TechTalk
Well-known member
In the case of the Sony rebadging, the CEO destined for the task was Dr. Larry Hansen; who had been the CEO of Carl Zeiss Asia Pacific for several years prior to joining Hasselblad as CEO. At Carl Zeiss, he oversaw the licensing and use of Zeiss trademarks or manufacturing for Zeiss by Cosina (Zeiss lenses), Kyocera (Contax cameras and lenses), and of course Sony and others.The way, without knowledge of the details or the reality of PE, you paint in rosy colors DJI's ownership as a contrast to everything before is exaggerated.
Private equity never decides the strategy alone. It is with the management team that a strategy is defined and implemented. They might replace managers, but usually, it is symbiotic at the beginning as it would be foolish to not sit down and discuss value levers with the people already in the company (usually via many interviews before defining a mid-term and long-term strategy). If anything, the managers made mistakes and that specific PE wasn't able to turn things around with the amount of capital available for that investment.
...It shows a complete lack of understanding of how investing works and is again some armchair wannabe authority babble.
For the marketing of Hasselblad rebranded Sony products; he was the ideal candidate to lead that plan with his experience as CEO for Carl Zeiss Asia Pacific. We know how that plan turned out... not well at all.
By the way... Dr. Larry Hansen was appointed CEO at Hasselblad in 2009 by Shriro Group, the Hong Kong based distributor for Hasselblad and other photographic brands in Asia for decades. It was Shriro Group who rescued the company after a Swiss private equity firm had mismanaged Hasselblad to the verge of bankruptcy. Shriro, however, did not give approval for the rebranding scheme under their corporate stewardship. That was the great plan which Ventizz bought into as a great moneymaking concept with Hansen leading the charge — triple revenue with rebranded product and cash out for a big payday. The decisions made by corporate boards with responsibility for supervising independent operating subsidiaries of holding companies, such as Hasselblad or Leica, are crucial to setting the right direction and financing that direction.
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