No narration. Just speech.
"Okay, let's get started. Rich, thanks for coming, I know this is outside your normal schedule."
"Of course, this is important."
"Yes. Okay, everyone, I have good news and bad news. The good news is we had a record amount of revenue this year. Last year our income was 8.9 billion dollars, and this year we've increased that to 12.8 billion. This is obviously an important next step in our profit model, and we're well on our way for next year. Yes Susan?"
"This is great news. I think we should all give a round of applause for our developers, who have created such fine games for us to sell. Without them, this doesn't happen."
"Indeed. Unfortunately, that brings me to the bad news: record income came with record expenses this year, and so we only made half as much profit as we brought in last year."
"I don't understand, how do we make less money when we bring in more?"
"It's actually very straightforward, Michael. Last year we brought in 8.9 billion, but we spent 4 billion to do that, so the difference, our actual profit was about 5 billion dollars. But this year, we brought in 12.8 billion, but our expenses were 10.2 billion, so our actual profit was only about 2.6 billion dollars - half what we made last year."
"Well this is a disaster. How did this happen?"
"We invested a lot of money into marketing for Call of Echelon 3, as you know, and it only moved 12 million units instead of the projected 14. Our in-game monetization was similarly marketed but not used as much, only bringing in 4 billion dollars instead of the projected 7. This was echoed in our other launches this year, where everything fell short of our expectations for continued exponential growth."
"How are we supposed to have faith in this company if it's only making 2 billion dollars a year?"
"2.6 billion, Wendy. I know this is disappointing, but it's also an opportunity to- Rich, where are you going?"
"I'm leaving and selling my shares. There's no growth here, and I'm not investing in a company for it to not see any growth. Frankly, this is an outrage. Good bye."
"I see. Okay. For the rest of you, this is an opportunity to rebuild. We have a chance now to trim the fat, so to speak, and make sure we're running a tight ship."
"And how do you propose we accomplish that, Bobby?"
"Very easily, Ashton: we remove the people who caused this problem. Streamline."
"Well, what was the problem in the first place? Ballooning marketing budgets? Unrealistic expectations? Poor management?"
"No no, of course it wasn't any of those things. Everybody in this room did everything right. The problem is the developers."
"How so?"
"Clearly if they'd done their job better, and made a better game, then none of this would have happened. We spent 7 billion dollars marketing their games, and they didn't even make them good enough to sell properly! I'm not making 20 million dollars a year for that kind of incompetence."
"Well, what if the problem is that you and the other executives are taking too much profit in your salary and bonuses? I see in the sheets in front of me that executive pay this year including bonuses was over 1.5 billion dollars. When Nintendo was losing money, their CEO Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut, and other executives took 20-30% cuts to make up the difference. Would that be a viable option here?"
"I'm glad you brought that up, Michael. The simple answer is no, we're not going to make the most valuable people in the company take a pay cut. We made the decisions to spend that much on development and marketing, and there wasn't anything wrong with that - that's the job. The problem is that everyone else in the company underperformed to an embarrassing extent."
"So what's the solution then?"
"I'm glad you asked, Susan. Clearly our developers aren't properly motivated to excel at their jobs as much as the executives are. As such, we're going to increase all executive pay by 15%, to give them a clearer vision of what they could potentially be looking forward to if they performed to the standard we expect of them."
"Okay..."
"Simultaneously, we're going to let go of about 800 developers, which is about 8% of our employees."
"Because knowing that they're at risk of being released will motivate them to do better to make sure it doesn't happen to them."
"That's exactly right, Christine. We're going to lead by example, and that example will be one of motivation and encouragement."
"I like this. I like this direction."
"Thank you Ashton."
"I wasn't finished. I like this direction, but I'm going to tell you now, if next year's profits are any less than 7 billion dollars, I'm walking."
"I'm sure it won't come to that, and I'll tell you why. Let's talk about Call of Echelon 4..."
2020-06-22 · Boss Music Intensifies
2020-06-15 · Accept the Unexpected
2020-06-08 · Failing The Test
2020-06-01 · Best Laid Plans
2020-05-25 · The End?
2020-05-18 · The Only Explanation
2020-05-11 · Personal Victory
2020-05-04 · Six Questions
2020-04-27 · It's A Team Effort
2020-04-20 · The More Things Change
2020-04-13 · It's All About Perspective
2020-04-06 · Fake It 'Til You Make It
2020-03-30 · Keeping It Clean
2020-03-23 · How To Save The World
2020-03-16 · Time For A Change
2020-03-09 · Music To My Ears
2020-03-02 · Unfamiliar Territory
2020-02-24 · Something From Nothing
2020-02-17 · The Times Are Changing
2020-02-10 · The Missing Piece
2020-02-03 · Wrong Place, Wrong Time
2020-01-27 · Overexposure
2020-01-20 · As Seen On TV
2020-01-13 · Written By A.I.
2020-01-06 · Promises Kept
2019-12-30 · Ringing It In
2019-12-23 · Happy Unspecified Seasonal Holiday!
2019-12-16 · The Lair
2019-12-09 · Time To Get Cracking
2019-12-02 · Not A Suicide
2019-11-25 · The One That Knows What Number It Is
2019-11-18 · Venting Frustrations
2019-11-11 · The Test Takers
2019-11-04 · Make Your Play
2019-10-28 · Horror With Smart People
2019-10-21 · The Interview
2019-10-14 · It Must Have Happened At Some Point
2019-10-07 · Work The Problem
2019-09-30 · Cogs in the Machine
2019-09-23 · First of One
2019-09-16 · Curse Your Inevitable Betrayal!
2019-09-09 · Be Brief
2019-09-02 · Changing Channels
2019-08-26 · It's A Process
2019-08-19 · Armed And Dangerous
2019-08-12 · Good Intentions
2019-08-05 · A Simple Procedure
2019-07-29 · Finale Feelings
2019-07-22 · Fun And Profit
2019-07-15 · It Builds Character
2019-07-08 · Aviator Safety
2019-06-24 · Something's Been Bugging Me
2019-06-17 · It's All About You
2019-05-27 · Rough Encounters
2019-05-20 · Wishes Three
2019-05-13 · A Gentle Nudge
2019-05-06 · A Simple Misunderstanding?
2019-04-29 · Don't Spoil It
2019-04-22 · Under Scrutiny
2019-04-15 · Prepare To Resist
2019-04-08 · Making Small Talk
2019-04-01 · The Crisis
2019-03-25 · Just Kidding
2019-03-18 · How About That Local Sports Team?
2019-03-11 · Public Engagement
2019-03-04 · The Hero We Need
2019-02-25 · The Negotiation
2019-02-18 · Executive Orders
2019-02-11 · The Talk
2019-02-04 · The Big Game
2019-01-28 · If It's A Girl...
2019-01-21 · The Nature Of Picasso
2019-01-14 · I'm Sorry, Ms. Jackson
2019-01-07 · Never Saw It Coming
2018-12-31 · Duelling ...Holidays?
2018-12-24 · Too Much Cheer
2018-12-17 · Taking Out The Trash
2018-12-10 · Let's Go To The Movies
2018-12-03 · Not For Donuts
2018-11-26 · Horizons Made Broad
2018-11-19 · It's The Journey That Matters
2018-11-12 · Anthing You Can Do...
2018-11-05 · Let's Call It "Laundry"
2018-10-29 · Unfriended
2018-10-22 · A Conversation About "Tacos"
2018-10-15 · Changes
2018-10-08 · An Adult-Sized Secret
2018-10-01 · Street War
2018-09-24 · Whither Whether Why
2018-09-17 · The Pitch
2018-09-10 · The One That's Meta
2018-09-03 · A Night At The Movies
2018-08-27 · We're Vampires
2018-08-20 · The Final Showdown
2018-08-13 · The End Of The World
2018-08-06 · A More Rational Kind Of Love
2018-07-30 · Death Troubles
2018-07-23 · True Love
2018-07-18 · At Least It's Not Des Moines