David already knew quite a bit about doing business in Japan. He thought about what he had learned from many years of doing business with Japanese customers.

David knew that teamwork, partnerships, personal relationships, and a consensus style of decision-making were all very important and valued traits in Japan. In fact, it was not at all uncommon in Japan to prepare for a business meeting by meeting individually with each of the people who would be at the meeting. At those one-on-one meetings, each person would discuss the decisions or new ideas that would be brought up at the big meeting. That way, there would be no surprises at the big meeting. No one would lose face or be embarrassed by being on the losing end of a big decision, because everyone would already have discussed what was going to happen at the meeting. Patient, careful communications like these and strong personal relationships were very important parts of Japanese culture.

After thinking about everything he knew about doing business in Japan, David concluded that his customer’s new way of doing business was not simply for show. Instead, it was a serious shift in the way the company operated. The company was changing its business style not just to be more focused on the overall company’s global needs but also to mirror Japanese cultural ideals.

David valued his relationship with his customer and with the managers of all of its branch offices. He wanted to maintain good relationships with all of them as the company changed its way of making decisions. And he didn’t want to be left behind. How could he do that?