Entrepreneurs in Japan: the traditional type
Have big-company experience before starting company (not direct from university)
Keep large share of ownership
- Financing through debt rather than sale of equity
- Until recently, couldn‰ft give out stock options
- Had to plan on 20+ years to IPO
- Even public companies: relatively few shares traded, many long-term holdings
- Family-business attitude (leave company to children)
Independence from keiretsu limits growth but preserves access to multiple customers
- Many (become) dependent suppliers to a few big clients