Through the affair, this "je ne sais quoi" of intention that we see as willfull shareholder neglect is a recurrent theme which Mr Woodford, activists, and foreign investors would have, and should have been more aware. It explains the behaviour of what in a 2008 post I called TeamJapan, (i.e. Olympus Senior Management, their Board of Directors, their bankers, and Olympus' large corporate shareholders, service providers, as well as regulators). I wrote the post to explain why TCI's run at 9513 (Elec Power Development) was assinine and stupid (from the point of view of TCI's Investors'). It goes to the heart of the behavioural response of almost all Japanese actors and is reprinted for you below....
TEAMJAPAN (AS EXPLAINED BY S. SUZUKI)
Christopher Hohn and his TCI are obviously NOT Suzuki parents, for if they were, they would have better understood what they up against in terms of TeamJapan.
Shinichi Suzuki's Nurtured by Love, The Classic Approach to Talent Education is an illuminating account of his philosophy regarding life, music, and learning. For those who do not know of Mr Suzuki, he is the father of a global musical instruction movement which posits that everyone has the aptitude and is capable of reaching a decent level of musicianship with consistent effort and practice. Teaching begins young, and employs a methodical progression focused upon sound and mastery and continued practice of prior achievements. It is wonderfully Japanese, in the the most admiring sense - the love part of my love/hate with Japan.
In the book, (which I recommend to everyone whether they are interested in music or not) he recounts an anecdote from his days at the Nagoya Commericial School where he was class president for four years running. The motto of the school was "First Character, Then Ablity". Noble enough. And so he explains:
During the final examinations, one of the students whom I shall call A, was discovered by B to be cheating and B announced the fact loudly to the teacher in charge. A was then sent out o the classroom, which was by then in an uproar. But when the examination was over, and as soon as the studentswere out in the passage, another student C, leaped upon informer B, a big boy, asking him what kind of friends he thought he was, and hit him. The others joined in and they all gave 'B' a sound thrashing. I was still in the classroom. It all happened in the twinkling of an eye. Presently they sent for me, the class president to come to the faculty rom. "What is meaning of this outrageous attack? Were you aware of it?"
Suzuki replied (and recall that he is a pacifist, a thoroughly gentle human being with the highest moral character displayed is countless ways throughout his life):
Suzuki: "I was. I struck him too."
Faculty: What? who are the students that struck him?
Suzuki: All the members of the class, Sir.
Faculty: And you think you did right, do you?
Suzuki: I do not sir. I think it was wrong to cheat. But I think it was extremely unfriendly to report him sir. Please punish us....
If only Hohn had learned violin the Suzuki-way, he could have saved his investors a lot of money, not to mention loss of face....
2 comments:
I think "dis-embezzlement" might be one way of expressing what it is you appear to want to convey.
Not sure I buy that; I'd need a reason to trust motive. But maybe.
But the Suzuki story is relevant to the Kyle Bass thesis. Bass is wrong. Japanese bonds will not collapse, because there will be no game-theoretic defection.
Because the defector will be pummeled. See e.g. Japanese politics of the 20s and 30s.
Anonymous,
We agree on both accounts. Greenmailing hyena's have proved successful in a few instances picking off stray members of the herd, but their ability to take down the largest prey, let alone The System is doubtful. It is dangerous positioning against the interests and resolve of those that make (and can change the rules) as plungers learned in Europe.
The institutional silence following Olympus was deafening. A minor peep from Nippon Life...after which they too fell silent. And Mr Woodford not only wasn't taken up on his "generous" offer to re-join Olympus by the co's creditors' in charge, but (just guessing) he likely did not even receive the courtesy of a reply.
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