Sony bosses will return bonuses as firm preps for BILLIONS in losses

Re: No focussing on the customer then?

Unfortunately we're all waiting for the Apple TV set or some other big name to redefine what us expected of a TV unit.

The technology sector is largely clueless, it's largely all about copying the big pioneers.

Personally I'm happy for my TV to remain dumb and just give me more ports for plugging in things that actually do what I want.

Same here.

Most of the bitching about Sony is from people that ended up with inferior kit and are jealous.

In other news, this weeks' Microsoft about-turd.... That's about the 10th so far in the Xbox One disaster...

http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

Somewhere, in a poorly decorated corporate office, is a small group of men who just can't figure out what's gone wrong. In a way it's hilarious, but it's also sad, Sony has always had a fantastic engineering core that has been hung out to dry.

I've been dealing with various Sony business units for nearly three decades and in the late 1990's everything changed. There used to be this built in responsiveness with Sony and they'd really try to accommodate your needs. They used to publish a corporate directory and there was a number in there for the guy who serviced the popcorn machines in Malaysian cinemas with only one screen, and somebody always answered the phone too. That person might not have the answers, but would put you in touch with people who did.

Then all that went away. It's like they started running their businesses by checklist and if everything on the list was checked off then everybody should be getting rich. But that doesn't work if you don't understand what the items on the checklist mean. Not what the items are, or what they do, but what they mean and what they mean to their customers. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's the same mentality you see in the way they adopt other trends from the US. It's never quite right. There's always some weird detail that just doesn't work. But they don't even try to correct it.

They barrel on down the highway with their checklists and won't even return phone calls to try and understand why everyone is fleeing and screaming. It's really too bad.

Re: Seriously?

+1!

Little bit odd they had to give back their Brucies, you would have thought a bonus is paid for performance, so they shouldn't have got any in the first place - rather than as an expected part of pay?

Re: Seriously?

I think that demonstrates integrity far beyond any I've ever seen from corporate management in the west.

I have to ask: "Might these be the same executives that decided to infect consumer CD's with a rootkit?"

If, so, then they deserve it.

Seppuku is too good for them.

because the goofs just keep on coming without being fixed

that's why Sony is now Baloney.

but don't worry, as soon as we roll out our 5D Hyperspace interactive TV that puts you in bed with that fancy lass, it will all pick right up again. promise. really. trust us.

Re: Seriously?

All in all, it's not really comparable to a Western business 'integrity' maneuver. The bonuses at Sony are actual bonuses, not an accounting move to reduce overhead on the books. Before starting my own gig my annual salary at the last company I worked for was 90% less than my annual bonus. Sure, corporate bonuses here are officially a performance based variable, but overall it's an unspoken given. It's nothing more than a way to inflate the books by gaming the system.

Furthermore, here in the West, you can't refuse or return your pay. People don't realize that, but it's illegal as shit for your employer to accept returned salary or bonuses. That's old law that goes back to the days of mine and lumber mill 'company script', nobody will even discuss changing those laws.Courts won't even hear cases about employee theft until you've paid the employee/thief their full salary due.

In the rare cases where Western execs 'return' a bonus it's actually just deferred until the following fiscal year or converted to guaranteed vesting stocks. They really aren't giving shit back, they can't, even if they wanted to (unlikely).

All in all, it's an apples to donuts comparison. It's a pretty small price for the Sony execs to pay though. Not too awful long ago there would have been several new executive positions open at Sony where the new person could move in as soon as they got the blood off the floor and/or replaced the window with the Asian Executive shaped hole in it.

Re: Seriously?

@ sabroni: I will grant you that this does show something, but what exactly, I ain't quite sure what. It seems most likely that people at the top are trying (as ever) to CYA in some fashion that the Japanese are more willing to do than others. It still shows no integrity, at least to my mind. Just that the Japanese are willing to do so. On the other hand, they can be willing to commit seppuku whereas those in the 'West' are not much inclined to do same.

I have read this through. The downvotes I shall own.

Re: Todokōru

Stagnation should drive change and evolution, but it very rarely does these days. I think it has a lot to do with universities teaching 'management'. It's nearly always those 'trained managers' who are in senior roles when stagnation sets in. They don't know how to change, because that's not something that can be taught, and they skipped the chance to actually learn management because they were studying management at university.

Your IBM example is a good one and it contrasts well with NCR. IBM 'evolves' by shedding parts like a leper. NCR* has done the opposite and evolved by delivering products that meet the needs of their customers and added new things that take their core strengths and apply them in new ways.

All in all it's very interesting to watch as huge companies crumble. Hilariously, the same people who never learned to manage have done excellent work in preventing the traditional indicators of business collapse from occurring, but they can't see they've done nothing more than change the indicators, not the problems.

*There's a several volume book called 'The Incorruptible Cashier' that follows the evolution of National Cash Register (NCR), from their initial, simplistic 'cash boxes' on to the fancy, extremely complex mechanical brass cash registers to the more familiar electronic cash registers everybody knows. It's a neat look at how a company adjusted itself to suit the world, not so much trying to for the world to suit the company. It's worth a look.

Re: Todokōru

> While their products are generally good, I do have one complaint: their audio specifications are crap. There is something drastically wrong with Sony sound. To my ear, it's very "flat."

I thought "flat" was high praise for audio gear. A flat response would imply a lack of distortion/alteration of the original signal wouldn't it? Or do you prefer high oxygen copper cables for the dynamism they add to the music?