New President of Olympus

[yoshi]

Olympus announced today that Mr. Michael C. Woodford, a UK citizen from Liverpool, has been designated to the next CEO of Olympus (Japan), effective from April 1st.

Could not find an English announcement atm but Japanese one is here (to verify that I know it's not April 1st yet... or am I fooled once more? )

http://www.olympus.co.jp/jp/news/2011a/nr110210corpj.cfm

yoshi

[yoshi]

Re: New President of Olympus

It seems I'm not fooled.

Not official announcement but a reliable source.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/10/olympus-idUSTOE71904620110210

yoshi

[Ian]

Re: New President of Olympus

Thanks for the update Yoshi. It looks like Mr Woodford has been brought in to make painful cuts to costs. This is a brave thing and in other examples where foreign bosses have been appointed to Japanese companies there has been considerable success. Let's hope the trend continues!

Ian

[yoshi]

Re: New President of Olympus

Some responses at one of our rumour site.

In view of the fact that Mr. Woodford looks like a cost cutter and that he has successful carriers in the medical & industrial equipment business line, a big & strong cash cow for Oly, and has no sufficient experiences with camera business, they are arguing like;


- Oly might delete original 4/3 dSLR line.

- He might throw away whole camera business, as this business line is in red figure.

- at least compact cameras will be scaled down. Until a few years ago "water proof" or other new features were the sales booster but so many similar models from
competitions now. The sales of lens interchangeable cameras are good.

- Oly' failures: "deep attachment to xD card", "remiss in coping with movie feature in dSLR & micro 4/3rds". Clear reasons to even a novice person.

- The new CEO will no more stick with Pana's sonsor but might get in touch with Sony.

***************

Looks to me they are enjoying the discussions.

yoshi

[Barr1e]

Re: New President of Olympus

Some responses at one of our rumour site.

In view of the fact that Mr. Woodford looks like a cost cutter and that he has successful carriers in the medical & industrial equipment business line, a big & strong cash cow for Oly, and has no sufficient experiences with camera business, they are arguing like;


- Oly might delete original 4/3 dSLR line.

- He might throw away whole camera business, as this business line is in red figure.

- at least compact cameras will be scaled down. Until a few years ago "water proof" or other new features were the sales booster but so many similar models from
competitions now. The sales of lens interchangeable cameras are good.

- Oly' failures: "deep attachment to xD card", "remiss in coping with movie feature in dSLR & micro 4/3rds". Clear reasons to even a novice person.

- The new CEO will no more stick with Pana's sonsor but might get in touch with Sony.

***************

Looks to me they are enjoying the discussions.

yoshi

Nice to see the crystal balls out.

I think I would rather wait to see Mr Woodford's announcemets first.

Thanks for the posts yoshi - most grateful.

Regards. Barr1e