Exploiting Hollywood 1980

“New York City Ballet’s new version of ‘Romeo et Juliette’ is truly awe-inspiring.”

The speaker was Sony’s president, Norio Ohga.

Da He has an artistic temperament, wears gold-rimmed glasses, and speaks very fluent English for Japanese people. Ronald went with him to a New York City Ballet performance, then returned to the Peninsula Hotel where he was staying to continue the conversation.

Dahe continued to praise the high level of New York City Ballet.

This is not arty Norio Ohga. In his early years, he was a graduate of the Tokyo National University of Art and Music, specializing in opera singing. After that, he went to Munich and Berlin to continue his studies, and became a lifelong friend with Karajan, the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. If he had not joined Sony later, he would have become a singer at the Tokyo Opera House or the conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

How did such an artist become the president of Sony Corporation, a multinational consumer electronics manufacturer?

It's interesting to say that Dahe joined Sony by chance. When he was young, he bought a Sony recorder to study opera. During use, he found that Sony's products had many faults and were almost unusable.

So he wrote a letter of opinion to Sony's then president Akio Morita, summarizing all the faults of Sony's recorders and writing suggestions on how they should be improved. This letter made Sony executives very excited. They felt like they had found a treasure. After Oga returned from studying abroad, he was hired by Akio Morita as a non-staff consultant to the company.

Norio Ohga is a genius who understands both art and technology. While working as a singer at the Tokyo Opera House, he participated in public relations for Sony's various projects until one day because he was too tired and fell asleep backstage and missed him during the opera. The character’s playing time.

He knew that he could only guarantee one job. After thinking about it, he gave up his music dream and joined Sony full-time. He has always been Akio Morita's favorite.

Dahe is also full of passion for flying. He has obtained eight types of pilot licenses and can fly all kinds of aircraft, including civil airliners. This time he came to America for a business trip and flew his own plane.

Hearing that Ronald was very busy, Norio Ohga personally flew a business jet to Los Angeles. After meeting with Ronald, he warmly invited him to be a pilot himself and invited Ronald to spend the weekend in New York to watch the New York City Ballet. New Year's performance.

Unable to resist the hospitality, Ronald had no choice but to go to New York with Bannon, Johnny Kitagawa, and Norio Ohga. When they arrived in New York, Dahe never mentioned asking Ronald for help, but instead enjoyed the most luxurious Japanese meals and the best classical music performances with him.

In addition to material and spiritual enjoyment, Dahe also gave Ronald the latest BetaCam SP upgraded camera. Different from the previous old model, the horizontal resolution of the new camera has been increased to an unprecedented 340 lines, beating the 300 lines of existing TV equipment. Seeing that all major TV stations in the United States have to upgrade.

"They will arrange classical ballet in the New Year, and the usual performance seasons are still mainly modern ballet." Because of Antonia's relationship, Ronald knows the New York City Ballet better. Their focus is different from that of the ballet companies in China and the Union. , focusing on modern ballet.

"Yes, I like their modern ballet very much, but I didn't expect that their classical ballet level is also very high." Norio Ohga is an expert, and there are few people in Japan who can talk to him about art.

Ronald played with the new camera for a while. When you are polite to others, you must ask for something. So he turned the topic to business and asked President Norio Ohga what he wanted to consult about.

"Ronald San, I just don't understand some aspects of American culture. This time I came to America, Sony suffered some setbacks in its business operations. I especially want to find someone who can connect Eastern and Western cultures. A master who understands both America and Japan’s way of thinking, come and ask me some philosophical questions.”

Dahe solemnly stated the purpose of his visit in clear English.

"Huh?" Ronald exclaimed, "Mr. Dahe, I'm just a film director, not an entrepreneur. I have a company just to make movies to facilitate project establishment. I'm afraid I can't be of much help. "

"Ronald San is a humble man, but he is indeed the American art master who understands Japanese philosophy best." Dahe nodded slightly, saying that he was not talking nonsense, and that he made it up purely to find a partner to watch a show and chat with. reason. Although I did watch the show with Ronald and chat about art, it did feel good. The two of them could say that they hit it off immediately.

Listening to Ronald's answer, Ohga Norio knew that this person was definitely a rare talent with a thorough understanding of Chinese and Western thinking. How do ordinary Americans understand the Eastern philosophy of showing humility first when consulting a superior?

Even Schulhoff, the vice chairman of Sony's American branch and the most senior Western employee, has no such awareness. When Americans see this kind of opportunity, they don't take the opportunity to brag about their abilities.

"Ronald-san was personally recommended by Kitagawa-san. I specially found two Japanese cultural films directed by you, 'The Dragon King' and the sequel. The role of Master Miyagi is a master with Eastern philosophical thinking. I I know he made the right recommendation.”

Dahe explained his purpose in a leisurely manner. As for Ronald's statement that he is not an entrepreneur, it is not the focus of his consideration at all. Isn't he also a singer who became a monk by the way and is now the second-in-command of Sony?

Ohga is a very shrewd manager. His problem is that he can't understand the thinking of the senior managers of American Art Company, and the wise people in the company may not speak freely. Kitagawa recommended Ronald, and he wanted to try to see what this famous Hollywood director who likes Eastern culture thinks and what inspiration he can get.

"So, what is your philosophical challenge?" Ronald was relieved when he heard that it was a profound question like talking about philosophy. Anyway, he also knows a little about Eastern thinking, so it's okay to talk about philosophy with the other party.

"Hey, Sony Records wants to acquire your Columbia Records. We made three bids and felt that we had done our best, but they were all rejected by Columbia's senior management. I really don't understand your... way of thinking. So this time I want to ask..."

Ohga Norio was really distressed and told the whole story.

It turned out that Sony and Columbia Records had a long history of cooperation. As early as the 1960s, a joint venture company in Japan was established. In 1982, it invested tens of millions of dollars in America to establish a joint venture new CD record factory.

In 1986, Lawrence Turhu, an entrepreneur who made his fortune in resort business, acquired the controlling stake of Columbia Group and planned to sell its record company.

After hearing the news, Walter Yetnikoff, president of Columbia Records, immediately suggested to his partner Sony to take over this high-quality asset.

Sony's chairman Akio Morita and president Norio Ohga were very excited. This was their long-awaited opportunity to enter the American market. They immediately entrusted Schulhoff, vice chairman of the American branch factory, to negotiate with Columbia.

In November 1986, Sony made its first acquisition offer to Columbia. Turhu offered Columbia Records a price of $1.25 billion.

Morita and Ohga confirmed the price. Although it was expensive, it was worth it. At the same time, Sony's Schulhoff reached an agreement with Columbia Records' Yetnikoff to ensure that there would be no serious changes in the management of the record company after the acquisition. More importantly, there would be no problems with the recorded music (of course, the most important thing at that time was MJ's new album).

But Columbia Al Chairman Lawrence Turhu brought bad news: the board of directors rejected the proposal. In particular, Vice Chairman Palai strongly opposed giving up the record business and persuaded the board to reject the proposal.

Nine months later, in the summer of 1987, Tokushi proposed the acquisition for the second time. This time, the acquisition price was almost 60% higher than the first time, reaching 2 billion US dollars. Akio Morita and Norio Ohga agreed to the new price almost without hesitation. The main reason was that the Japanese yen was appreciating rapidly at that time.

However, Palai, the vice chairman of the opposition Columbia Group, still gathered a group of Jewish executives to vote against the new bid. They found problems in Sony's attitude and wanted to extort money again.

After the second acquisition failed, things took another turn after the "Black Monday" when the US stock market crashed. The main reason this time was that the financial market had seriously shaken Columbia's prospects.

The day after the stock market crash, Tokushi told Schulhof that if Sony was still interested in the record company, he guaranteed that the board would agree, but the price would remain at 2 billion US dollars.

Schulhof asked Tokyo for instructions for the third time. Obviously, Akio Morita was not bothered by the price issue. He told Schulhof: "If it was worth $2 billion last month, then it is still worth $2 billion."

No one would agree to such favorable conditions except Japanese entrepreneurs. Companies from other countries will definitely take advantage of the situation and try to lower the price. This transaction is great news for Columbia's listed companies.

Unexpectedly, after the impact of the stock market crash recovered, discordant voices began to appear within the Columbia board of directors. Some board members wanted to join forces to veto Sony's invitation again.

"I don't quite understand why Chairman Akio Morita didn't take advantage of the stock market crash to lower the price?" After listening to this magical acquisition experience, Ronald also felt that Sony was too easy to talk to.

"It is not so easy for our Japanese capital to enter America and acquire a long-established record company." Ohga Norio explained the reason. It is not easy for the defeated country's enterprises to make money to acquire the victorious country's enterprises. This is a hurdle that is not easy to overcome psychologically. The opportunity of the stock market crash was a good persuasive reason for the people - "This time, the defeated country is here to help us through the difficulties."

What Morita and Ohga thought about most was to seize the time and win.

"And the management culture of our Japanese companies is very different from that of America," Ohga said, adding the second reason for maintaining the bid. During the post-war MacArthur occupation, the US military translated a lot of laws and imposed them on the Japanese government.

The Labor Law is the most typical law among them. After the revision, companies basically cannot fire employees. So once an employee is hired, he must be supported until retirement.

"The young people in our company always look at the current company decisions based on the development in 20 years. This is an important reason for our company's progress. Compared with the benefits that Columbia Records can bring to Sony in 20 years, this premium is nothing." Ohga concluded.

So that's how it is. Ronald had a clue in his mind. In fact, this is still a question of cultural and institutional differences. The lifetime employment system combines the traditional loyalty culture between the samurai daimyo of Japan. Employees devote their talents and efforts to their employers, and employers also have the mentality of taking care of their employees for life.

In large Japanese companies, from top to bottom, everyone is united, and employees regard the company as a big family. Against the backdrop of Japan's economic takeoff, the international competitiveness that has erupted is very strong.

But when they have developed successfully, they go out of Japan and come to America to acquire companies. They are very uncomfortable with the culture here that treats everything as business.

On the one hand, they look at the long-term vision of twenty years later and do not fight for the short-term, and on the other hand, they think it is stupid to not make money and think that it is a rival. I am afraid that the board of directors of Columbia regards Sony's good intentions as a bad brain, and they want to cheat out of this big deal.

However, Ronald understood this cultural gap, and it was difficult to explain it to Ohga. Just like it was difficult for him to explain to American entrepreneurs why Sony had the opportunity to lower the price during the stock market crash, but still insisted on the original offer.

"By the way, Mr. Ohga, is Palai, who opposed the acquisition twice in the board of directors, Jewish?" Ronald suddenly had an idea.

"Most of the people on the board who opposed our acquisition were indeed Jewish. But there were also supporters." Ohga Norio admitted. In the United States, Jewish talents are mainly sent to the three industries of entertainment, journalism, and capital markets. Columbia has many Jewish executives.

The first person to suggest the acquisition to Sony, Columbia Records' vice president Yetnikoff, is Jewish.

Ronald remembered his unpleasant experience dealing with Jews, and he understood a little bit in his heart.

"Mr. Ohga, most of the Jews in America are immigrants from Eastern Europe. It can be said that their business is completely different from the Eastern tradition." Ronald explained to the other party with a smile.

"When they come to negotiate, they will pretend to hit hard. If you are afraid of being hit, or retreat because of long-term interests, they will happily take the olive branch you handed over to express friendship and put it in their pocket. Then they think that they have defeated you, a foreigner, with their intelligence and ambition."

"Is that so?" Ohga Norio was a little surprised. Is there such a thing in business? Do these people think that all Japanese people are fools?

"Yes, they will also squeeze you according to this scale every time they trade with you because of your weakness. If you express dissatisfaction, they will also use your kindness during the first transaction as a scale to protest to you."

Ronald has been dealing with Jews for a long time, and he is very clear about their method of taking care of the head but not the butt. Whether it is using the information gap to cheat you, or using big words to deceive you at the beginning, it is good to make money.

As for whether you don't want to do long-term business with them after being deceived, hey, what plans do Jews have for long-term industrial business? They all make as much money as they can. During World War II, they could even sell ropes to hang themselves.

"This..." Ohga Norio began to think deeply. This kind of deep Jewish business thinking is simply unreasonable for Japanese entrepreneurs. But Ronald pointed out the key points, and when he recalled it, he found that everything was in line with it. He is indeed a master of philosophy who understands the East and the West. If he is not such a genius, he can't film a character full of oriental wisdom like Master Miyagi in The Karate Kid.

"Moreover, Jews have a characteristic. They are equally fierce to competitors, partners, and other Jews. They wish to win your underwear." Ronald continued. He also looked down on this Jewish business philosophy. Long-term industrial business all emphasizes a win-win situation. If you don't let your partners make money, how can it last long?

Ohga Norio's thinking was cleared of fog, and he immediately figured out a comprehensive countermeasure. The reason why they felt that they had nowhere to start before was because of the cultural gap, which made them unexpected that the other party was so short-sighted.

Now that they understand the key to the problem, it will be easy to deal with. Since they are so fierce to people of the same ethnic group, just find a Jew in the industry to deal with them. The Japanese are not unfamiliar with this strategy.

"Ronald, you are the most commanding philosopher and artist I have met since I came to America." Ohga Norio stopped talking about business and started chatting with Ronald about Hollywood's artistic achievements.

This man is very knowledgeable about movies adapted from operas and especially likes Ronald's acquaintance, Franco Zeffirelli, the director of "Endless Love" starring Brooke Shields.