Keiei Shigaku (Japan Business History Review)

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Ogura Oil had long been dominated by Tsunekichi Ogura, the founder and dictatorial leader before he died in 1934, so that no salaried managers could be promoted to the top management post. Nobuhei Nakahara, a chemical engineer of that company graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University, played a major role in solving conflicts within Ogura family and Ogura Oil immediately after Tsunekichi's death and opened his way to the top management. In this process he cooperated with Tamaki Makita, the former senior executive director of Mitsui Mining and a brother in law of Fusazo Ogura, who could become the president of Ogura Oil by the help of Makita and Nakahara. Fusazo, Makita and Nakahara formed the top management of new Ogura. In 1939, Nakahara shifted to the new oil refining company, Toa Nenryo Kogyo which was established by the joint-share holdings of eight oil refining companies including Ogura Oil. This new company was born from the strong desire of the military to guarantee the supply of the high quality gasoline for the wartime purpose. Nakahara's move to the new company was also the product of military.
But while working as the top executive of Toa Nenryo, Nakahara continued to have interest in Ogura Oil. When Ogura Oil met the management crisis in 1941 because of the failure of president Fusazo, Nakahara cooperated with Makita to rescue Fusazo and Ogura Oil by merging it with Nippon Oil.

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In 1971, the government of Guyana nationalized the Demerara Bauxite Co. (Demba), a subsidiary of Alcan Aluminium Ltd., which had been in operation since 1916. This paper aims at clarifying the interaction between Alcan and Guyana until nationalization from the viewpoint of the balance and shift of bargaining power between them.
The major findings of this paper are as follows :
(1) Unlike the cases of other extractive industries such as copper in Chile and oil in Venezuela, the Guyanese government intervention into Alcan occurred much later. Guyana was a colony of England until 1966, and England depended heavily on Alcan for its supply of bauxite ore and aluminum products especially during the two World Wars. These reasons weakened the bargaining power of Guyana and explain why intervention occurred much later.
(2) Alcan was able to maintain its strong bargaining power which was derived from its mainstream bauxite-aluminum operations through the existence of alternative supply sources of bauxite and high entry barriers to the industry.
On the other hand, calcined bauxite, which can only be produced in Guyana as it is not found in any other country, gave it bargaining power over Alcan.
In conclusion, the interaction of these two forces formed a double bargaining power structure. The nationalization of Alcan by Guyana can be said to be brought about by the latter force.

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