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More Shakeup at Hasselblad

DB5

Member
Regardless of the reason behind it, this is shaky news.

You just have to look at Apple in its current form and output to see what happens when they loose key people (i.e. Jobs) and Oosting turned that company around and bought it back from the dead.

But it's great news to see the X1D being declared as shipping at least.
 

JeRuFo

Active member
Why is this bad news? It just seems that he thinks he fulfilled his task and now makes way for someone to guide them into this new chapter. The fact that he stays on at Hasselblad indicates that there are few hard feelings. Who knows why he didn't want to go on anymore. Maybe this was the plan all along and maybe he just doesn't want a high profile job anymore for whatever reason. He has been very busy in the last few years.
Even if it has to do with the change of ownership, that would make total sense too and doesn't have to be bad news at all.
 

cerett

Member
Regardless of the reason behind it, this is shaky news.

You just have to look at Apple in its current form and output to see what happens when they loose key people (i.e. Jobs) and Oosting turned that company around and bought it back from the dead.

But it's great news to see the X1D being declared as shipping at least.
Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple and its chief innovator. Mr. Oosting in no way fits that description so the comparison is a major stretch, to say the least. I suspect that the plans for the H6D and X1D were already in place prior to his takeover as CEO. Nobody knows why Mr. Oosting stepped down. It could be for health or other personal reasons that we are not privy to. It may have been an interim position for him all along. Hasselblad was never "dead." They simply lapsed into a coma from which they have now fully awakened. I received my H6D-100c this week and plan on enjoying it to the fullest extent possible and, at the same time, ignoring what others think is "shaky news."
 

pegelli

Well-known member
Not shaky at all, he stays on as a member of the advisory board while one of his colleagues from there takes on the role as CEO. His mind and passion will still be with Hasselblad, but the extended hours and eternal availability for the company is passed on to someone else. Not a bad deal and well deserved!
 

Nick-T

New member
Nobody knows why Mr. Oosting stepped down.
Well some of us do :)

Perry has been an absolute god-send for Hasselblad and has achieved a remarkable turn around. I'm sorry to see him go but I think he deserves a well earned holiday.
 

jduncan

Active member
Regardless of the reason behind it, this is shaky news.

You just have to look at Apple in its current form and output to see what happens when they loose key people (i.e. Jobs) and Oosting turned that company around and bought it back from the dead.

But it's great news to see the X1D being declared as shipping at least.
Yes, he did, but he did major mistakes in the process. There are singular opportunities for life and for companies. The Nikon D600 was one for Nikon. Nikon started to gain big time on Canon. They made a major mistake, then the other. Nikon never recovered and now they are moving to become third to Sony. If they had managed the D600 different, they will be facing the DSLR crisis from a totally different place. Back to Hasselblad: The implementation of the X1D program lacks polish. They not only designed the camera using a nonmodular design (component wise) but they market it like a boutique: Handmade in Sweden at the center. That mean they did not launch the X1D camera to conquer but to survive. In the West, the people that care about that stuff is old and will buy Phase One. The dealers are masters on raising the self-esteem of the buyers. I don't know if he was asked to resign or if it's the software bit (maybe he had a vision for the hardware, and the next guy is a Software specialist). But what Hasselblad also needs a competent COO.

Best regards,
 

Boinger

Active member
Yes, he did, but he did major mistakes in the process. There are singular opportunities for life and for companies. The Nikon D600 was one for Nikon. Nikon started to gain big time on Canon. They made a major mistake, then the other. Nikon never recovered and now they are moving to become third to Sony. If they had managed the D600 different, they will be facing the DSLR crisis from a totally different place. Back to Hasselblad: The implementation of the X1D program lacks polish. They not only designed the camera using a nonmodular design (component wise) but they market it like a boutique: Handmade in Sweden at the center. That mean they did not launch the X1D camera to conquer but to survive. In the West, the people that care about that stuff is old and will buy Phase One. The dealers are masters on raising the self-esteem of the buyers. I don't know if he was asked to resign or if it's the software bit (maybe he had a vision for the hardware, and the next guy is a Software specialist). But what Hasselblad also needs a competent COO.

Best regards,
So let me get this straight. A company planned for selling lets say xxx units they sell xxxxx units and somehow that is mis managing? I don't know what you know about business, Bbt it is impossible to scale to 10-100x production overnight. What you are asking/expecting is kinda ridiculous. The only thing that was mis managed at best was communication, but even that would not satisfy the members on this forum is my thought.

As to your other comment people will buy phase which is 3x the price because they don't like to see handmade in sweden?
 
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So let me get this straight. A company planned for selling lets say xxx units they sell xxxxx units and somehow that is mis managing? I don't know what you know about business, Bbt it is impossible to scale to 10-100x production overnight. What you are asking/expecting is kinda ridiculous. The only thing that was mis managed at best was communication, but even that would not satisfy the members on this forum is my thought.

As to your other comment people will buy phase which is 3x the price because they don't like to see handmade in sweden?
It's a fact that when Hasselblad finally did release a press statement it was either ignored or treated as a lie by this forum. As a company you cannot win, and communicating is most likely pointless.
 

jerome_m

Member
It's a fact that when Hasselblad finally did release a press statement it was either ignored or treated as a lie by this forum.
Sorry, but no: that is not a "fact". For the simple reason that a "forum" is not a monolithic entity which can ignore things. Some forum members took note of the press statement, others ignored it.
 
Sorry, but no: that is not a "fact". For the simple reason that a "forum" is not a monolithic entity which can ignore things. Some forum members took note of the press statement, others ignored it.
Ah you are correct. I did mean 'some members of the forum', not everyone :)

Apologies.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I really don't get into all the conjecture and theoretical discussions about corporate management like this.

Dr. Perry Oosting (sp?) did a good job, far as I can see from the products announced under his leadership.
Whether he wanted to step down and hand that high stress position to someone else, or the Hasselblad board of directors felt it was time for him to leave for whatever reason, is his and the company's business ... not mine.

I think Hasselblad is in much better shape now than it was when Dr. Oosting took the reins, with new backing from their investors and an revitalized product mix. I hope his successor proves to be as good a leader and manager, and that the company grows stronger through the next few years.

G
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
It's a fact that when Hasselblad finally did release a press statement it was either ignored or treated as a lie by this forum. As a company you cannot win, and communicating is most likely pointless.
This is solely my opinion but it's not so much that forum members or photo industry journalists ignored Hasselblads statement but it was Hasselblad's own mistake in not getting ahead of the story when they could have. Keep in mind, often times they weren't communicating with vendors which didn't have updates to provide to customers prior to Christmas which is the largest single consumer season in most of the world (AFAIK). This created a story on its own that allowed people to create rumors or assume the worst because historically when things aren't going smoothly most companies get quiet... this is expounded during Christmas season.

All in all this is PR 101 stuff and Hasselblad handled the delay and/or production issues poorly. I think most are happy to see it getting into people hands now and what it can produce. I think at some point people assume that criticism is the same as being against a company (which in some cases I guess that's true but not in all).
 

stngoldberg

Well-known member
All the verbiage is irrelevant at this point.
Hasselblad has two really great cameras at this point.
No longer a Hassey back owner, but we should all respect their ability to bring innovative products to the market place as they have been a medium format icon for decades
Stanley
 

jduncan

Active member
So let me get this straight. A company planned for selling lets say xxx units they sell xxxxx units and somehow that is mis managing? I don't know what you know about business, But it is impossible to scale to 10-100x production overnight. What you are asking/expecting is kinda ridiculous. The only thing that was mis managed at best was communication, but even that would not satisfy the members on this forum is my thought.

As to your other comment, people will buy phase which is 3x the price because they don't like to see handmade in Sweden?
Hi,
First a clarification: you understood that people will buy phase one because the X1D-50c is hand made in Sweden and they will not like it because of it.
That is not the point: the point is the people that are from the west and are prestige buyers (the ones that will buy the X1D-50c because is build by Swedish hands) are likely to but Phase One. I don't know if it was here on in Lula that someone mentioned that he was not willing to go to a place where the people that buy DSLRs are and get in line with them. Asian buyers will love the built in Sweeden but the underscore in hand-made means that production is not easily scalable. Have you seen the video with part of the production of the X1D? is very manual. It's not like you assemble some modules, test and done.

This implies[1] that the CEO was not aware that he had a winner on the X1D and was expecting it to be a very successful boutique product, not a game changer.
General clarification: The CEO was great, he needed a COO and someone to tell him, this is going to go out as pancakes if we are able to produce enough. We should go modular design, even if it means outsourcing modules and final assembly and test in Sweeden.

Being a CEO is a very difficult work[2], I get that, but yes, being unable to ship any product during a long period of time seems to be an opportunity lost (the Fuji is almost out). Please notice that the person that they selected is a production and software expert and he was able to have production and expansion running at the same time, just like the great COOs do.


Best regards,
-- Notes --
[1] It could be that he knew but Hasselblad financial condition did not allow a modular design.
[2] And in terms of responsability, not execvution, it includes gauging the demand of a product. If it becomes to high, that is great but I expect that you will continue to ship product at the programed pace as you expand capabilities.
 

Iktinos

Not Available
on a side note.. the Leica CEO is off as well >>

Leica-Chef Kaltner hört auf
Yeah... but Leica has suffered some market failures of recent introductions. Be sure that if it was the same with Hasselblad nobody would "discuss" the CEO change either. It's the success that harms competition and aims to generate "issues" to a company that doesn't have any.

Be sure that if Hasselblad didn't have the product line (due to the former CEO - P.O remains at the board as advisor) that caused the competition market to shrink down to extremely small market share, there would be no "discussions".

Now that Hasselblad has the products and decided to replace the CEO with one that can boost the software support too as to also surpass competition in an area which remains the only one criticized by many (for some applications) and can still (to some extend) direct customers towards competition, now is the time to "invent" a "crisis" (or "shakeup" as the OP calls it).

Never the less, companies are judged by their products and sales and because customers aren't as naive as competition might have assumed, I expect that the invention of a non existent "crisis" as marketing tactics originated from Hasselblad's competition, will cause (even) more harm to the originators of this disgusting and (obviously) fake propaganda.
 
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