Case on Moto: coming to America from Japan
Q. 1 What was Moto’s purpose and agenda for the first meeting with Crowell? How does he try to implement his agenda?
Moto’s purpose for the first meeting with Crowell was to build the good business relationship with president of Allmack. He was trying to build the first impression. With the purpose of building the good relationship in the first meeting, he presented his business card to Crowell as well as gift which he brought all the way from Japan. And Moto arrive at the Allmack office sharp on the time of meeting. He researched about the company efficiently beforehand so that it would be easy to carry on the business meeting effectively.

Q. 2 What communication problems were there between Moto and Crowell?
As in the case, Moto thought that Americans were nice because he found that salesgirl helpful and her smile at Moto. But later in the case, there were many confusions regarding culture of both the countries. There were many cultural and communication differences between them. Before going to America for meeting, Moto researched and learned about the culture and history of America but Crowell was not familiar with the culture of Japan. In Japan, people regard exchanging of business card as an important instrument to learn about their clients but Crowell was unaware of this and he did not make an attempt to look at the card given by Moto and put it in his pocket instead. Moto was hurt and embarrassed when he presented the gift of the Kokeshi dolls to Crowell because Crowell stupidly commented that they look like Russian dolls and his daughter will love them. In Japan, opening gift in front of the person is not acceptable. And the case also shows that Moto was trying to build the sound relationship with Crowell but Crowell was not interested and he was trying to finalize the deal in a hurry.

Q. 3 What was the significance of the dolls? What went wrong?
Moto brought the gift of Kokeshi dolls which his wife spent a good part of a day picking out for Crowell to build the sound relationship between them. But what Crowell did unknowingly was he opened the gift in front of Moto and commented that it looks like Russian dolls and his daughter will love them. Moto was hurt and embarrassed because the behavior Crowell showed at meeting was not accepted by Japanese people.

Q. 4 Why did Crowell’s remarks about Allmack threaten a loss of face from Moto’s perspective? In Moto's first business meeting with the President of Allmack, John Crowell, neither gentleman was familiar with the other's culture leading to the confusion of Moto. Crowell was not confused as he was oblivious to the situation. In Japan, the business card is an important instrument to learn about the other party as well as to give them respect for the effort it took to get to their current position. Apparently, Crowell was unaware of this as he barely glanced at Moto's card before putting it in his pocket. Moto was somewhat hurt because he did not realize that this was a somewhat typical in America and that Crowell did not intend to hurt his feelings. Next, after Moto told Crowell that "KKD is pleased to do business with Allmack" and began to talk about the history of the two companies, Crowell grew impatient as many American businessmen do believing that time is money he tried to speed up the process and sell Moto on the greatness of his company. Moto was confused as he already knew that Allmack was the best. In fact, that is why he was there in the first place. Also Crowell told about his personal achievement. So, because of all this, Crowell’s remark about Allmack threatened a loss of face from Moto’s perspective.

Q.5 How did Moto feel about Kubushevsky’s behavior early on? How did their relationship change?
In the case, Crowell introduced Moto to kubushevsky who was responsible for introducing Moto to all the suppliers of Allmack. But again the previous issue occurred when Moto gave his business card to Kubushevsky. He did not reciprocate with business card saying “thanks, but never carry those”. Again, when Moto gave the present of KKD pen, Kubushevsky did not appreciated his gift. So, Moto felt that kubushevsky’s behavior was rude and manner less.
But eventually the relationship between Moto and Kubushevsky improved after their first night out at a bar. At that night, he told Moto that he would be leaving the company soon. As the time passed, they worked as a team for four months. Kubushevsky helped him with any information that he needed.