Ciba: International Research Laboratories in Japan: Practical Validation of a Strategic Concept

At the beginning of the 1980s, the top management of Ciba-Geigy declared “We have looked into the future, and it lies in Japan and South-East Asia.” However, until then Ciba did not have a clue how to get at results of Japanese basic research. Though Japan’s universities have long been open, most scientific papers were published in Japanese and thus difficult to access by foreign readers. Japanese technology tended not to be up for sale as much as western expertise was. The Japanese were often reluctant to licence out what they considered valuable as a long term asset.