Exposure Inside the Olympus scandal : how I went from CEO to whistleblower

Michael Woodford, 1960-

Book - 2012

The former CEO and president of Olympus who discovered a massive accounting fraud orchestrated by other top executives shares his story of becoming the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower ever.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Portfolio/Penguin 2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Michael Woodford, 1960- (-)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xii, 258 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781591845751
  • Rumours and revelations
  • "Who do you work for?"
  • Antisocial forces
  • Showdown
  • Escape
  • Intermission
  • Homecoming
  • The three musketeers
  • The Big Apple
  • Return
  • Rotten to the core
  • Winning the argument, losing the war
  • Rising suns also set
  • Sayonara to all that.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Woodford's first-person narration sweeps the reader along as he's brought in as CEO of Olympus, a prominent Japanese company, just as suspicious company activities are becoming public knowledge. When top company officials resist his efforts to uncover the truth, and ultimately dismiss him in an almost unprecedented move, Woodford goes public. He emphasizes cultural differences, corporate and social, as a causative factor in his own situation. Yet Japanese business is not the Japanese people, for whom his admiration is manifest. Individual encounters highlight the contrast between the ordinary "salaryman" and the corporate hierarchy at Olympus. He suggests the initiative of Japanese muckraking magazine Facta and the hostile reaction at an outgoing board of directors meeting are signs that new business practices may someday change Japan. Woodford effectively interweaves individual and cultural themes. If his depiction of events sometimes includes the trite, self-important, and exaggerated, his insights into Japanese culture, international business practices, and the importance of personal integrity make this a memorable read. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Review by Kirkus Book Review

How one man faced down some of Japan's top corporate leadership and exposed massive fraud and corruption. The announcement that Woodford would become the next president of Olympus was headline news. He was one of only a few Westerners to penetrate the heights of the Japanese corporate structure. He had worked his way up the ranks, beginning as a salesman 30 years earlier in what was then a British-owned medical-supply company. In this page turner, he gives a personal account of the enormous gap between his expectations in taking on the job and the stressful, sometimes frightening reality. In March 2011, shortly after he assumed his new position, a small Japanese financial journal published an article detailing how Olympus had acquired three corporations that carried suspicious losses in the range of $1.7 billion. The article suggested money laundering and suspicious criminal connections. As corporate president, the author bore fiduciary responsibility. He immediately asked for clarification about the acquisitions but was met with evasiveness from the former president and his cronies. In response, he returned to the U.K. and hired British auditors to review the suspicious transactions, which had been handled through British banks. Just six months after he had assumed his new position, the Olympus board of directors fired Woodford. After the story became headline news in Western media, the Japanese also conducted an investigation, and the corporate officers involved were charged with fraud and corruption. What was revealed was not money laundering but a deep flaw in the unregulated Japanese corporate structure. Woodford traces the problem back to the 1985 Plaza Accord, which had forced devaluation of the yen by a significant percentage. Export-driven corporations sought to cover up spiraling losses with speculation and financial manipulation of off-balance-sheet liabilities. A gripping chronicle by a corporate whistle-blower who achieved a stunning victory.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.