Welcome our global distributor #2 : Haruko MINAMI, Advisor

A mutually agreed MOU undersigned by Sonora and DMC in October 2023 has enabled both parties to intervene business deals deeply at an early stage, such as holding technical meetings with end-users, with regard to overseas enquiries brought by DMC.

This typically describes how the signing of a contract can move a business relationship forward smoothly.

In Western companies, it is even more important to have a visible, clear written commitment. This may be similar to the blood written petition that is said to have been often exchanged in the Edo period.

I have two lessons learned from my past experience regarding the written commitment with European companies.

The first one was with a Belgian company I used to support:

This is what one of the managing directors said to me when I signed off my NDA (non-disclosure agreement) as an adviser for the first time.

That makes sense, I thought. They have checked through my CV, interviewed me, and worked with me at the international exhibition in order to check my skills. However, they might have still been skeptical whether I was the right person for their company, while I also have to admit I had been hesitating whether it was really the right company for me to support.

The written consent would be to fill the gap in trusting relationships.

But in case that it is not easy to build? Here’s the second one with a Swiss company I used to support:

When the Swiss company was looking for a partner company with regard to the joint research and development, they initially asked for an NDA to be concluded enabling them to disclose certain detailed data, however, several Japanese companies have said “We will consider it.” and have not responded for a long time.

The Swiss management persons, annoyed by such attitude, irritatingly told me,

In contrast to Japanese companies, which take time to try to build trusting relationships, Western companies relatively have tendencies to judge early on, believing that it is quite difficult to do business without an NDA in place.

From that perspective, Sonora has done a speedy decision making in management since the NDA and MOU were signed off in a few months, only after having met DMC.

Some of you may think that a small company would not take so long to get approvals, but the size of the company has nothing to do with the speed of decision-making in management. Ultimately, it depends on how the leader is a strong decision maker. Sonora’s management team has carefully examined the DMC’s case in a short term and has promptly given the green light.

On the other hand, signing the contract also visualized our issues in terms of the technical understanding with regards to the “acoustic” anechoic chamber. It is no easy task for DMC, a company manufacturing EMCs (electromagnetic anechoic chambers), to promote acoustic anechoic chambers to end-users. We wondered whether Sonora’s technology is really being accurately explained to end-users by DMC.

This was no longer a challenge of language barriers, while we needed to strengthen DMC’s technical knowledge on our products in order to handle the deals through DMC, in thoroughly understanding the customer’s needs for an acoustic anechoic chamber, listening to feedback and ensuring that the finished products should be truly satisfactory to the customer.

Again, Sonora has made a prompt decision.

We are not looking for a brokering agency that only acts as a go-between. We want them to understand Sonora’s technology and products deeply, leading smarter promotional and sales activities of our products.

During a web conference, Sonora’s Founder & President spoke out the above-mentioned suggestion, which once again was swiftly realized after a busy period during the year-end and New Year holidays.

< to be continued >