Kazuhiko Shibata, co-founder of Symphony Financial Partners, describes traditional Japanese corporate culture and stakeholder prioritization compared to Western shareholder-first models.
0:00 / 0:26exact quote · 27.0s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Shareholder is lowest ranked in Japan. I should say past tense, not current tense. Shareholder was the lowest ranked. Employee, client, So the total stakeholder, shareholder is the bottom. That has been a long time concept, or Japanese community.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Kazuhiko Shibata
AssertionPartly supported
Shibata: Symphony was first hedge fund to sponsor Japanese management buyout
“Actually, we are the first, the hedge fund who sponsored management buyout. Central Uni is the name of the company.”
Kazuhiko ShibataFeb 8, 2021▶ 34:12David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Insight
Shibata: Corporate raiding in Japan faces fierce cultural opposition from management
“So it's pretty tough for example, Japanese management that you will get golden parachute, and we'll buy your company and fire everybody. That's not acceptable to most of Japanese, because they are my friend. I will be ashamed in the community. So buying a Japa…”
Kazuhiko ShibataFeb 8, 2021▶ 19:45David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Disclosure
Shibata: Symphony provides free management advisory work prior to investing
“Once we identify the manager, before investing, we'll start working, giving free advice, and I'm trying to be on their side, not the other side of a table and banging a table. That's not our way. We are always trying to be their advisor for free.”
Kazuhiko ShibataFeb 8, 2021▶ 32:26David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Disclosure
Symphony passes on investment targets that offer only one exit option
“If there is only one exit option, we'll move next one. We want to have couple of exit options.”
Kazuhiko ShibataFeb 8, 2021▶ 44:26David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 700 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.