I have attended UC Berkeley for three years now, but the halls of the Haas Business School were still foreign to me. However, that would not longer be the case as they were also the residence of Economics Professor Steven Wood, or at least during the day.
Professor Steven Wood ( Courtesy of UC Berkeley Faculty Website)
Steven Wood has been the chief economist at multiple firms, was the managing director at Bank of America Securities, and a corporate economist for Toyota Motor Sales. Now, he has been a professor at Berkeley for almost 20 years and is currently lecturing for Macroeconomic Analysis and Macroeconomics in the Global Economy.
I had never met Professor Wood previously, but he graciously offered me the opportunity to interview him on his knowledge of Japanese company expansions. He explained to me the many obstacles that foreign companies, specifically Toyota Motors from Japan, faced when entering the US market place and what made them so successful.
After mapping my way through the winding halls of the unknown top floors of the Haas Business School, his popularity was immediately apparent. While I had prepared to be early for our appointment, apparently so had many other students who awaited a chance to talk to him.
After a 30 minute delay, I finally had an opportunity to meet him in person. I noticed as soon as I walked in that I had caught him in the middle of his lunch, but as he care-freely grabbed a handful of his trail mix, I quickly felt more comfortable than I had anticipated.
He mentioned that working at Japanese Based Company, Toyota Motors, was not something he had particularly set as a career goal, but it more so just fell into place for him. However, when I asked him if he noticed any differences working at a Japanese based company as opposed to a US company he confidently replied with a simple, “definitely.”
“There was no doubt in my mind that Toyota was a Japanese company, run by the Japanese,” he then added.
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