Tuesday, May 3 | 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Morgan Lewis, Palo Alto
As part of our Big in Japan series, we are joined by Allen Miner, the CEO of SunBridge Corporation, a leading advisor to information technology startups operating globally.
In this presentation, Allen will share his insights from working with a variety of Silicon Valley firms on their entry to the Japanese market. He shares with us the formula for success followed by the firms that do best in Japan as well as the recipe for failure that is common among firms that don’t succeed in Japan. These include issues of how to set up and staff the Japanese operation, how to balance the relationship with headquarters, and whether a wholly-owned subsidiary, JV, or distributorship is the best form for market entry. He’ll also discuss typical danger points faced by firms in the Japanese market, and the impact of leadership changes at the parent company on the Japanese operation.
These insights will be illustrated by case study examples drawn from Allen’s extensive experience supporting successful entries by American companies to the Japanese market and his 30 years living and working in Japan.
About Allen Miner
Allen Miner is the founder and CEO of SunBridge Corporation, a leading catalyst of Japan’s technology startup ecosystem since 2000. SunBridge provides a variety of growth-enabling services to both Japanese startups with global ambitions and global technology companies entering Japan. SunBridge provides serviced offices in Tokyo and Osaka, venture capital investment, organizational strategy, executive recruiting, international expansion strategy, SaaS strategy and implementation, digital marketing strategy and execution, and access to a select network of legal, accounting and other professionals to the companies it works with.
Allen joined Oracle Corporation in 1986 and was dispatched to Japan, where he founded and helped lead Oracle Japan through its successful IPO on the Japanese stock market in 1999. Oracle Japan’s partner-leveraged approach became a model for many other US technology companies entering Japan, and many business practices originated in Tokyo were later adopted by Oracle Corporation globally.
In 1999 Allen sat down with Marc Benioff to design a new approach to Japan Entry leveraging all they had learned from Oracle and its competitors. Those conversations led to the formation of salesforce.com Japan, which operated as a Joint Venture with SunBridge from 2000 – 2010. Salesforce.com Japan’s dramatic success underlies Japan’s reputation as a world leader in SaaS adoption. The salesforce.com Japan model has subsequently been replicated and fine-tuned with Concur, Marketo, Demandware, and others.
Allen has served on the Board of Directors of Oracle Japan, salesforce.com Japan, G-Mode (the world’s first publicly traded mobile games company), ITMedia (Japan’s leading IT-focused online media), The Japan Venture Capital Association, and NPO ETIC (leading driver of Social Entrepreneurship and startup internships in Japan). He currently serves as a Director or Advisor on the Boards of Concur Japan, Marketo Japan, Works Applications (Japan’s ERP leader), SecureAuth (US), and on the Steering Committee of the JSNC US-Japan Innovation Awards.
Allen graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in Computer Science and Asian Studies.
 
**No refunds after Tuesday, April 26. On-line registration has closed. 
 

Schedule:

• 6:00 PM – 6:45 PM       Networking/Registration
• 6:45 PM – 8:00 PM       Presentation with audience Q&A
• 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM       Networking & Reception

Light appetizers and drinks provided
 

The event venue has been provided by generous support from: