business

Woodford ready to confront Olympus management at shareholders meeting

26 Comments
By Yuri Kageyama

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

26 Comments
Login to comment

you go woodford. i do wish i could be there to watch.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Woodford a man with good intentions and moral should direct his energy elsewhere...or is he trying to become Martin Luther or Mahatma Gandhi or Mrtyr fighting Japan's Olympus? chances NIL.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

What's Gandhi or Martin Luther King got to do with anything? Woodford worked for Olympus for 31 years. He's got a huge connection with the company. Spend your whole life working for a company and that gives you the right to have an opinion about it. What's the problem? Chances nil so don't bother? Not a good philosophy where ethics is involved.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

"Woodford ready to confront Olympus management at shareholders meeting" ...and also no doubt the media, esp the lazy language skilled foreign media afterwards for his own personal pr exercise.

-12 ( +2 / -14 )

888naf

perhaps you meant the j-media who sit in keisha clubs waiting to be fed, never having to venture out on their own!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

J-biz needs it feathers ruffled. Go on Woodford, I am all for exposing just how corrupt and incompetent the old dinosaur clubs of the J-biz world really are... Shareholder value.. What's that they would say...

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Some14some

I agree that Woodford should move on. But, sadly maybe this is all he has.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

AP can never get this story correct, I don't know why they keep printing he was fired, he quit. AP please get your information together you are suppose to be a news outlet.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

You go Woodford! From the beginning, I have been supporting him. This is a man of courage and ethics.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

go get them corrupt suckers!.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

They probably won't let Woodford in the meeting, or if they do they won't let him speak. Woodford can try to make a scene if he wants, but absolutely nothing will change either way. The decisions have already been made and the shareholders' meeting is a formality.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Yes, Mr. Wood has worked for the company, but that does not give him any special rights! Leave Japan and stop causing an embarrassment for Japanese businesses.

-12 ( +1 / -13 )

I don't believe they can prevent him from attending, since he's a legitimate shareholder. They'd have a lot of trouble preventing him from speaking, too, particularly if he phrases what he wants to say as questions. If they were to try somehow, it would be pretty counter productive, IMO.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

NNation,

I think Japanese "management" is the one that is embarassing Japan, you need to re-think this stuff

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Nippon Nation:

" Leave Japan and stop causing an embarrassment for Japanese businesses. "

Umm... wasn´t it the old Olympus management that caused embarrassment for Japanese businesses??

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Nippon Nation - Japanese business/Corporate (lack of) Governance is a major embarrassment to itself.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

And anyone who does not think this sort of corporate behavior is one of the contributing factors to the predicted fall of Japan into economic irrelevancy in the other top article is blind to reality. Cross-shareholdings and all inside directors were fine when Japan Inc. was growing, but they will be an anvil around Japan's neck as it continues to slide downward.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Wow! They should televise the meeting haha. Sounds like its going to be a rumble.

criticized the appointed president, Hiroyuki Sasa, head of marketing at the medical systems unit, as lacking experience in managerial leadership

Its sad but i have that feeling about several businesses in japan. A lot of bosses and owners dont give "managers" the respect or trust they need to be managers.

It seems like there are like mainly two types of managers in japan. Some that think being a manager means being a strict A-hole or those that dont know how to make tough decision and prefer to hide from confrontation.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I wonder if the company hired a couple of Soukai-yas to get rid of him...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cross-shareholdings and all inside directors were fine when Japan Inc. was growing, but they will be an anvil around Japan's neck as it continues to slide downward.

Correct!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

who let the Japanese CEO on here?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Only in dream could Woodford succeed, I'm afraid. He didn't learn enough about how Japan Inc. operates. He also didn't learn how to speak the language here which doesn't help his case against Olympus and it's shareholders. A losing battle I'm sorry to say.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Germany and Japan both utilize extensive cross-shareholding systems, passive, stable and with limited power to change, while the US and the UK have more independent and vociferous shareholders, who demand some return on their investments, or they change the board. Maybe Japan could learn a bit more from their former partners in Germany?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, apparently it all went as expected. Olympus won shareholder approval and Woodford's questions were evaded.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-20/olympus-wins-shareholder-approval-for-new-board-after-fraud

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah clearly olympus thinks incest is best

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites