A tale of brashness and Japanese boards: how a 'freewheeling maverick' became the rare American to be elected to the board of a publicly held Japanese company.

• Author: Shaw, Ron
• Position: Global Governance - Pilot Pen

WHEN I JOINED Pilot Pen in 1975, it was an obscure company with sales stuck at $1 million. My challenge as the new national sales manager was to break the sales stalemate and build brand recognition.

One of Pilot's extra-fine point pens had been marketed as a technical writing instrument to engineers, architects, and other professionals who needed to write minutely but legibly. Yet I thought that the Razor Point pen could be enjoyed by a wide array of consumers and should be marketed to the general public. If we could launch a catchy national advertising campaign, I believed, we could sell a lot of pens and begin building brand awareness for Pilot.

However, we had no advertising budget for a national campaign. I calculated that by running ads in regional editions of national magazines, we could appear to be a larger company than we were for only $75,000. Yet we didn't even have that. The only answer was to fly to Japan, where our parent company, Pilot Corp., is located, and ask the chairman to free up the $75,000.

It was my first trip to Japan. Even though I was loaded with confidence, I was ignorant about Japanese customs. After 15 hours of travel--and interminable hours of mental rehearsal -- I arrived at the chairman's office, eager to make my presentation. His assistant graciously greeted me and asked if I'd like to sit and have some tea. Today I cringe at the memory of my brashness: No, I did not want to sit, I'd been sitting for hours and I came all of this distance to do business so let's get to it, thank you very much. I was escorted into the chairman's office and after doing my best to cut short the niceties, I launched into my pitch.

He listened carefully, nodding his head and smiling and looking as if he could not be more pleased. I assumed I was doing great and would definitely close the deal. At the end of my presentation, he stood up, expressed profuse admiration for my intentions, and said, "Shaw-San, this is a wonderful plan. Now, go back to America and sell enough pens so that you have enough profits to afford to do this advertising!"

Needless to say, I felt deflated. I returned home, made the risky decision to borrow the $75,000 from the bank, and launched the company's first ad campaign in the United States. Fortunately, my gamble paid off and the Razor Point became a big seller with the general public. As the $1 million sales barrier began to crumble, I vowed to learn more about how the Japanese conduct business.

Over...