ncubeeight

My team at BTLookSmart Japan I had the pleasure of launching a business in Japan in 1999.*  It was one of the early entrants in the business of search engine syndication, an industry that used to be dominated by Altavista, Inktomi, Fast Search and Transfer, and is now dominated by Google and Bing after many iterations in the business model. It was one of the most educational phases of my career.  The Japanese partnerships I built showed me that much of what I'd been taught in university about Japanese business was wrong.  Japanese companies were not averse to partnering with foreign firms.  Japanese customers did not necessarily favor Japanese-made products over foreign products.  These myths were touted by Kodak against Fuji Film in their WTO complaints against Japan in general and Fuji specifically.  And when I was in university, I was spoon-fed some of these same myths by some representatives in the American congress who favored market-protectioni...