more on Data leak, and a shocking case of actual corporate responsibility

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From: Ted Dolotta <Ted () Dolotta ORG>

I worked at SOFTBANK for 15 years (1986-2000), and I am not at all
surprised by Masayoshi Son's reaction to the problem.  He has done
more surprising things in the past:  in the late 1980's, we set up
a joint venture with a U.S. company, and Son brought in 4 additional
Japanese investors, all of which are huge companies, and household
names in the U.S.  Then the U.S. partner went belly up, so the joint
venture was useless, but it did have a multi-million dollar loss.

SOFTBANK ate the loss and reimbursed the 4 Japanese partners in full.
And because SOFTBANK was a *much* smaller company then, a few million
dollars was a *big* deal ...

Son's reputation and "face" are very important to him, as they are
to most Japanese -- except that Son, being Korean by birth, is perhaps
even more sensitive to this issue than most Japanese.

Ted Dolotta 

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