1997 Reports
Can an American entrepreneur work for a Japanese company and be effective and happy?
"So what behavior is characteristic of an entrepreneur? Let me offer my experience as the
founder of Materials Research Corporation (MRC), a premier supplier of thin film materials and
the film process equipment for the semiconductor industry, as an example. As the semiconductor
industry spread throughout the free world, I expanded the business by opening sales and service
companies in several European countries as well as a manufacturing plant in Toulouse, France.
Doing business in Japan, however, was not as straightforward because until 1980 foreign
corporations could not organize a Japanese operation unless it was a Japanese majority-owned
joint venture. Since my company had a considerable amount of proprietary technology, this was
not acceptable to me. Therefore, for many years we were limited to working with distribution
and sales agents in Japan."
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More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Center on Japanese Economy and Business
- Publisher
- Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University
- Series
- Center on Japanese Economy and Business Occasional Papers, 27
- Published Here
- February 16, 2011