Kikkoman Corporation’s CEO and chairman will discuss cultural issues in international business
The internationally recognized leader of soy sauce and food seasonings will be visiting PSU next week.
On Friday, April 13, the Center for Japanese Studiesa will host an event titled “Japanese success stories doing business in Oregon: Kikkoman’s global business.” Yuzaburo Mogi, the honorary CEO and chairman of the board of Kikkoman Corporation, will speak at noon in the Multnomah Falls room of University Place.
The event is part of a lecture series sponsored by the CJS that discusses the possible benefits of an education that focuses on diversity and cultural understanding when applied to international business endeavors.
“This particular lecture series, including Mr. Mogi’s lecture, introduces students to the ways that a liberal arts education prepares one for success in international business,” CJS Director Ken Ruoff said. “We ask our speakers to focus on the cultural issues that they had to overcome in order to succeed in international settings.”
The specific focus of Mogi’s lecture, Ruoff added, will be the international dimensions of the Kikkoman Corporation operations, with a particular emphasis on cultural issues that Kikkoman has addressed while succeeding in worldwide markets.
According to a statement released by the Kikkoman Corporation, Mogi will discuss the history of the company and talk about Kikkoman’s business in terms of “the international exchange of food culture.” He will also relay some of the key factors behind its global success and share his experiences in doing business with the U.S., Europe and other markets around the word.
Though Mogi is a business expert, Bruce Brenn, chair of the CJS advisory board, encourages students who do not have a business background to attend the event. “This is not an issue for just business students but to all students, who have to go out in the world and deal with ‘people.’ We forget that even in the U.S. differences exist among the north, south, east coast, and west coast on how people act, what motivates them, social mores etc.”
Kikkoman is a Japan-based company that produces soy sauce, seasonings and other food products. Founded more than 300 years ago, it was one of the first Japanese companies to establish operations in the United States in 1957. It currently sells its products in more than 100 countries worldwide.
The challenge of selling food products globally, said Brenn, is that “a company dealing internationally must adjust to taste, food priority, cultural, cooking style and many other areas that affect whether people will buy your product or products.”
According to the Kikkoman Corporation’s website, the company is presently focused on a “Global Vision 2020” strategy. This business plan, proposed in 2009, aims to reach “sales of 300 billion yen, sales volume of one million kiloliters of soy sauce, achieve 12 percent market share in volume and become number one in the world in terms of sales value” by 2020.
Kikkoman plans to expand in North America by building a third factory around 2015 as well as a research and development center in the U.S. by 2020.
“Kikkoman is a quintessentially Japanese company that is also now a profoundly internationalized company, and there are many lessons to be drawn from its experiences in doing business internationally for many decades now,” Ruoff said.
Yuzaburo Mogi, a descendant of one of the founders of Kikkoman, obtained his bachelor’s degree at Keio University in 1958 and, in 1961, was the first Japanese student to earn an Master’s of Business Administration from Columbia University.
He was appointed as president and CEO of Kikkoman Corporation in 1995 and named chairman and CEO in 2004. In an article printed in The Economist, it was noted that Kikkoman’s sales have increased to more than $4 billion a year under Mogi’s leadership.
“We are in an era of intense global competition,” said a representative of the soy sauce corporation, “but this has not stopped Kikkoman from enjoying global business growth.”
Mogi has served as vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives and currently serves as the as the co-chairman of the National Congress for 21st Century Japan, Japanese chairman of the German-Japanese Forum and chairman of the Japan-Midwest U.S. Association.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon of Japan in 1999 and was distinguished with the Order of Orange Nossau from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2004 for his achievements in business.
Mogi has also published several popular books on business practice and is currently considered to be a business icon in Japan.
“Sometimes it is difficult to translate these sorts of reputations to make them understood in the American setting,” Ruoff said. “But it is no exaggeration to say that PSU is hosting a business leader who is something of a celebrity in Japan.”
