The exit of Den Fujita and the turn to direct U.S. control (2003)

How to end a charisma, and what foreign-parent control brought

The core of this transition lies less in the financial crisis itself than in the fact that the strengths a single-generation charismatic built were never left behind as institutions. The extraordinary 50/50 terms and the art of holding to direct operation were, for the most part, supported by Fujita’s own bargaining power and personality. Even as the company grew, no mechanism was prepared to pass its managerial freedom to the next generation. The two straight years of losses were only a trigger; when the market’s read on the founder flipped to “the share price will rise if he leaves,” a strength that belonged to one person unravelled fast. Charismatic management is harder to end than to begin.

The Fujita family’s exit was not a mere change of president but the boundary at which the Japanese company moved to direct governance by the U.S. parent. From then on McDonald’s Japan would be led in turn by professional managers the parent chose, a company that reconciles a worldwide discipline with the circumstances of the Japanese market. To come under a foreign parent’s umbrella is, in exchange for the backing of capital, to lodge the final say over management across the sea. The freedom the founder had carried alone, McDonald’s Japan rebuilt in the different form of governance. This decision leaves the question of how to fold up a success dependent on charisma, and how to bridge to the next form of rule.