are, what the highs
and lows are, and not feel that that they are not being thankful. Right. Because this the
conversation around adoption shouldn't be that you've been saved. Okay. Right. On that. And so
it should be much more layered than that, because there's a lot that's that happens. And so, of
course, yes, I am. I received the gift two years ago of ultimately meeting my birth families for
the first time. Right. And not every adoptee necessarily gets that chance or even wants that
chance. And quite frankly, the percentage of reuniting. Parents to children, right,
is in terms of finding your biological parents, oftentimes, they're not pleasant reunions, too.
So you have to take that into account. So it's just been a huge bonus for me to all of a sudden
have these two new families in my life with such positive rewards. Right. Yeah. And then what you
start to see, which is incredible, but the idea that I got my graphic design degree and I went to
リーダーシップの役割とポテンシャルの引き出し
Minnetonka High School and my birth sister went to Minnetonka High School and got a graphic design
degree. Right. So we don't know we didn't know each other. Of course we didn't. Right. But you
start to figure out, wow, this runs in the family. So ultimately, you know, that last chapter is
really about nature and nurture and that maybe I had this in me. Right. These passions and talents
in the artistic realm. But I was also in an environment with my adoptive parents. Right.
Where they pulled that out of me. They invested in it. They gave me the resources to explore
my artistic sensibilities. And so as leaders, whether you work in an agency or you work in a
brand, it's really important to one of your roles as a leader is to unlock potential in your
employees. And sometimes that means reveals revealing the hidden talents that reside
hidden away. Right. Within within people. And how can you draw those out? Because at the end of the
day, it's it is biological, but it's also environmental. Right. It's both. Yeah. If I may
ask, why did you wait until fairly recent to explore your biological past?
You probably could have done it much sooner. Well, the reality is, is we had we had exhausted
every avenue. Oh, yeah. OK. Yeah. And this is, again, before because here's here's the
interesting thing. Oftentimes, I think people feel like I I talk so much about the art and not the
science. Right. But the reality in this case is it's technological innovation and science and
data and analysis that created 23andMe and Ancestry.com. Right. So so back in 2007 and
we exhausted every possible way. Right. And it's just in different different states have different
adoption laws and you don't have access to the information. Right. And so it wasn't until these
DNA companies came onto the scene that suddenly and then keep in mind, just because I've joined
a DNA site, it's only going to work if others that I'm related to also join. And so I just got
really, really lucky that one day I got a message from someone that said, oh, my God, I can't believe
I have an uncle I never knew about. And within a couple hours, we figured out that I wasn't her
uncle. I was actually her brother. How how did how did that feel to you? You know, I'm not going
to lie. I mean, it's not like I had given up, but I had moved on. Right. We had tried. We had tried
a couple of times. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this, but my birth father had tried to find me as
soon as I turned 18. He went to the adoption agency because but for him to have connected
with me, I would have had to write a note saying it was OK to contact me. Right. On that. So he
had tried to find me a couple of times, but had no luck in any event. Yeah. I mean, so you could
imagine you're just sitting there, you know, doing what you do on a Saturday late morning,
and all of a sudden you get that direct message. Right. And so at first you're.
You're a little bit confused, right, because, OK, I'm an uncle and like, how does that work? But
I think, yeah, look, by the end of the day, when we circled back and we really all arrived at the
母親と再会
same conclusion and she uttered the words that, you know, you're my mom is your mom. Well, that
that hits you really hard. Right. And so that set off then the journey of because then, of course,
there's going to be a process of you can't just assume that everybody's waiting for you.
People have been living their lives. Right. And so you have to understand that. OK. So
thankfully, you know, for me, I had already raised my kids were already in college. Right.
I'd already had a career. I. So for me, what I was looking for is friendship and connection.
And and I think the timing couldn't have been perfect, more perfect on that. So but you also
have to remember that my my mom, you know, was it was 17 years old. She had to back then.
If you got pregnant in high school, you had to go and live in a home.
Right. You were pulled out of your family. You were you lived in the home until you had the baby
and then you had to leave. So and then you didn't tell anybody, period. Wow. Not even your siblings.
Wow. So so no one was aware. No, anyone. So I had to respect the time needed so that my mom could
really tell everyone in her own way, on her terms, on her timeline. And today we're just really,
really close friends. I mean, we text pretty much every day. We watch the same shows. Right.
Like literally. Yeah. Same movies, same shows. And she she loves art and design. And here she is.
She's still a floral designer. Right. On that. So in any event. Yeah. You just I guess one of the
other, you know, maybe learnings is it's just never too late. You know, don't completely shut
down whatever it is that you're searching for. There may be a moment in time down the road
on that where, you know, you achieve that connection that you're looking for.
Yeah. Is your mother in Minnesota or where is she? She is. She is. And to be honest,
she's nine minutes from where I grew up. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, and to think I went to college
in South Minneapolis, you know, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. And to think that
while I was going to school, my uncle, who I met two years ago, was living right next to the school
the whole time. Oh, wow. And you had people in the Minneapolis area thriving. And, you know,
just imagine you're going to high school and college and all these people you're related to
are just in the peripheral. But you just don't know that. Wow. Right. I think I told I wrote this
in the book that I one of the stores I helped design was the Nike store in the Mall of America.
Right. Yeah. And that that was my birth father's favorite store. Had no idea. Right. So you just
you just it's just amazing sometimes what is revealed as you go through life on that,
if you're open to it. Yeah. Yeah. And your sister, how many years apart are you with your sister?
Well, that's what's interesting. She's, you know, 20 years apart. So that's why that's why
the first thought was, well, this has to be my mom's brother. Right. Right. Right. But see,
I was when I when I said, hey, look, look, I because what I what I direct message back was,
well, my mom was 17 years old. So today she'd be, let's just say 67. Right. You know, and I put some
clues out there. And then ultimately, because I didn't want to be the one that said, I think
we're brothers and sister. Right. And so I essentially just laid out some some details.
And then my sister came back and said, wow, we're brother and sister. Did you realize that you and
your sister were siblings, but you didn't tell her or you didn't know, but she's the one.
Well, yeah, this this this all happened the same day. And so. Oh, I see. Yeah. We just my wife and
I, we just realized when we started to think about the math. Right. Yeah. And when she how old she
was and when she graduated high school and where she went and all these things, we just we just
kind of figured it out. Wow. You could say we did some sleuthing, if you will. Right. And the reality
is, is, yeah, I mean, there is just, you know, one picture specifically in social media where she was
with her mother. And my wife was like, oh, my God, that I mean, that looks like you. Wow. So so again,
so it's just it's happened really fast. And then and then here we are. And she was just we she was
just out here visiting for for a few days. That's such an incredible story. And again, that was one
of the favorite stories that I read in your in your book. And yeah, I could only imagine the kind
of emotions that, you know, I mean, you talk about emotions in this book throughout, but it's a
different kind of emotion that. You would have come across and yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, there's
no there's no playbook of meeting your parents as an adult, right? It's not like you go on Google
and say, what should I do when we first meet? Right. Right. Right. So when we flew out there,
I flew out with my family, both kids, my wife, and we agreed to meet in a park.
And so my mom, my sister and her husband were there to meet us. And yeah, so we we drove and
we saw them from afar. And yeah, your your your heart's kind of like pumping a little bit more.
Right. Because you're not you're not quite sure like what's the first thing you say or what's the
first move. And so when we parked the car and we started walking towards them, she came running
and just gave me a big hug. Oh, wow. So she she broke that ice immediately. Right. And then the
ファミリーのリソースとリーダーシップ
Yeah. And then it just went from there on that. And you never look, you never know. It just so
happens we're very much the same. It could have been. But that's not always going to happen.
Right. Right. But we truly she just said when she was out here the last time, it's just amazing
that we literally like doing the same things. Right. So wow. Yeah. Nature and nurture. It is.
Yeah. It's it look, it's it's it's both. Right. That's that's why I'm very thankful as well for
for my parents, for just investing. I mean, you have to understand giving,
you know, investing in art supplies, in drafting tables, giving me private art lessons. And this
is a family of seven on a teacher, a public teacher's salary. So you're living check to check.
Right. And yet still finding it, finding resourceful ways to fuel what they saw as these
talents. Right. Wow. And so I learned a lot from that just from a leadership standpoint and
understanding again, back to the idea of what's your role as a leader on that? You said family
of seven. So parents and five kids. That's right. Wow. OK. And were you the only adopted child in
the family or were there other adopted kids as well? My sister is also adopted. So my sister,
who's five years younger than me. So so essentially my parents, yeah, they adopted two
kids and had two kids, if you will. So it was an eclectic family. You could imagine what those
family photos looked like. Right. And different races within the family. Yeah, absolutely. Wow.
Yeah. Because my my sister is also mixed race. Right. So, yeah, very back to this idea of,
as I say, you know. The innovation happens in the intersections and we certainly from a diversity
standpoint had that covered. Right. Within the family. Around the dining room table. Yeah. And
in a city that, if I may say so, might not be the most diverse city, Minneapolis. Yeah. And I was,
多様性と創造力
mind you, I was in a suburb. Right. So they're just that doesn't exist. And so I think again
today, just through social media and the openness and of where we are today, you know, you're never
that far from culture. For me, it really wasn't until the advent of hip hop. And when hip hop came
to the suburbs. Right. And I got that first Run DMC record. Right. Right. And I saw the movie
Breaking and Breaking 2, you know, breakdance. And you started to see this and all of a sudden,
you know, your pride in yourself shifted because you were seeing both athletes and musicians that
look like you have that level of influence and success. Wow. I kind of walk through life,
I guess, is like each moment is a unique playlist in and of itself. Right. On that. I like that.
Yeah. And so back to that idea of we're a mosaic. And I think different moments call for for
different, you know, if you're you're in the gym, you're going to need a little bit of energy. But
if you're just relaxing on the beach somewhere, you want a sense of calm. So yeah, well, if I'm
driving down, you know, in the middle of Oregon and beauty of central Oregon, then it's probably
going to be a different vibe. It might even be, you know, rock from the 70s. It could be reggae,
but it's create the playlist based on, you know, what that moment is. Yeah. Each moment is a unique
playlist. I like that. What is creativity to you, Greg? Creativity is the is conceiving an idea
インスピレーションと創造力
and applying that idea. Conceiving and applying. That's right. Excellent. It takes both. Yeah.
Right. I think when at least in the world of business, the definition of creativity to me
is to. Create something that provides a benefit. That, you know, in my case over the years,
help people perform to their highest potential. Those positive outcomes start because the team
at the beginning was open minded. They were able to look beyond the surface of the subject.
Like, what's the simple observations and assumptions you have about a person?
Right. And they're able to go beyond that because they're they're open to doing so.
And they go deep and listen and and peel back the layers to find something that's profound and
insightful. Right. And so you have to help your teammates understand that you have to help
employees understand that. And that is the role of being empathetic. Right. Starts with being
open to the way others experience the world, open to the way others see the world.
Right. And at the end of the day, as I said, innovation happens in the intersections and
not just that when you intersect diverse expertise, it's diverse life experiences
and perspectives. When that all comes together, I think that's where the magic happens.
The end of the day, you need inspiration to drive your creativity. And to me, curiosity is the rocket
fuel for creativity. And I don't believe you can just wait for inspiration to fall out of the sky.
Curiosity needs to be a dominant characteristic within your team. Right. So you want a team
that is not only looking within your category or sector, but the whole point is getting outside
yourself and looking at inspiration in places beyond your own world and then bringing that in
to your arena. And that's called innovation transference. This phenomenon that happens when
a company sees something happening somewhere else and they decided to adopt part of that
and disrupt their own industry. And if you look at Nike's greatest innovation, you could say is
Nike Air. And the reality is Nike Air came from an engineer who was working on innovations for
space exploration and he was working on astronaut helmets for NASA. But he felt it was transferable
to the world of footwear and cushioning systems. And so part of it is seeing something like that
happening, but also being receptive to be hear from others. Right. And ultimately, the rest is
history. And Nike Air became a revolution. Right. It changed the way Nike running shoes were made
and how they helped athletes perform. So that's just one example. And there are thousands out
there around the different industries, especially today, as you see so many entrepreneurs on that.
But if you're it's easy to get complacent. That's why I always say comfort is the enemy of creativity.
And it's your job as a leader to instill curiosity within your employees and your team so that you
have that energy and that culture of sharing and everyone's growing together and learning together.
Excellent. That was part one of my conversation with Greg Hoffman, the former chief marketing
officer of Nike and the author of Emotion by Design. Since the first time that I met Greg
over 20 years ago, I've worked on Nike for more than a decade. So I've been in the same meetings
with him over time. But this was the first time that I got to sit down with him for more than an
hour to have an in-depth conversation on various topics. In addition to the presence that I could
feel over the screen, he also had a completely different level of wisdom that comes from age,
that comes from years of experience. And I'm sure not only successes that he had, but a lot of
challenges that he's faced working at Nike, working on so many different types of projects
around the world. The kind of presence mixed with wisdom was a different version of Greg that I got
to talk to 21 years later from my first encounter with Greg. So here are my three key takeaways from
this part of my conversation. Number one, each moment is a unique playlist. Number two, innovation
各瞬間は独自のプレイリストであること
happens at intersections. And number three, creativity is a team sport. Key takeaway number
one, each moment is a unique playlist. This was a little unexpected for me because it was part of my
conversation with Greg and I discovered something new about him. I asked him why he hadn't looked
for his family in the past, to which he responded, in fact he had, but because of the lack of technology
he wasn't able to track down. It was only a few years ago that somebody reached out to him over
the internet. Well, this person reached out to him thinking that Greg was her uncle, but it turned out
that this person and Greg were in fact siblings. And that was such an unexpected story for me,
but also for him. And I asked him how he felt about being reunited and discover new dimensions
to his life and new connections that he didn't know that he had. I remember the tone of the
conversation turned really warm and he smiled and he said that each moment is a unique playlist.
Referring to the fact that whether it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, or even
10 weeks ago, each moment in life has a certain feeling about it and the music that you hear
in your head might bring different types of emotions. And that kind of relates to the title
of his book, Emotion by Design, that he is either directly or indirectly designing the playlist
of his life at each moment of his journey. So key takeaway number one, each moment is a unique
playlist. I thought that was such an eloquent and beautiful way of articulating, appreciating life.
Key takeaway number two, innovation happens at intersections. This is a point that resonated
革新は交差点で起こること
with me deeply because I also have existed at different intersections, either at intersections
of culture, intersections of creativity and technology and design, and the differences
between different disciplines, different expertise, or different points of view.
Those are the factors that create innovation down the line. One of the stories that he shared by
innovations was Nike Air. Many of you know that Nike Air is one of the most popular sneakers
around the world. But this part of the story I didn't know was the original technology of Nike
Air came from NASA. Somebody at NASA had invented this air technology that packed air into
the structure to create a certain kind of cushioning. And somebody at Nike saw that and
thought that, hey, this could be used for the sneaker. And it was that kind of breaking the
boundaries and looking for an application of something from a different industry or different
discipline into a new territory. And having that intersection of a technology and a design or
an opinion and a culture and the merge of those two could create a tremendous kind of innovation.
And Nike Air is probably one of the best examples of innovation that came at the intersection of
two different disciplines. So innovation happens at intersections is a very simple statement that I
related to very deeply and appreciated hearing from Greg and articulated in this succinct way.
創造性はチームスポーツであること
Key takeaway number three, creativity is a team sport. This point I can share the episode we
talked about in the conversation. Back in 2002, I was working on a product called Nike Shox,
which is a new sneaker that Nike had introduced at the time. It was called Shox because in the
back of the shoe were these spring-like structures that would give the runner the shock absorption.
So that's why it was called the Shox. And the logo that I was using, that was given, that was designed
by the Nike brand design team, and I was using to implement into the work that I was doing for Nike
at the time, was this geometrical S-shaped logo with two bars at the top and the bottom,
looking like a spring. So that was simplified visual manifestation of the product's benefit
represented as a logo. What I didn't know until my conversation with Greg was that Greg was the
originator of that idea. He had sketched that logo in his sketchbook and he forgot about it.
He and his team went outside the company to hire a design firm to come up with a brand identity
system for the Nike Shox family. They explored, I think like 50 or so, even more logo variations,
and they narrowed down to three or four different directions. And one of them was the initial sketch
that Greg had done. What was, even at a relatively young age, when he was just a new leader in that
brand design team, he knew not to push his own design, but let the audience, in that case Nike's
various teams, who were reviewing the brand identity to decide which one to go with. And it
was really the group that kept voting for the version that Greg had put forward. It wasn't
Greg pushing for it, but having the team voice his opinions and naturally have the selection bubble
up to the top. So I thought that was a very specific episode, but represented Greg's mantra,
one of his mantras, creativity is a team sport. And even when he was in his early 30s, when I
started working with Nike, even though I wasn't in that specific meeting room, I'm glad to discover
that story 21 years later and realize that creativity is a team sport is a mantra that
he may not have articulated back then, but he had lived through all his life at Nike.
So to summarize my three key takeaways from this part of my conversation with Greg,
key takeaway number one, each moment is a unique playlist. Number two, innovation happens at
intersections. And number three, creativity is a team sport. If you're listening to this on Spotify,
there's a Q&A field, so please do send us your questions and comments. If you're listening to this
on Apple Podcasts or any other app, and if you like our podcast, please leave us a five-star rating.
次のエピソード：ブランドコミュニケーションのリスクを取る
It really helps, and we'd be so grateful. In the next episode, we continue my conversation
with Greg, and the focus is on taking risks in brand communication.
I'm Ray Namoto, and this is A Creative Mindset. See you next time.
