Desi Train

Chapter Three : Good Contacts lead to Great Deals

Genjai Corporation was headquartered in Tokyo. It was in the international trading business. Trading, until quite recently, was a very popular career in Japan. Big corporations like Mitsubhishi, Sumitomo, Marubeni among many others were actively involved in trading.

Trading in this part of the business world in layman’s terms meant Import and Export. The trading companies were the go-between or commission agents bridging the gap between the supplier and the customer. Their tentacles spread far and wide in each country, state and cities all over.

On one hand they would be buying non-ferrous metals from the East European countries and selling it in Asia or the Americas. Or on the other hand they would be buying entire crops of the cultivated “black tiger” shrimps in India and importing them to Thailand or Japan. Or they would hook up with big manufacturing companies to become their exclusive agents for selling Metals or Machinery in selected markets. The hunger to sell, buy and in the end conquer was so intense that trading companies in the eighties and nineties would easily feature in the top 10 cash rich companies in the Fortune 500 list.

Product did not matter. As long as there was a buyer and a seller, you would find a small guy standing between them. This small guy ofcourse represented a Japanese Trading Company.

The drive to sell and conquer found established brick & mortar companies losing ground to those represented by the Japanese trading firms. SKF Bearings the pioneer in ball bearings had a hard time competing in the US Market against a new and fast upcoming company, Sanyo Speciality Steels of Japan, whose US market was represented by a hungry and aggressive small sized trading firm called Kinsho-Mataichi.

But Genjai Corp had none of these traditional trading company qualities. Even though it was registered as an International Trading Company, there were barely any trading transactions each year.

Genjai’s main source of income came from acting as a broker between Companies and States. Arms dealers, Construction companies, Power Plants and such. On the other hand stood the rich, powerful and most importantly - corrupt politicians in various countries. From Brazil to India to Australia, Genjai in its 45 years of existence had created a well connected, well oiled machine. It would represent powerful companies and approach politicians for contracts. Even before a contract was awarded by a government body, money had already jumped through many pockets and greased many palms.

Millions of unaccounted dollars moved from one account to another each year, every year, and thanks to Genjai Corp, rich politicians grew richer.

Kumaru Osawa represented the South Asian region for Genjai Corp. But for the last 10 odd years he was completely focused on one country. India.

Indian projects brought in so much commission for Genjai that Kumaru Osawa was now not only quite a rich man but was tipped to become the president of the Corporation within the next 5 years.

In his 20 years of service at Genjai, Osawa was reputed to have made absolutely zero mistakes. Well, not exactly. In Osawa’s almost unblemished career Genjai did not get it’s under the table commission once, only once.

Osawa cursed himself each time he thought of the 10 million dollars that Genjai did not get in exchange for a contract. The Company represented by Genjai was in the Dam construction business. Genjai saw to it that the contract fell in its lap. By error, the Company had included Genjai’s commission in the money transfer to the politicians’ accounts in Switzerland.

When Osawa had approached the politicians with “namaste” hands informing them of the error, the politicians had laughed hard. But when Osawa had requested that the 10 million of his money be transferred back to him, the politicians cracked up. One of them literally fell on the floor and waving his hands and legs in the air while laughing out loud. Osawa lost face.

Osawa should have known. Indian politicians weren’t any better than their Japanese counterparts. Bastards. I should have known better. The intensity of his hatred on the deal gone sour had not diminished one bit. It had stayed intact. But like a true Japanese businessman, Osawa had maintained cordial relations with the culprits and had gone ahead to do many more deals with them down the years. But the ten million dollars always played at the back of his mind. One day I’ll get my money. One day I’ll be able to wipe out this one small black spot off my career. One day.

That day had arrived.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 10:32 am
Filed under Fiction, The MBA Gang
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