SHIN-ETSU'S MAESTRO

IT'S NOT OFTEN THAT A CHEMICAL INDUSTRY BOSS IS HELD up as a business hero. But it is clearly the case in Japan, where the views of Chihiro Kanagawa, president and chief executive officer of Shin-Etsu Chemical, are regularly reported by the mainstream business media. His photo has graced the pages of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper, several times, and he even appears on NHK, the leading TV station. Kanagawa is one of those people who don't slow down as they get older. In fact, he speeds things up. Two years ago, he urged managers of the company's silicon wafer business to move faster on a project to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the construction of a plant producing 12-inch silicon wafers, the first company to do so. Shin-Etsu's decision to go ahead with the project raised eyebrows because it wasn't clear at the time ...