High-Tech Business Group Talks Japanese : Conference: Executives from 20 U.S. and Asian companies trade tips on entering lucrative market at Tustin roundtable.
Building on a relationship started in Tokyo last spring, top executives representing 20 U.S. and Asian technology companies gathered here Thursday to begin a two-day conference on how foreign companies can enter the lucrative Japanese market more easily.
The goal of the Pacific Technology Roundtable--the brainchild of a Tarzana business research organization--is to break down the cultural barriers between American and Asian high-tech entrepreneurs by forging ties between promising medium-sized companies, said Carmelo Santoro, chairman of Silicon Systems Inc., a Tustin semiconductor manufacturer.
But Safi U. Qureshey, president of AST Research Inc., an Irvine personal computer maker, said easing cultural differences is only part of the story. “It’s not a matter of understanding each other’s cultures,” he said. “It’s a matter of knowing what your goals are. . . . By going into the Japanese market, we’ve learned to be flexible.”
Takashi Nakagami, chairman and chief executive of Tokyo’s EWIG Corp., said the meetings should sow the seeds for a sounder relationship between “a new generation of Japanese and American businessmen” in the 1990s.
Unlike their first meeting in April, the executives--from the United States, Japan and Taiwan--said they now feel comfortable enough with each other to begin tackling the tough questions of market access and business cooperation. Some of the executives said they didn’t know each other well enough at the first meeting to engage in serious discussions.
For most of the executives, however, establishing friendships is only part of a larger goal. Most are looking for suitable business partners across the Pacific, said Steve Panzer, president of the Research Institute for the Management of Technology in Tarzana, which launched the roundtable earlier this year. Half the foreign companies that start high-tech businesses in Japan end up in failure, a 1990 survey by the Ernst & Young accounting firm found.
Takeo Shimojo, president of a Tokyo software company, said he and another group member, Marvin Hoffman, chairman of a Los Angeles software firm, are planning ways to introduce U.S. off-the-shelf software packages in Japan--a market largely dominated by local companies that make custom-made software.
Robert A. Kleist, president and chief executive of Printronix Inc., is courting several Japanese companies that can supply his Irvine firm with print engines for the laser computer printers that it makes.
“I have a tentative profile of what would make a good partner, but I want to test those ideas in this meeting,” Kleist said.
Santoro, a founding member of the group, said any deals made between participants “are just icing on the cake.” His company was acquired by Japan’s TDK Corp. last year.
Talks are also under way for possible joint ventures in manufacturing, research and development and other areas, said EWIG’s Nakagami.
“If this group is successful in raising cooperation between the high-tech companies, we plan to extend similar forums between Japanese high-tech companies and other Western countries,” Nakagami said.
Half of the 10 American participants are from Orange County. Besides Silicon Systems, Printronix and AST, the other local participants are Rainbow Technologies Inc., which makes PC security devices, and Platinum Holding Corp., an accounting software developer.
