How foreign companies with significant operations in the United States react to the financial crisis is of critical importance to understanding the changing competitive landscape of enterprise in the United States. In a zadankai (informal discussion) at Columbia Business School on November 13, 2008, Michihisa Shinagawa, president and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation of America, explained three critical changes to the economic landscape that have helped shape Sumitomo's strategy of operations in this rapidly changing environment. The event was sponsored by Columbia Business School's Center on Japanese Economy and Business and the Japan Business Association, a student organization.

Sumitomo Corporation is a sogo shosha (integrated trading company) that focuses on trading activities, sales and marketing, financing, logistics and other support services to its clients. Sumitomo also places large investments in companies that have product synergies with its business lines, focusing on large profit margins. Until the late 1980s, Sumitomo had focused primarily on Japanese companies that sold their products globally. The rapid asset deflation of the 1990s Japanese bubble placed significant pressure on Sumitomo, further heightened by the company's involvement in a trading scandal in the mid-1990s. However, in the wake of these issues, Sumitomo was able to reinvent itself by focusing on risk-adjusted returns. This led the company to divest its underperforming assets, and today Sumitomo achieves risk-adjusted returns that are twice its cost of capital. Needless to say, Sumitomo has a strong history of navigating turbulent times and reinventing itself in the midst of crisis.