Masato Mizuno, chairman, Mizuno

(CNN) -- It's both time-honored tradition and cutting-edge technology blended in this small factory in Osaka, Japan. This is the home of Japan's best known sporting export, Mizuno.

Its sports equipment and clothes sell around the world -- baseball gear, its first ever product, now joined by a growing range of other sports equipment. And then there's the "fastswim" professional swimsuits, modeled on shark skin.

The company is headed by effervescent chairman Masato Mizuno. In Osaka he talked to CNN's Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom about the toughest challenges he has faced in 19 years at the top.

Mizuno: OK. I became the president in 1988. It was a really great time. We've been enjoying the so-called bubble economy. So whatever we do, it was very successful in like four to five years, However, after that collapse of the bubble economy, we had a really hard time. But we set up a quite precise schedule to the comeback. And everybody really worked hard -- very cooperative. So we came back

Stevens: What lessons do you think you learnt that made the company better from going through that very sharp downturn?

Mizuno: Well we emphasize wherever we have strongness. During the good years, we diversified the range of the business. Most of them I failed. So whatever left we really emphasized this area which is technology.

Stevens: You've looked at the animal kingdom to provide some clues for developing new products. I'm thinking of sharkskin used in your fast suits, patterns on a shark actually have been incorporated into your fast suits and there's a lot of success with swimmers wearing your products in Sydney. What else are you working on?

Mizuno: Well, we're developing the new swimsuits for Beijing. This is quite different from the past. So I cannot tell you today but this is quite, you know, different products.

Stevens: What do you think is the best piece of management advice you've ever received?

Mizuno: I've learned from the boy scout experience, our motto is be prepared. So every, you know the item, I have to do, I like to make good preparation, for the company for myself, or for family, we have to be prepared. E-mail to a friend