Browse > Home / M&A, Media / The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda

The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda

July 10, 2007
By Ken Worsley


I cannot make this up. This morning, the following piece greeted me from the Nikkei. The article is an attempt to describe how Bull Dog President Shoko Ideka was the main factor in the firm’s being able to resist the takeover attempt by Steel Partners. Some selections:

The strong, level-headed leadership demonstrated by Bull-Dog Sauce Co. President Shoko Ikeda was a key factor in the firm’s successful rejection of a hostile takeover attempt by Steel Partners…

Ever since Steel Partners launched a tender offer for Bull-Dog stock on May 18, the battle has been a prolonged psychological war and test of will for Ikeda and the company’s employees — who often had to work late into the night. Ikeda, 63, was there with them every step of the way, sometimes offering beef-on-rice dishes, vegetable soup and other meals she cooked herself at the company’s headquarters. She carefully looked after the health of her staff, telling them they had to build up their strength and eat enough vegetables…

“She is not only a quick decision maker, but also demands more of herself than of others,” said an executive at a major food company…

One person close to Ikeda says her patience and ability to remain cool in difficult situations may come from her childhood in Yamagata Prefecture, where the winters are severe and students are often forced to wait outside in the cold for trains delayed by heavy snow.

Basically, she was lucky the courts ruled on her side, she’s some kind of supermom/CEO hybrid, and she developed her patience by waiting outside in the snow. Can’t wait for the book!

Filed Under M&A, Media 

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us:The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda digg:The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda newsvine:The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda furl:The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda reddit:The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda
Related Posts:
Nikkei Interview with Bull-Dog President Shoko Ikeda
Steel Partners Japan Proposes Tender Offer for Bull-Dog Sauce Company
More on Steel Partners and Bull-Dog: A hostile takeover bid or a much needed hostile wake-up call?
Steel Partners all over the news: METI speaks up
Tokyo High Court Upholds Decision Against Steel Partners

Comments

8 Responses to “The Hero of Bull Dog Sauce Company? President Shoko Ikeda”

  1. J Sheridan on July 10th, 2007 4:58 pm

    What a joke. What a complete joke. I guess this is a feel-good piece for the domestic audience. “Mom can make gyudon and save our company from the foreigners! ありがとう母さん！”

  2. gbb on July 11th, 2007 5:05 pm

    Ken, is it coincidence Science magazine has a concomitant paper in behavioral sciences about this very same topic at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5833/1905 ? Here in the Silicon Valley we are glad we got rid of those carpetbaggers (sorry, “defectors”) of the dot com bubble. Now they are hanging out in the hedge fund community, and when that too bombs, you will appreciate the cooperators like Ikeda you now deride.
    See also http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/color/archive/2007/07/10/3856.html

  3. Ken Worsley on July 11th, 2007 11:18 pm

    gbb, So you think Bull Dog had a solid risk management strategy in place? I fail to see how deriding Bull Dog’s management decisions leads to the logical conclusion that one supports the other side.

  4. gbb on July 12th, 2007 4:39 am

    Ken, no, it is not about my enemy’s enemies being my friends. In their paper, Hauert et al. argue that punishing wrongdoers (defectors) carries a high cost and then show that society needs a mechanism that allows individuals to stand aside and abstain from the joint endeavor, i.e., to quit. Here in the U.S., defectors tend not to get punished, but public companies pay a very high price in risk management. If this cost could instead be reinvested in the company’s operations, both customers and shareholders would benefit, and the board would not have to live in paranoia.

    In Japan, boards had to learn how to do risk management against the sokaya. Because these are illegal, there is room for negotiation and the sokaya does not want to kill the company that feeds her. I think the American style legal methods of defection used by hedge funds and buy-out partnership are a risk that is much more difficult to manage because the cost of punishment (in Hauert’s sense) is so much higher. The High Court has taken the decision to keep these high risk management costs out of the board rooms.

  5. Ken Worsley on July 12th, 2007 4:44 pm

    gbb,

    Some interesting points, though I’m not sure how sokaiya are related to investment funds.

    The High Court has taken the decision to keep these high risk management costs out of the board rooms.

    That poison pill solution (which the court saidis legal) seems pretty expensive.

  6. Roger Dodger on August 21st, 2007 7:01 am

    Japan Inc is smart to send those triple A rated sub prime, mortgage backed securitized, CDO’ed scam artists packing.

    Although Bull-Dog has to pay large i-bank and legal bills.

    But its shareholders overwhelmingly supported management’s poison pill.

    So what’s the problem?

  7. Ken Worsley on August 21st, 2007 10:42 am

    Roger,

    triple A rated sub prime, mortgage backed securitized, CDO’ed scam artists

    Care to put some figures on those accusations? Exactly how much? Do you have any proof to show us?

  8. Nikkei Interview with Bull-Dog President Shoko Ikeda : Japan Economy News & Blog on December 2nd, 2007 11:20 pm

    […] been confounded by the image of Bull-Dog president Shoko Ikeda that we’ve seen in the media. I poked fun at an article back in July that said she comforted her employees by, “offering beef-on-rice dishes, vegetable soup and […]

Got something to say?