redfalo Posted February 23, 2008 Share #281 Posted February 23, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) Well, all this speculation about why Lee was fired does not lead far. But some things seem odd to me: - I don´t find it too plausible that he was fired for the CS problems or the poor product line. As I now from personal experience (and as you could read in the "old" leica forum freqeuntly) Leica has had CS problems long before Lee entered the company and long before the M8 was introduced. Think of the problems with the R8, the recurrent delays of the DMR or the faulty DX reader of the M7, which had a fundamental design flaw. If you want to blame Lee on this one, it striking point would be that he did not manage to turn things around. But to increase service and improve your product is not easy when you have to downsize your company. - Being a business journalist I really cannot imagine that Lee was fired for this stupid interview nor for this (really awful) new website. - What I find a little bit odd is that the German press release which announces Lees sacking (I could not find an English version) quotes Kaufmann with the follwowing statement: "Our brand name will continue to stand for top-quality products which are Made in Germany in the field of photography and sports optics". ("Unser Name wird auch zukünftig in den Bereichen Kamera und Sportoptik für hochwertige Produkte ›Made in Germany‹ stehen.«) I find it a little bit odd that Kaufmann stresses this "Made in Germany" thing and the "top quality products" in such a circumstance. This could point to a struggle about strategy between Lee and him. Maybe Lee wanted to outsource production to low-cost-countries and/or wanted to turn Leica into a brand for the mass market. Such a difference would be a reason for the firing. Yours Olaf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Hi redfalo, Take a look here Steven K.Lee gone. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
marknorton Posted February 23, 2008 Share #282 Posted February 23, 2008 And I thought you had set your sights on a Rover, not believing any of this Vorsprung durch Technik stuff... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir Posted February 23, 2008 Share #283 Posted February 23, 2008 IF IT IS TRUE that Mr. Lee was fired because he announced somewhat prematurely the FF M9, wouldn't Leica tell us then that there will be no FF M9 to keep the sales of the M8 from dropping? Don't You think that possible buyers of a digital M will now wait till the photokina? What do You think? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandymc Posted February 23, 2008 Share #284 Posted February 23, 2008 Sandy you know this as well as anyone here that works for a company. Letting out any company secrets is grounds for immediate termination. Now there maybe more to it of course. But these are ground rules 101 for any employee. For a editor than his speculation better be a little more on target than speculation don't you think. He is making his magazine open for liable too. Just find this right on par on what i witnessed at PMA when i walked in, no one was happy with Lee's comments at all. Have fun. Guy, well, I think that depends. The companies I deal with, when to release info is in the hands of the CEO - actually mostly, anyone on the executive committee would technically be able to give press interviews. The board usually wouldn't be involved in operational details at that level. Now it may be that in this case the information was critical enough that the board gave specific instructions. But short of that being the case I wouldn't want to be arguing that a CEO can't release information to the press as a reason for dismissal. Releasing the information may well of course have caused the board to start to doubt Steven Lee's judgment, but that's a different issue. Personally, if I'd have been in the room, and on the Leica board, I would probably have been more worried about Leica's ability to deliver the implicit promise than any concern about release of secrets.....hostages to fortune and all that. Sandy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjh Posted February 23, 2008 Share #285 Posted February 23, 2008 Im not entirely sure when Mr Lee took over but for me the loss of faith in Leica as a company was with its handling of the intro of the M8. Except that it wasn’t Lee who handled the introduction of the M8. Lee joined Leica in September 2006, coinciding with the introduction of the M8 at photokina 2006. He was appointed CEO in November of the same year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdai Posted February 23, 2008 Share #286 Posted February 23, 2008 I think that Guy really knows something we don't ... all he did was releasing a smoke bomb to cloud our judgment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrEd Posted February 23, 2008 Share #287 Posted February 23, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) .....I heard Mr. Lee was water-boarding the engineering department people into agreeing to make a FF rangefinder.... . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdai Posted February 23, 2008 Share #288 Posted February 23, 2008 Maybe Lee wanted to outsource production to low-cost-countries and/or wanted to turn Leica into a brand for the mass market. Such a difference would be a reason for the firing. Leica is already in the mass market for years with the rebadged Panasonic cameras, but the significance is trivial in terms of the company's turnaround. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
george_b Posted February 23, 2008 Share #289 Posted February 23, 2008 . . . wouldn't Leica tell us then that there will be no FF M9 to keep the sales of the M8 from dropping?Don't You think that possible buyers of a digital M will now wait till the photokina? What do You think? I think I'd bide my time on a purchase of an M8, after the hype of a running upgrade programme so my M8 can be the 'latest' kid on the block with a hint of a FF sensor 'soon', etc, etc, we shall all be wondering about the future of the M8. Will the August upgrade programme to the new shutter, etc even commence? Maybe the new guy will have a 'fundamental review' of the forward strategy of the M8. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
devils-advocate Posted February 23, 2008 Share #290 Posted February 23, 2008 I'm just sorry that the millions of Euro it will cost to pay-out Lee's termination will be wasted on that, rather than spent on R&D. Then again, if there was this much internal dissention, the move is good, because Leica needs cohension and morale to succeed. - N Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
efreddi Posted February 23, 2008 Share #291 Posted February 23, 2008 I am currently and I have been CEO in some companies. The hardness of the announcement tells me that there must be some very strong hidden motivations for the removal of Mr. Lee. Some guess: 1. Robbery. 2. The tentative to buy the majority or a large stock of the company. 3. The management of the company NOT following Board Guidelines. 4. The tentative to sell the company to a competitor. 5. The passing of information to a competitor. 6. The tentative to create a competitor. 7. Not ONLY some bad developed business, in my personal opionion! We will see... By the way, I would like to be in the board's minds to know how they are now going on for the research of a new CEO. I suggest that they gat someone OUTSIDE the camera business, trying to get new ideas.... somebody like Steve Jobs.. I fully agree in the perception that something very serious happened. The harsh text of the note, the sudden and immediate effect decision... this has nothing to do with managers' style. Let's see now what will happen. Elia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnz Posted February 23, 2008 Share #292 Posted February 23, 2008 It's interesting that noone seems to have considered the golden handshake that Mr Lee will undoubtedly walk away with and what effect that might have on this reputedly small company's finances. Any thoughts? Pete. Edit: Apologies, just spotted post 290. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldie Posted February 23, 2008 Share #293 Posted February 23, 2008 Well this thread has certainly grown in size, mostly with tangential comments and subjective speculation about the past and present. The fact is that companies do not sack CEO lightly and when they do it is usually a case of a straw breaking the camel's back and a catalogue of errors ends up being one's nemesis. Mr Lee sounds as though he did not have the skill- set to run a smallish precision production company selling in a niche market. After all at IBM and Best Buy he was really at middle management level, probably keeping people happy with PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and growing the bottom line. At Leica he was being asked to run a tightly knit company and dealer network, this requires human resource management skills, which he would appear not to have. For example with the dealers, there have been numerous aggravations; witness the discount scheme, which left dealers unable to get lenses for their customers. Also the upgrade programme which again cuts the dealers out of the loop. I have also heard that he deeply antagonised the highly trained production staff, by taking an extremely high-handed and short- sighted approach to people he did not think were productive enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenerrolrd Posted February 24, 2008 Share #294 Posted February 24, 2008 Wow.....there has been an awful lot of bashing on Mr Lee. I would guess that few contributors have any real insight to his capabilities. To be fair you need to keep in mind that the big issues started before his time. Talk about bad timing new CEO in November 2006...rose colored glasses all around . Start with the M8 ...a major recall of essentially all of the first batch of cameras. Then lets look at the capabilities of the service organization... years of downsizing, low volume and low expectations. Then a flood of not only M8s but also legacy lenses requiring calibration. Don t forget the new demand for M lenses pushing the production facilities beyond full capacity. Now he would surely understand that the M8 introduction was only the start and that new product introductions would be the key to repositioning the company. Think there is much pressure on those development teams ? None of these compare to the heat he must have received from weak financial results. Not always but in most cases ...its about the money. Leica must be an amazing cash drain...... modest margins, increasing volumes and unprecedented investments. And maybe the credit crisis might make obtaining those funds more difficult or costly. Nothing tests the support of the board more than weak financial results and projections. Then they start to look for reasons. The company is now being run by an independently wealthy owner ... whose background if I understand it is in the packaging industry... .which I can assure you is completely different than running Leica... and the CFO. CFOs run the company when the issues are financial . So I believe a fair evaluation would be that Mr Lee found himself in a situation that was more than he could handle. The fact that he was an "outsider" made him the logical fall guy. ..... Now the details of what triggered the replacement could be anything.. maybe even from Mr Lee realizing things were not going to work out... and it was time to go. In many ways it would be better if he just did something that the board found unacceptable.... but I would doubt it. Leica is facing some major course corrections and has lost their CEO ..thats why this is bad news. The next 90 days we should know ,as any crisis management advisor would stress early and frequent communication with first the dealer network and then the broader user base. Now talking about a FF M8/9 could have been handled better(ok a lot better) but what about some news on new lenses or services (like rangefinder options) or even some news on the R10 ..how will that hurt current sales ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted February 24, 2008 Share #295 Posted February 24, 2008 Where's a paragraph when you need one?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted February 24, 2008 Share #296 Posted February 24, 2008 ... this has nothing to do with managers' style. Elia ..... Might have a lot to do with Mr Kaufmann's style !! There's not much defence for Steven Lee here. OK, the king is dead, but is it possible he was shot for insisting on keeping the M range alive; requesting funds for a fix for the M8; insisting that a FF was essential to protect the brand at the expense of short term profits? Going on ... In the UK, it seems that the M8 is being promoted to draw non-photographers in to buy products lower down the range. I don't see any promotion to the serious photographer market taking place here. The M8 is priced to remain low volume, the fixes have been very slow in arriving and it's continuity was dependent on an 'Upgrade' programme ???? I'd hoped that the M8 would hit a bigger vein and draw in non-rangefinder customers. It isn't happening locally and no big names have aligned themselves with it nationally. In my local area the dealer has sold 21 in the last year and only 2 of those in the last 3 months Of the 21, 17 were sold to photographers who already owned M lenses. On the basis that there is 20% (?) profit on the bodies, the business case for the franchise is not strong. The second-hand market has been undermined completely by eBay and, for example, this Forums Used listing, so dealers will of course will be pressing the main man for change. Rolo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elansprint72 Posted February 24, 2008 Share #297 Posted February 24, 2008 " Last post from me with any info regarding Leica ." Guy Manusco. I sincerely hope that is the case. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdai Posted February 24, 2008 Share #298 Posted February 24, 2008 " Last post from me with any info regarding Leica ." Guy Manusco. I sincerely hope that is the case. If even Leica's CEO could be fired simply because he talked to a magazine, beta testers should keep a safety distance from internet forums. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravastar Posted February 24, 2008 Share #299 Posted February 24, 2008 Erwin Puts has just updated his site with comments on recent events. Leica Angst and the departure of Steven Lee (february 23 2008) Bob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted February 24, 2008 Share #300 Posted February 24, 2008 Pete We could run a book in the bar but it would be a problem working out the odds without the front runner pulling out a wild card Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.