Suppose you are working at a publishing company and responsible to sell advertisement space for a new magazine. You will visit prospect companies and explain how the magazine is appropriate for their customers.

However. even they admit the value, they will probably ask you “which companies place ads?” Unless similar level companies are not yet ordered, they will hesitate to place their ad.

Is it influenced by Japanese management principle?

Staff in charge at Japanese companies do not take the initiative in making decisions. When someone else takes the lead, they tend to follow the other companies and then keep stride with them.

If the staff in charge takes the initiative and to do something which other companies have not approved of, and does not get good results, the staff may be judged careless conduct.

On the contrary, if all the other companies are involved in the business and the company is not, the staff will be blamed as negligence. It is said one of the reasons for this is that many Japanese companies are taking point deduction principles. So, negotiation with the first company is very difficult. Once one company start business with the company, everything else will go relatively smooth, if you can say “x company is doing business with us.”