Japan
When I moved here, I started dealing with the Japanese… Having studied Japanese economics in college… and having written my thesis on The Japanese Electronics Industry… This gave me some familiarity in dealing with the Japanese…
Our business with the Japanese was growing into a joint development and manufacturing of a low cost disk drive… and… as they say… the devil is in the details… the work was tedious… and one must be very attentive during the negotiations…
On one of these occasions, negotiations were proceeding at snail pace they were probably trying to wear us out… the procedure was as follows…
There was an easel pad at the head of the table… we were sitting on one side and the Japanese across from us… We took turns on writing on the easel our position… when we finished with a pad we left it on a side table and started a new one… After four days we had finished five pads and started a sixth… I was tired and wanted to finish these dreary negotiations and fly home… It was at that moment that I noticed my Japanese counterpart write on the easel their latest position… and I remembered that this was the position he had written three or four days before… realizing that this was my chance for a breakthrough…
I jumped out of my chair… and looked through the old pads while shouting to the Japanese… our hosts… that the deal is dead because they are dishonorable… without any respect for our integrity… At that point I found their position in an older pad… and they were both identical… proving that they really were wearing us… or trying to…
As I was packing… ready to leave… my Japanese counterpart pulled out his white handkerchief and waved it… meaning “I surrender”…
At that point the rest of the negotiations went smoothly and rapidly…
When I moved here, I started dealing with the Japanese… Having studied Japanese economics in college… and having written my thesis on The Japanese Electronics Industry… This gave me some familiarity in dealing with the Japanese…
Our business with the Japanese was growing into a joint development and manufacturing of a low cost disk drive… and… as they say… the devil is in the details… the work was tedious… and one must be very attentive during the negotiations…
On one of these occasions, negotiations were proceeding at snail pace they were probably trying to wear us out… the procedure was as follows…
There was an easel pad at the head of the table… we were sitting on one side and the Japanese across from us… We took turns on writing on the easel our position… when we finished with a pad we left it on a side table and started a new one… After four days we had finished five pads and started a sixth… I was tired and wanted to finish these dreary negotiations and fly home… It was at that moment that I noticed my Japanese counterpart write on the easel their latest position… and I remembered that this was the position he had written three or four days before… realizing that this was my chance for a breakthrough…
I jumped out of my chair… and looked through the old pads while shouting to the Japanese… our hosts… that the deal is dead because they are dishonorable… without any respect for our integrity… At that point I found their position in an older pad… and they were both identical… proving that they really were wearing us… or trying to…
As I was packing… ready to leave… my Japanese counterpart pulled out his white handkerchief and waved it… meaning “I surrender”…
At that point the rest of the negotiations went smoothly and rapidly…
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