Master of The Games

By Seiichi Kanise/Tokyo

When Masato Mizuno succeeded his father as president of Mizuno Corp. in 1988, the largest sporting-goods maker in Japan was a stumbling giant. But the new boss swiftly installed automation equipment and used marketing savvy to get the family firm back on track. The revitalized company (1989 sales: $1 billion) last year captured a dominant 30% share of Japan's $1.3 billion market for golf and baseball equipment. Now it is launching a major drive into the U.S. and other countries. "Grandfather founded the company, and father introduced technological innovations," Masato says. "Now it's my turn to expand and truly internationalize it."

Mizuno, whose 35,000 products range from T shirts to tennis racquets, is already a power hitter in foreign markets. More than 200 players in the American and National leagues -- nearly a third of the total -- take the field wearing Mizuno gloves and shoes. And the firm's wares are not confined to the baseball diamond: Mizuno sells 1 million golf clubs a year to U.S. pros and duffers.

Mizuno is now stepping up the pace. In February the company began production at a $3 million plant in Juarez, Mexico, that taps inexpensive Mexican labor and exports golf bags across the border. "The U.S. sporting-goods market is four times larger than Japan's," says Masato. "I'm confident that we can carve out a niche." Such assurance is typical of Masato, a flamboyant manager who drives a red 1965 Ford Mustang convertible to work. Says an aide: "He's a fireball."

Under Masato the company has overhauled its operations, from the factory floor to the checkout counter. To increase productivity, for example, Masato installed industrial robots that can wind the cores for 4,000 baseballs a day, in contrast to 1,200 balls before the equipment was added.

Even as he upgraded the firm's factories, Masato revised the way in which Mizuno sporting goods were sold. To lure new shoppers to company-owned stores in Osaka and Tokyo, Masato filled the facilities with what he called "full- service sports." Before buying a new set of clubs, golfers can take computerized lessons on improving their swing. Health aficionados can have acupuncture treatments or soothing massages.

While some critics argue that the absence of such amenities in foreign markets will limit the company's overseas growth, such talk hardly discourages Masato. He predicts that Mizuno's sales in Japan will climb more than 100%, to $2.6 billion, by 2001, while foreign revenues will grow tenfold, to about $650 million. At the same time, Masato wants to make Mizuno goods the worldwide standard for quality just as his grandfather Rihachi made Mizuno baseballs the standard in Japan. It was Rihachi who decreed that when an official Japanese ball was dropped from a height of 16 1/2 ft., it had to bounce 4 1/2 ft. That just happened to be the eye level of the diminutive company founder. Today his grandson, who is 5 ft. 5 in. tall, has set his sights considerably higher.