1. From: 鎮西 豊 [mailto:chinzei.yu@kumon.co.jp]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 8:47 AM
As usual I am impressed with your patience, sense of compliance and responsibility. I
thought your approach shows some standard for our staffs in charge of copyright
negotiations.
February 2008
Continuing to follow developments in vendor negotiation, copyright law and enforcement
practice through Harvard Business Review, Stanford negotiating videos, licensing
negotiation newsletter from Yale, transcript of international rights directors meeting,
various commercial and trade IP publications.
Permissions Management
• Continuing to seek ways to turn permissions costs into “value-added services”
and opportunities to promote the Reading program to achieve team and company
goals. For example, in February, because of combined efforts with Lindsay Isaacs
(PR) and Cynthia Flewellen (CCI), author Neil Shulman performed his text
(What’s in a Doctor’s Bag; BII) to promote regional enrollment in Atlanta and
local retention and program completion at Cynthia’s center.
• Completed renewal for The Wheel on the School (FII) at a savings of over
$30,000 from previous per copy prices.
• Secured permissions for the Branding Department to show the covers of several
books in a commercial on a tight deadline for no cost.
MDD recognized as the leading MDD worldwide: With Dr. Mary and Yutaka Chinzei of Japan, solved issue
of how to address sharing permission renewal information with Eva Sotres of Spain. Briefed Boris Ferrer of
Kumon Mexico regarding permission acquisition. Drafted response to Rachel Gardam in the UK on how to
use supplemental reading materials.
• Permissions Management: Received grade of A+ in class on copyright law.
• Applied “people are everything” when negotiating permissions renewals to: improve relations with
publishers; further negotiations stalled by publishers’ errors, staff turnover, and corporate mergers;
reverse refusals; expand rights; and increase savings.
• Developed relationships with 100+ individuals representing 50+ copyright holders to further
renewals for 200+ titles.
• Despite the potential cost, convinced Yutaka to allow us to keep King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in
our worksheets.
• Of the 71 contracts completed in 2006, calculated over $200,000 saved in terms of (1) active
negotiations (lowering publishers’ initial renewal offers by a total of $42,780) and (2) savings
compared to previous per-worksheet prices paid ($159,943.41). By reducing inflation-fueled
doubling of fees over previous prices paid, saved over $300,000 ($159,943.41 x 2 = $319,886.82).
• For example, negotiated a savings of $12,853 from previously negotiated terms for The Old Man
and the Sea. Thus, although per-worksheet prices had been increasing, improved communications
outlining the benefits of Kumon in terms of free advertising (the RRL) and our positive missions of
education and world peace have shown direct, measurable results, with publishers such as the le
Carré Productions citing their support of our “charitable goals” as the reason for lowering their initial
offer (in this case by $3,600).
Praiseworthy activities and accomplishments:
* From an email sent by Yutaka Chinzei:
2. 1 Your good performance
…You have already got the points regarding permission related works. When you find some necessary
terms missing in a contract, you always confirm the terms. And I see you have been able to get the
permissions with lower fees than the fees that we would have been offered by the copyright holders if we
had made permission request to them.
You have done a good job.
* From additional emails sent by Yutaka Chinzei:
• I always appreciate your quickness and sincerity in answering any queries from us and taking
necessary action whenever a problem arises in the process of getting permissions.
• I appreciate that you are trying to negotiate further for a more reasonable price.
• I appreciate what you have achieved and your effort to keep permission budget from increasing.
• As you may know, I do not point anymore a territory that is not covered in a contract when I check
the contract in request from our accounting division because I am sure you are contacting another
copyright holder for the permission for that territory.
* Thanks for taking minutes for the Yamabe VSGs from Instructors Lilian Safar, Ruby Courtland, and Arlene
Milure (“amazing”)
* le Carré Institute (“we value your worthy goals”)
![From: 鎮西 豊 [mailto:chinzei.yu@kumon.co.jp]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 8:47 AM
As usual I am impressed with your patience, sense of compliance and responsibility. I
thought your approach shows some standard for our staffs in charge of copyright
negotiations.
February 2008
Continuing to follow developments in vendor negotiation, copyright law and enforcement
practice through Harvard Business Review, Stanford negotiating videos, licensing
negotiation newsletter from Yale, transcript of international rights directors meeting,
various commercial and trade IP publications.
Permissions Management
• Continuing to seek ways to turn permissions costs into “value-added services”
and opportunities to promote the Reading program to achieve team and company
goals. For example, in February, because of combined efforts with Lindsay Isaacs
(PR) and Cynthia Flewellen (CCI), author Neil Shulman performed his text
(What’s in a Doctor’s Bag; BII) to promote regional enrollment in Atlanta and
local retention and program completion at Cynthia’s center.
• Completed renewal for The Wheel on the School (FII) at a savings of over
$30,000 from previous per copy prices.
• Secured permissions for the Branding Department to show the covers of several
books in a commercial on a tight deadline for no cost.
MDD recognized as the leading MDD worldwide: With Dr. Mary and Yutaka Chinzei of Japan, solved issue
of how to address sharing permission renewal information with Eva Sotres of Spain. Briefed Boris Ferrer of
Kumon Mexico regarding permission acquisition. Drafted response to Rachel Gardam in the UK on how to
use supplemental reading materials.
• Permissions Management: Received grade of A+ in class on copyright law.
• Applied “people are everything” when negotiating permissions renewals to: improve relations with
publishers; further negotiations stalled by publishers’ errors, staff turnover, and corporate mergers;
reverse refusals; expand rights; and increase savings.
• Developed relationships with 100+ individuals representing 50+ copyright holders to further
renewals for 200+ titles.
• Despite the potential cost, convinced Yutaka to allow us to keep King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in
our worksheets.
• Of the 71 contracts completed in 2006, calculated over $200,000 saved in terms of (1) active
negotiations (lowering publishers’ initial renewal offers by a total of $42,780) and (2) savings
compared to previous per-worksheet prices paid ($159,943.41). By reducing inflation-fueled
doubling of fees over previous prices paid, saved over $300,000 ($159,943.41 x 2 = $319,886.82).
• For example, negotiated a savings of $12,853 from previously negotiated terms for The Old Man
and the Sea. Thus, although per-worksheet prices had been increasing, improved communications
outlining the benefits of Kumon in terms of free advertising (the RRL) and our positive missions of
education and world peace have shown direct, measurable results, with publishers such as the le
Carré Productions citing their support of our “charitable goals” as the reason for lowering their initial
offer (in this case by $3,600).
Praiseworthy activities and accomplishments:
* From an email sent by Yutaka Chinzei:](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/70bec436-dfee-4c87-85b6-1e3a3e0d7eae-150423115824-conversion-gate01/85/yutaka-comments-1-320.jpg)
