In a surprising move yesterday, Japanese company Olympus Corp. removed its president and executive officer Michael C. Woodford. It should be noted that he was removed just after 6 months of his term as the president of Olympus. Olympus has stated that it took this decision after Woodford clashed with some senior executives over management style. This news came as a surprise for investors as well as some of them were positive about the company’s future with Woodford as president.
Michael C. Woodford is one of those handful non-Japanese corporates who are at top positions in Japanese companies and he was the first non-Japanese president of Olympus. He has now become a director with no representative rights but we are not sure whether he will stay with the company or not.
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has been made the new president of Olympus in place of Woodford and soon after joining his new office, he addressed media by claiming that,” Woodford ignored our organizational structure and made decisions entirely on his own judgment,”. He further stated that,”I told him repeatedly he couldn’t do that, but he didn’t listen,”.
The new president didn’t stop after accusing Woodford. He added that one of the main reasons for appointing a non-Japanese as a president was to make and deliver few changes which Japanese executives were not able to deliver. But sadly, Woodford wasn’t able to do so.
We don’t think that this decision was just taken overnight. It was a preplanned decision as it is evident from the statements of the new president. We reckon that Olympus just waited for the right time to make its decision public.
Woodford has not made any comment but it is expected that he will speak soon and may be accuse some of the executives of Olympus.
Japanese firms have long been accused of their ill treatment of the non Japanese executives and senior officials. Even Kikukawa said that Japanese culture and work ethics are the most needed skills to run a company in Japan.
His statement is being seen by many as a sign of some major changes which will take place in Olympus in the near future.
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