Unexpected business trip to Europe #1

On the final day of training for our North American distributor, DMC, at Sonora’s Tokyo headquarters, our chairman also made the quick decision to allow our business trip to Europe.

The DMC CEO, who had held meetings with us for several months prior to the training regarding a potential European client, took the initiative and suggested visiting the site to move the discussion forward.

As a side note, it is quite challenging to set up web conferences connecting the three companies in Japan, North America, and Europe due to the time difference. One of the companies always has to sacrifice their time by ending up in the middle of the night or early morning.

As a consultant and advisor, myself, who has participated in numerous web conferences between Japan and Europe, I have often observed that subtle power dynamics influence the prioritization of time zones.

In this case, a European venture company was the customer and a major Japanese company was the supplier.

During web conferences, appointments during visits to Japan, and business communications, the European company often prioritized their own interests. Although the Japanese company was initially polite, the situation gradually became tense.

I was worried that the deal wouldn’t go through if things kept up as they were. I asked the European side to improve their response. They replied,

Surprisingly, this is one of the first things that European companies aiming to enter the Japanese market are taught in their training.

I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to take those words at face value and act on them faithfully. However, this incident made me realize that the “discrepancy” caused by the difference in business customs between Europe, where assertiveness is valued, and Japan, where reading between the lines is important, extends beyond language differences and is a deep-rooted issue.

In that regard, as I wrote in a previous article, Sonora has the “strength to say No.”

Customers are not gods to Sonora. Sales are only finalized once customers fully understand and are satisfied with the acoustic performance of Sonora’s acoustic anechoic chambers. Sonora has the “confidence backed by technical skills” necessary to build equal partnerships with customers.

As part of an unusual overseas business trip with our North American distributor, our chairman assigned Mr. K, the veteran sales manager and the chairman’s right-hand man since the founding of Sonora, and me to visit a potential client in Europe. The pairing of the two of us was totally unexpected.

< to be continued…>