Body Language? OK, but Eye Language is the Bees Knees

Here’s a tidbit about an incredible deal, vintage early 1970s, with a phalanx of major companies, three of them Japanese. But first a bit of background: while at Tyco, I became a solar energy devotee, specifically in the direct production of electricity from sunlight by means of low-cost silicon solar cells. These deceptively simple-looking devices – no moving parts except electrons (OK you purists you, ‘holes as well), just bluish wafers, typically square and thin, typically with a parallel set of metallic lines on the surface – were actually the miraculous means by which it became possible to provide electricity for orbiting satellites. Why not then, said some of us (myopic?) visionaries, for terrestrial electric power production too? Easy answer: too expensive.

 

At Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation, the JV blogged just before this one, we developed a very ingenious novel technique for growing, directly from the melt, crystals of any constant cross-section, including silicon ribbons. Since the largest part, by far, of the cost of a silicon solar cell was the single crystal itself, this ribbon-growing technique, of not-quite-but-almost-single crystals, offered the prospect for a large-scale manufacturing process capable of producing solar cells that would compete as energy sources with those nasty conventional pollutant-spewers like fossil fuel-based power stations. (If a nuclear power plant begins to spew, ‘yishcadal ve yishcadash’ is about the best one can do.)

 

It was this technology, at that time more putative than proven, that was the subject of the deal to form Japan Solar Energy Corporation, the joint venturees to be Kyocera, Sharp, Matsushita, Mobil and Tyco. The one who was negotiating on behalf of the Japanese group was the truly remarkable individual, Mr. K Inamori, founder and President of Kyocera. He and I, when his company was called Kyoto Ceramics, had earlier negotiated a license to the basic Tyco shaped crystal growth ("EFG") process, as applied to sapphire – which is nothing more than single crystal aluminum oxide: chuck in a trace of chromium and bingo, you have ruby.

 

From those previous negotiations and subsequent interactions, I had come to know Mr. Inamori as an exceptional entrepreneur, businessman, energy powerhouse, and model of integrity and probity. And yet, although I suspected that he understood all that was said, I could never calibrate the strength of his grasp of the English language because he was always accompanied by an interpreter.

 

To negotiate the Japan Solar Energy Corp. deal, it was agreed that Mr. Inamori plus retinue would come, for a week if necessary, to Tyco’s modest facility (early 1970s) in Waltham, Mass. In preparation for the visit, we scurried around looking for easily accessible eating establishments commensurate with these top-tier visitors. (Wouldn’t you just know that, for lunch, they asked for McDonalds hamburgers?)

 

Came the fateful Monday morning when Mr. Inamori, his interpreter, Arthur Jonishi, General Manager of Kyocera’s California operation (a friend of mine from the previous deal), and several older Kyocerans, arrived straight from the airport. Seated in our conference room, the older contingent all promptly fell asleep, woke for lunch, ate, went back to sleep, and were only again awakened when dinnertime rolled around. I hope that they, at least, knew who they were and why they were present: I certainly never found out.

 

Contrary to the myths of how Japanese business is conducted, it became fairly obvious to me that we might actually come to an agreement, and an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that very day. Just in case, I slipped out at a coffee break and called Josh Berman, Tyco Counsel, Chairman and nominal though off-site CEO: I was the on-site President and COO. “Josh”, says I, “you’d better come here this afternoon because I’m probably going to have to commit us to a deal today”. Says he, “When did they arrive, and how long did they plan to stay?” “Arrived this morning and available to stay the whole week”, was the snappy answer. “Ed, young lad” – this from one younger than me, but with a presence that suggested that he had been born at age thirty – “I’ll come on Thursday afternoon; nothing serious will happen before then.” “Josh”, said I, “Mr. Inamori is not your garden-variety Japanese. He and I have done business before, and we trust each other, even across the great cultural divide”. (Of course it’s very doubtful that I actually used such immaculate prose, but poetic license is deemed to be indiscriminately available.)

 

Josh’s wisdom notwithstanding, by late afternoon on that first day, we had agreement on all the basic issues but one, and that particular one had not yet been raised, namely (substantial) minimal annual royalties for the exclusive license – a condition that was an obligatory component of my negotiating mandate. Loath as I was to do so due to forebodings of culture clash, I tried to slip in, casually and apologetically:  “We will need to agree on the amount of the minimal annual royalties (by implication, that need to be paid upfront) that are a standard component of exclusive license grants.” Standard? Not according to the brief but unmistakable hint of a wince, signaled only by a flicker of the eyes of the inestimable Mr. Inamori. A very short burst of eye language, but one that seemed to me to imply chapters on the subject of mutual trust, commitment and business ethics – namely many of the elements quite often missing from the souls of dealmakers, and represented only by dry legal prose in their grudgingly arrived at agreements.

 

Luckily, my psychic antenna was finely tuned that day to cross-cultural radiation, so, with hardly a discernible pause, I added: “But, of course, these minimums (minima?) can be put in escrow in your local Bank, and drawn on only as and when royalties become due.” This fast bit of situation appraisal was rewarded by the, so to speak, opposite of a wince, namely a special kind of smile – all this transpiring with no involvement of the (why-was-he-there-anyway?) interpreter, good old Arthur, except that his smile was broader than that of his master.

 

That sealed the deal, barring the odd dangling participle. So off we went to dinner at one of Boston’s legendary eating-houses, namely Locke-Ober’s. There, written with a fountain pen on a gravy-stained napkin, a seven-point heads-of-agreement was composed covering the main terms, plus a few hints to the lawyers on how to render the whole into that opaque brand of syntax in which that profession seems to revel.

 

Before I signed it, I excused myself, apparently to pee but actually to call Josh, who lived nearby – on Beacon Hill, of course. (Note for the benefit of Bostonians.) “In about ten minutes from now, I’m going to sign this napkin – Memorandum of Understanding, that is – unless you want to zip over here and change anything.” Well, those of you who were ever fortunate enough to have known Josh will never think of him and of the word “ruffled” in the same sentence – unless it was Josh doing the ruffling. But ruffled he came suspiciously close to appearing when he showed up seven minutes later - in a hurry, immaculate garb, and Locke-Ober’s. While introductions were being made to Messrs. Inamori and Jonishi, their colleagues continuing to remain anonymous and simulating(?) sleep.

 

Josh surreptitiously scanned the now almost illegible napkin, the ink having seeped around a bit. Thoroughly back to suave personified, Josh gave me the nod and his fountain pen. Mr Inamori signed; I signed; hands were shaken; the deal was done. My “Please see, Josh, that nothing material is added in producing the final documents” produced a condescending Beacon Hill-brand optical zap. (Try to remember, Ed, to quit while you’re ahead.)

 

Body language? OK in its place, but oh the subtlety of the far more sophisticated yet trenchant eye language.

Comments

[Aryeh]

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[panasianbiz]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. I had the privilege of living and working in Japan for many years, so I appreciated your comment about the myths surrounding how Japanese business is conducted. Well said!

[hiral]

hello sir, i want to know when the person was sleep body language while sleeping

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