Case study Questions 3 1. What are three of the cultural “missteps” that Wally Astor and his father-in-law, Henry

Williams, made in this scenario? Why do you think this happened?

-The cultural “missteps” were not knowing that Brazilian are a high power distanced culture. Wally and his father-in-law also weren’t prepared enough for this meeting to know that Brazilian businessmen do their business based on trust, and relation has to be built before business discussion can proceed. Lastly, they should know that Brazilian are low contact culture. All this happened because this was the first time Wally has ever go out on a business trip alone and the absence of his father-in-law worsen this problem.

2. If you were a native of Brazil and advising American business representatives on what to do when talking with Brazilian business partners, what would you tell the Americans about Brazilian cultures?

-I will tell the Americans to be ready with the high contact culture of the Brazilian businessmen. Also I will explain to the Americans that the Brazilian business are build based on relationship and that they should spend some time and efforts on building good relationship with the Brazilian businessmen before any business discussion. Lastly, I will encourage the Americans to open up and try to be comfortable with diffusive conversation whereby topics about their families are involved.

3. Imagine that the situation in this case study was reversed, that is, the Brazilian businessmen were coming to the U.S. to look for a supplier. What would you tell the Brazilian about American business culture to prepare them for success?

-Is the case study were reversed, I will suggest that the Brazilian businessmen to try and make less contact with the American business partners as American are used to low contact culture. Also, I will ask the Brazilian businessmen to be ready and be prepared on their proposition as American culture are monochromic which tends to do things fast in a ordered way, and do not like to waste time going back to topic where decision have been made.

Case study Question 44. Discuss how both Woodford and Kikukawa could have acted differently to resolve the

problems that Woodford had uncovered.

Woodford could have acted differently in the way he demanded Kikukawa to resign. Although what he did was wrong, he needed to understand the Japanese culture and also the corporate management structure. If he did have an understanding of this, he would have never attacked this situation in that way. He would have known that Kikukawa’s fellow managers would stand by him, and Woodford would be the one that looked bad. Woodford should have spoke with Kikukawa independently, calling him out

in front of the board was the wrong decision, but rather discussing one on one the issues uncovered privately.

5. Research what had happened to Olympus since this case was written since late 2012.

Since the case was written, Olympus announced it would shed 2,700 jobs and around 40% of manufacturing plants by 2015, this is to reduce it’s cost base as their share value dropped a lot since this case was written. In July 2013, both Kikukawa and Mori were sentenced to three years in prison and five years of suspension. Olympus was also fined 700 million yen and six banks filed a civil lawsuit against Olympus over the fraud seeking an additional 28 million yen.

Citations1. "Japan's Olympus sued by six banks over accounting fraud" . BBC News (9 April

2014). Archived from the original on 14 April 2014.2.  "Olympus eyes liquidating shady firms". 22 December 2011. Japan Times. Archived from the

original on 29 December 2011.