OK, read a bit more. Dating back to 1990? Well, this picture is starting to
gel a little bit. For those of us who believe in "Karma" or whatever
religious variation therof, this makes sense. Olympus starts cooking the
books and they end up losing market share and declining. Which caused which
is a question mark, but Olympus was pretty much toast in the photographic
market about that time.
Yup, Woodford definitely wasn't blending in with the culture of top Olympus
management.
What is sad, and will be quite clear in a little bit, is that the entire
board is complicant in this potential fraud. Not only them, but more than a
couple people involved in finance. It takes a lot of people to pull a
Madoff on this scale in the corporate world. Madoff got away with it
because his wasn't a large corporation. To pull this off on a corporate
level takes a bunch of people.
A question about the "bunch of people" though. There had to be a couple
dozen people part of this. Is everybody guilty of fraud or just of
following instructions? Is the Japanese business culture such that you just
follow orders even if you know that what you are doing is wrong?
Sad.
I worked for a company which had a recent history of fraud, murder
and criminal michief. Even years, and umpteen ownerships later, that
company is sick. Last time I was there I pulled into the driveway, saw what
appeared to be a dark mist surrounding the building, turned around and
left. Even the immediate surrounding area where it is located has turned
blighted. Just like a bullseye, this place is the center of the rot.
AG
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|