Still, this manager confided doubts that he would ever penetrate the highest precincts of
his company, though should he stay long enough he thought he might make it to the second
level. He was fortunate, he felt, in that the Japanese parent firm, while practicing like other
Japanese multinationals a good deal of “management by fax machine,” was superior to most in
the autonomy it gave the German branch, so that his efforts to cultivate ties and gain respect
were paying off in real influence.