Institut français de recherche sur le Japon à la Maison franco-japonaise (Umifre 19, MEAE-CNRS)

Most start-ups either fail or are taken over. How did Kyocera, a start-up born in Kyoto and co-founded by Inamori Kazuo, survive and grow? Why was its relation to banks different from most other Japanese corporations? Why did it diversify into telecoms, organize to this purpose the cooperation of 24 companies, but also join the US company Motorola in the building of a constellation of 66 communication satellites which experienced debacle? How did it face the challenges of internationalization and constitute a global network? What accounts for its specific contributions to management (accountancy, human resource development, business ethics)? More generally, how do some Japanese companies remain on the edge of high technology?

Speaker: Patrick FRIDENSON (EHESS)
He is Professor emeritus of International Business History at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France, and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Economics). His research deals with the strategies, structures, innovations, ethics and performances of business enterprises in relation to consumers and to the regulatory and social environment in international perspective. He has worked on several industries: coal, automobile, aircraft, electronics. He is a co-author of several books in English, including Ethical Capitalism. Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2017), Reimagining Business History (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 2013, translated in Japanese, 2017). He is a former President of the Business History Conference of the United States. His full bibliography is accessible on Internet at http://crh.ehess.fr/document.php?id=341

Moderator:Jean-Pascal BASSINO (French Research Institute on Japan - MFJ)