Case study Questions 3

1. What are three of the cultural missteps that Wally Astor and his
father-in-law, Henry Williams, made in this scenario? Why do you think
this happened?
-The cultural missteps were not knowing that Brazilian are a high
power distanced culture. Wally and his father-in-law also werent
prepared enough for this meeting to know that Brazilian businessmen
do their business based on trust, and relation has to be built before
business discussion can proceed. Lastly, they should know that
Brazilian are low contact culture. All this happened because this was
the first time Wally has ever go out on a business trip alone and the
absence of his father-in-law worsen this problem.
2. If you were a native of Brazil and advising American business
representatives on what to do when talking with Brazilian business
partners, what would you tell the Americans about Brazilian cultures?
-I will tell the Americans to be ready with the high contact culture of
the Brazilian businessmen. Also I will explain to the Americans that the
Brazilian business are build based on relationship and that they should
spend some time and efforts on building good relationship with the
Brazilian businessmen before any business discussion. Lastly, I will
encourage the Americans to open up and try to be comfortable with
diffusive conversation whereby topics about their families are involved.
3. Imagine that the situation in this case study was reversed, that is, the
Brazilian businessmen were coming to the U.S. to look for a supplier.
What would you tell the Brazilian about American business culture to
prepare them for success?
-Is the case study were reversed, I will suggest that the Brazilian
businessmen to try and make less contact with the American business
partners as American are used to low contact culture. Also, I will ask
the Brazilian businessmen to be ready and be prepared on their
proposition as American culture are monochromic which tends to do
things fast in a ordered way, and do not like to waste time going back
to topic where decision have been made.
Case study Question 4
4. Discuss how both Woodford and Kikukawa could have acted differently
to resolve the problems that Woodford had uncovered.
Woodford could have acted differently in the way he demanded
Kikukawa to resign. Although what he did was wrong, he needed to

understand the Japanese culture and also the corporate management

structure. If he did have an understanding of this, he would have never
attacked this situation in that way. He would have known that
Kikukawas fellow managers would stand by him, and Woodford would
be the one that looked bad. Woodford should have spoke with
Kikukawa independently, calling him out in front of the board was the
wrong decision, but rather discussing one on one the issues uncovered
privately.
5. Research what had happened to Olympus since this case was written
since late 2012.
Since the case was written, Olympus announced it would shed 2,700
jobs and around 40% of manufacturing plants by 2015, this is to
reduce its cost base as their share value dropped a lot since this case
was written. In July 2013, both Kikukawa and Mori were sentenced to
three years in prison and five years of suspension. Olympus was also
fined 700 million yen and six banks filed a civil lawsuit against
Olympus over the fraud seeking an additional 28 million yen.
Citations
1. "Japan's Olympus sued by six banks over accounting fraud". BBC
News (9 April 2014). Archived from the original on 14 April 2014.
2. "Olympus eyes liquidating shady firms". 22 December 2011. Japan Times. Archived from the
original on 29 December 2011.