Several German executives in North Rhine companies had made such mentoring ties the
vehicle for their ascent in the organization. The German general manager of the German division
of a large Japanese shipping company described his successful partnership with the two senior
Japanese managers as a “triumvirate.” He had been to Japan, studied Japanese management, and
had adopted that diffuse and interactive style as his own. Germans, he and others noted, were
accustomed to direct orders and fixed procedures. He had come to respect what he saw as the
Japanese approach of setting targets and encouraging people to find their own paths to achieving
them. In addition, he had learned the Japanese virtue of patience and had matched his Japanese
colleagues in working late, drinking hard, and otherwise demonstrating himself a dedicated
manager in the conventional Japanese sense.