In 1998, Mike Neal, GE’s head of commercial finance, was summoned to a meeting in Tokyo with the judge in charge of the bankruptcy reorganisation of Japan Lease. He received a lengthy lecture about GE’s responsibility for the company and its staff should it be chosen as the new owner. Only after listening quietly and assuring the judge that he understood, was GE allowed the rights of ownership.
In 2001, Jack Welch and I drove through a side entrance of a Tokyo office building after working hours. We were shown into a conference room without the usual bowing office assistants, who had been sent home.
