Business With Japan

Business With Japan

Back in the 1980s, my Dad was the Chief Operating Officer at Marion Laboratories in Kansas City. One of his jobs was to fly to Japan and negotiate with the Japanese officers of a company that made the drug used by Marion Labs.

Marion Labs would license this chemical compound from the Japanese company to make Cardizem, the heart medicine drug. Marion Lab worked hard to get Cardizem approved by the FDA (that’s another long story), then build a plant to make it, and send out hundreds of salesmen to sell it to doctors and hospitals.

But every few years, my Dad would have to fly to Japan from KC to renegotiate the licensing agreement. The Marion company Falcon jet took my Dad and his #2 to San Francisco. There, my Dad and his friend would woo investors to buy Marion stock.

Then, it was the long flight from SF to Tokyo. Sometimes there was a big headwind and the plane would have to land in Anchorage, Alaska (that’s why the city is there), to refuel. Anchorage is a fuel stop for airplanes, mostly air cargo.

Dad had a way of dealing with the long flight. Two vodkas and a good night’s sleep on the upper deck of the 747. On landing at Narita and making it to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Dad would get a massage, go for a swim in the pool in the hotel, and go to bed. (My Dad was captain of his high school swim team in Minneapolis.)

The next day, he was fresh and rested for meeting the Japanese. There in the board room were 10 Japanese executives, all smoking cigarettes, facing my Dad and his friend Harley. The Japanese always wanted more money for drug licensing. Dad would listen, and then they broke for lunch.
In the company cafeteria, Dad and Harley would have their lunch with waiters hovering nearby to hear their every word. Harley asked, “What are you going to do.” Dad just smiled. After lunch, it was my Dad’s turn to propose what Marion Labs was offering. It was the same amount as in the previous contract. The Japanese bowed, shook hands, and the deal was done.

TJM