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This is the message which was sent this afternoon to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment staff. In addition, in IT, CIO Rick Hopfer is leaving, and Steve Andujar of that department is replacing him.
From: Bishop, David
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:03 PM
Subject: SPHE Changes
We announced to you in December that SPHE is conducting a review of our organization to proactively confront the changing economic model in our industry. Our choice is simple – we can make strategic choices today to direct the evolution of our business, or be overwhelmed by changes that are imposed on us by forces outside of our control.
We’ve chosen to act now to meet the shifting demands of a fast-changing marketplace. We’re building a new operating model that will streamline decision-making, increase accountability and innovation, and focus on strategic and analytic thinking. As a result, we will maximize our speed and flexibility – attributes that will be critical to SPHE’s growth and prosperity in the years to come. Many of you have been engaged in this process, and we thank you for your participation and ideas.
In the short term, this effort will require us to make hard decisions and begin to transition to this new model for our business. As a first step in this process, I have restructured my executive team and wanted to let you know about these key changes:
· Emphasizing our new business model’s focus on innovation, John Calkins will transition from his current role in SPE Corporate Development to a newly-created position within SPHE as Executive Vice President of Global Digital and Commercial Innovation. This new team will focus on developing and implementing strategies to maximize new technologies. Our current SPHE Business Affairs and Worldwide Digital Distribution groups will now report to him, and we look forward to him joining SPHE. As part of this transition, Bob Rubin will be leaving SPHE. Bob has been a strong asset to our team, and his guidance and counsel will be missed. In addition, Sean Carey will be moving on from SPHE to another position in the Sony family. We want to thank him for his years of service to Sony Pictures and wish him well, and we all look forward to working with him going forward.
· With the increasing importance of operating as a global entity, and to particularly recognize the significance of our European region, John McMahon will now report directly to me. John has added tremendous value to the business in the year since he transferred to SPHE from SPTI, and I look forward to working with him more closely in the future.
· Recognizing the need to streamline our commercial operations, Matt Brown will add oversight of the North American sales operations to his current role managing the rest of the international business. As a result of this move, Marshall Forster will be leaving the company. Marshall has been with SPHE for over 17 years and managed the North American business during a time of tremendous growth. I would like to personally thank him for all of his efforts during this time, and I know you will join me in wishing him the best for the future.
· The Advanced Technologies team headed by Don Eklund will move out of SPHE into the Sony Pictures Technologies group under the leadership of Chris Cookson. Don will continue to be a valued resource for SPHE, but his role will expand into other areas.
· These reporting changes are effective immediately. For an organization chart outlining these shifts, please click here.
Those who are leaving the organization will not be departing for a few weeks and will be available at your request to assist in any transition matters.
Change of this nature is always difficult, but successfully adopting new strategies and processes is imperative for business growth and success. We will continue to keep you informed of our change initiatives through our already-established communications channels and will update you as more details are available. We currently anticipate that our new operating model will be fully in place by the beginning of April. In the meantime, I ask for your continued focus on our work during this period of transition.
As always, please feel free to talk with me or any other member of the executive team about any questions you may have.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I guess by April India will be playing a large part in maximizing SPHE’s speed and flexibility. I hope Wallmart is on board with the “new English”. Great innovation, and focus on strategic and analytic thinking. Give away jobs that US citizens desperately need. F that.
From: Office of David Hendler/LA/SPE
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:25 PM
To: Hendler, David
Cc: Andujar, Stephen
Subject: Announcement About Steve Andujar
As you heard earlier today, Rick Hopfer has announced that he will be leaving the company. Rick has guided the IT function through a period of tremendous technological change and growth, and I would like to personally thank him for all of his efforts. I know you will join me in wishing him the best for the future.
Looking forward, I’m pleased to announce that Steve Andujar will be promoted to the position of Chief Information Officer effective February 1. Steve brings to the role more than six years of experience across many parts of our business – including his leadership of the global SAP implementation (our largest system deployment to date), his time as Division CIO for the Corporate groups, and his current role as Division CIO for the Motion Picture Group, where he oversaw the development and implementation of Spirit World, which supports theatrical sales and distribution efforts in 23 countries.
In addition, Steve’s deep expertise from previous posts – including Vice President of Information Technology at Homestore, where he led the build-out of the enterprise systems infrastructure from startup through $500 million in revenue and coordinated IT integration efforts for more than a dozen acquisitions; and Vice President of Corporate IT at Pearson Publishing, where he oversaw numerous enterprise technology initiatives including the implementation of SAP financials in the U.S. and abroad – make him an ideal person to take SPE’s IT function to the next level of success.
I am confident that Steve’s leadership, together with the dedication and professionalism each of you bring to your roles, will bring this team through the transition stronger and more resilient than ever.
What the hell does this mean?? Outsourcing all of IT makes things more “resilient”??
Guess I’m out of a job soon.
These people are nuts if they think oursourcing to some company in India will solve all their problems.
Good luck to them.
I’m out.
Well, as someone who went through the same “boot-up-the-ass” “change is for the better” b.s. a few years ago under the guise of a “reorganization” directed by Rick Hopfer, all I can say is “what goes around comes around!” Rick is a schmoozer and an ass-kisser just like the rest of them (how do you think he’s held on to his job for so long?). I’m sure he’s leaving with a sweet deal that the other Sony minions can only dream about, so you won’t see me shedding any tears as he drives off into the sunset to his multimillion $ house in Malibu! And as far as Andujar goes, well, the countdown begins now for him, too. That job has a definite shelf-life! Just ask Rick, John, Justin, Steve and all the others who came before them. Actually, Rick lasted longer than most, so Kudos to you Rick! Guess you’re not a bad golfer yourself!
Here’s what I think. Why doesn’t the whole damned studio pack up and move to India?! The rent will be way cheap. All that “for you, almost free” labor. Man, it will be groovy. No friggen US taxes, no 401k matching, no profit sharing, no insurance, and it is totally cool to treat your workers really bad. Woohoo! Gettin fat and juicy on the backs of the poorest. F**k Hollywood. Les Go Bollywood!
The full movement of SPE to India has been in a work for some time. http://www.setindia.com/
They should be fully relocated by 2012.
David’s managed to once again blame others for his lack of mgmt skills and vision… just wait until WalMart / Best Buy demands the Sony scan-based bluray & dvd sales program.
at least Matt will bring some personality to the domestic team as the home entertainment business declines. we wonder if Marshall’s brother, Derrick, in Canada will suffer the same fate?
Only saving grace is if the tax benefits of outsourcing go away. So far Obama has only said the words; I have yet to see it in action. That plus the fact that multi-national corporations can get around domestic laws, and there is no solution to this in the near future. Get your resume ready and clear your desks. Part that sucks is that the “lucky” ones who will end up selected to stay are the ignorant tools that will do anything to save their jobs, i.e., backstabbing, false pretenses and all. You know who you are. Oh wait you don’t cuz you”re an ignorant tool ahhahaaaa
I completely understand Home Entertainment getting re-organized, but why IT and why again? Last year around this time SPE let go about 300 people, seveal from IT. Many of my good friends lost their jobs.
The IT department went from thin to even thinner. I doubt that they will save any money. It’s not like the salaries and bonuses of everyone they plan on letting go can justify the multi-million dollar outsourcing contract they’ll have to sign.
Before long they will have to bring it all back in.
It’s a cycle.
Sad that the real people that need to go are the ones at the top making all the money. This place is so top heavy it’s a joke. Everyone there is a director or executive director or vice president of something or another, but they don’t manage anything or anyone.
Why is it that the people that do the work are always the first to go?
Great posts from above! Here’s the scoop:
-Sony Pics did not cut enough last year. 2.5% cut in this economy is just not enough. So the cuts go on. And even 6.5% announced today is not enough. The company has around 50 Presidents. Double that for EVPs, 4X that for SVPs, and 8X that for VPs. That’s serious overhead. Home Entertainment can no longer support that level of fat.
-Getting rid of Sean Carey, Marshall Foster and others was a good start. You can fire 35% of the execs here and operations will not be dented one bit. Now let’s look at SPHE Marketing and the MPG Marketing groups.
-The IT department has a lot of bloat. Just show up to Corporate Pointe on any afternoon after 3pm. You will find people pretty much asleep at their desks, staring off into space, and other packing up to go home. They are not stretched thin. 50% of the IT staff needs to go. The other 50% need to be offshored to Cap Gemini or IBM. Hopfer just wasn’t engaged with the process, and Andujar does play good golf!
At this exact moment I can go to any street in downtown L.A. and get a copy of any movie up for best picture – including AVATAR!! Not cheap video cam stuff, but actual HD quality copies. How can anyone make money?
I completely agree with SPEDude. There are so many people there with upper management titles doing nothing but collecting a bonus check every year.
The IT Dept is the worst because they get paid more than people with the same title on the business side. I know of several people in IT that aren’t worth keeping around, but somehow they manage to stay. People that I’ve heard continue to get negative reviews and are constantly moving from department to department, position to position, trying to stay ahead of the ax. But they are completely worthless.
In IT, contractors that work here for years are converted to permenant and get a title bigger than the person they worked for previously. I know of someone that was a contractor reporting to a Director, but when he turned perm, he got a title of Director also… but still does the same freak’n job he did as a contractor. How does that happen?
Sony Pictures needs to get rid of all their VPs, EDs and Directors. They would save millions in salaries, benefits and bonuses. Trust me, they won’t miss any of them. Leave the frontline managers and their staff who do the REAL work alone.
I disagree with SPEDude that the people in IT are lazy. I work in IT. I work my butt off trying to keep these old systems running day in and day out. It’s just sad to see the wrong people get the credit and save their jobs on the backs of the people that do the actual work.
450 people is a good start. They’ll definitely need to trim more to be profitable.
And you can start with Michael and Amy.. “Co-Chairman” why?
It’s easy.. get rid of one. Duh….
With outsourcing comes less control and more bloat. IT has not been central to their business model, but more and more digitalization needs to happen. The truth is they do not have the right mix of people to do the job and way too many executives and managers that do not have a clue spending most of the day trying to keep their jobs by smoozing with each other. It is a lunch culture, not about doing the job or being creative, but who likes you and who is your lunch buddies.