Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 219: Change Begins with the Game

Such a significant difference is significantly related to the political ecology of the two countries.

Once an American politician steps down, it is difficult for him to maintain a deep influence on the government for a long time, and it is even more difficult to influence the president.

Japanese politicians are completely different. After abdication, as long as their factions are not overthrown, they can use the power of political factions to control state affairs behind the scenes.

Therefore, they are less sensitive to corruption and cannot play the revolving door game.

Of course, the United States’ deliberate laissez-faire attitude is also an important factor.

Once a prime minister with the power to confront the United States emerges in Japan, all kinds of problems will arise.

The Lockheed case of Kakuei Tanaka and the Recruit case of Noboru Takeshita both had the shadow of the United States.

When talking about the United States, Masato Takeshita naturally thought of the Xinghai Group's branch in the United States.

He opened his eyes and sat up straight, then asked softly, "What do you think about transferring Chambers, the CEO of Matsumoto Manufacturing's U.S. branch, to the CEO position of Xinghai Semiconductor's U.S. branch?"

Chambers was very talented and managed Matsumoto Manufacturing's American business very successfully.

But the upper limit of trolley suitcases is there, and it is really a waste of resources.

Lou Gerstner was the vice president of Xinghai Group and had a good understanding of Matsumoto Manufacturing. He did not act like a sycophant and directly agreed with the young people's views.

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head and objected: "I think it's better not to do this for the time being."

"Matsumoto Manufacturing is still in a period of rapid expansion and relies heavily on the development of talented individuals. If Chambers were lost, it would likely disrupt Matsumoto Manufacturing's growth momentum in the United States."

"Our branch in the United States is different. It mainly does basic research and does not need business elite leadership for the time being."

"I see. That makes sense. I was abrupt."

Masato Takeshita thought of the energy drink that Matsumoto Manufacturing was developing and felt that his flash of inspiration was indeed a bit hasty.

Once the energy drink is successfully developed, Matsumoto Manufacturing will rely heavily on Chambers' market development capabilities.

Hearing that the president had withdrawn his reputation, Lou Gerstner secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then fluently gave a round of flattery.

"No, the president is also considering the development of the company."

Gerstner is very satisfied now.

Because of the persuasion just now, I successfully achieved two goals with one stone.

Not only did he sell Matsumoto Manufacturing as a favor and ensure its development, but he also allowed himself to retain control of the American branch.

That’s right, Lou Gerstner’s remarks were not only out of public interest, but also out of consideration for himself.

He now also manages the US branch business of Xinghai Semiconductor part-time, and naturally does not want the power in his hands to shrink.

Especially when the Xinghai Semiconductor headquarters was subject to various restrictions by Masato Takeshita, they were even more reluctant to abandon the branch business which was completely under their control.

Everyone has the ambition to control all power.

The change of post was not resolved, and Masato Takeshita talked about his other idea.

"The businesses and names of the various companies in Xinghai Group seem too confusing."

"I want to reorganize the company and make it more formal."

"Do you have any better ideas or suggestions?"

The names of the early companies in the Xinghai Group were decided by Masato Takeshita without much thought.

Not very reasonable.

A typical example is Xinghai OEM.

This company, which is engaged in the development of world-leading technologies, is called Xinghai OEM and can easily be looked down upon by people who do not know the inside story.

The company's president, Junyoshi Koike, once complained to him that the company had been rejected by college students because of the name issue.

Masato Takeshita also felt that the company's name was not very nice, which led to the idea of reorganizing it.

"The group does need to be reorganized, but it's better for the president to make the decision on this matter."

When it comes to the company's naming rights, Lou Gerstner doesn't dare to interfere.

At most, he would offer some minor suggestions for revisions after the young people completed their plans.

"Okay, then I'll make a rough plan first, and then we'll discuss and improve it in the meeting."

"The president is wise."

Masato Takeshita was the owner of the car, so the driver first sent Lou Gerstner home and then took him to his villa in Setagaya district.

After entering the villa, the young man took his clothes and lay in the bathtub, planning everything for the Xinghai Group.

"Xinghai Group is temporarily implementing a four-level management system."

"As for the head office, its name is Xinghai Holdings."

"As for the third-tier vertical subsidiaries, we will start with the gaming companies and investment companies with smaller staff."

"After accumulating enough experience, we will take action against the two heavyweights, Matsumoto Manufacturing and Xinghai Semiconductor."

Xinghai Group is already a large company, directly affecting the employment and lives of tens of thousands of people, and indirectly affecting hundreds of thousands of people, so it cannot carry out drastic reforms blindly.

Cook it slowly over low heat, bit by bit, just like cooking a delicacy.

"Games belong to the entertainment industry. A first-tier company in this field should simply be called Xinghai Entertainment."

"The second-level subsidiaries are the original Xinghai Games and Xinghai Music."

"In the future, we can also expand into the fields of film and television, media, toys, etc."

"As for the third-level subsidiaries, taking Xinghai Music as an example, they are music brands such as Avex."

"This way it looks clearer and easier to tell the big and small kings apart."

Of course, the reduced weight of Star Ocean Games in the Star Ocean Group does not mean that the status of Rogers, the president of Star Ocean Games, will decline.

On the contrary, his status will be greatly improved.

Because after the reorganization, Masato Takeshita will appoint Rogers as the president of Xinghai Entertainment.

Other companies will also develop in a similar way.

In a nutshell, all senior executives must be promoted.

In this way, managers will actively support the company's reform, the reform will be smoother, and too much internal fighting will be avoided.

As for stopping the infighting, it is impossible, it is human nature.

Some teams have better control and the scope involved will be smaller.

When it comes to internal fighting, the positive aspects of competition far outweigh the negative aspects.

Some groups are poorly controlled and the impact is very large.

When there is internal fighting, it is a life-and-death struggle.

Xinghai Investment also needs to carry out similar reforms.

The first-tier subsidiary, Xinghai Capital, vertically manages the second-tier subsidiaries including private equity, venture capital, public offering, and assets.

After planning it out in his mind, Masato Takeshita hurriedly dried his body, quickly wrote and drew in the study, and wrote everything down in his notebook.

In addition to the reorganization of the company names, the young people also have certain ideas about the candidates for the positions of president and vice president of each company.

However, considering that Xinghai Investment would be taking major action soon, Masato Takeshita quietly retained Xinghai Investment's reform plan.

That is to say, in the short term, Xinghai Group will only reform the entertainment sector of the group.

"Well, alright. This will allow us to observe the effects of the internal reforms more closely."

The entertainment business of Xinghai Group is still very small, and apart from Xinghai games, it can be said to be useless.

Media, film and television and other businesses have not yet been launched, and music is just getting started.

But even so, Takeshita Masato solemnly gathered the main leaders of the group together. This is the first step in the internal reform of Xinghai Group, and everyone must have a full understanding.

"These are some of my thoughts on the reform of the group's entertainment sector."

"Everyone, take a look and see if there is anything unreasonable or needs improvement."

After saying this, Masato Takeshita looked at everyone scrutinizingly, signaling the management to quickly finish reading the paper plan on the table.

The plan does not contain much content and can be read in a few minutes.

Ten minutes later, he took the initiative to break the silence in the air.

"OK, everyone should have seen most of it. If you have any opinions, just say it directly. Don't be polite."

Rogers understood his president's character and was the first to suggest changes.

"President, Xinghai Game is still relatively weak right now. I don't think it's necessary to split it up too much."

"After the company grows stronger, it won't be too late to split it into an arcade subsidiary, a console subsidiary, a PC subsidiary, a handheld subsidiary, and a publishing subsidiary."

There are only more than 300 people in Star Ocean Games. The company is divided into too many parts. Some companies will only have a few people, or even a dozen people.

The number of people is too small to reflect the advantages of splitting.

"That makes sense, then just split it into two parts."

"The first part is only responsible for game production business, and its name is Xinghai Game Production Company."

"The other part is responsible for game distribution. It's called Xinghai Game Distribution Company."

The production and distribution of Star Ocean games must be separated.

In this way, the company's game distribution business will have the opportunity to draw on external forces to grow and develop.

Instead of becoming a follower in the game production business and only publishing its own games.

You should know that since the establishment of Star Ocean Games, except for "Tetris", the game that Masato Takeshita focused on, the distribution department has not released any games outside the company.

At the end of his speech, the young man looked at Rogers.

"President Rogers, after the company is reorganized into Xinghai Entertainment, you will serve as the president of the newly established Xinghai Entertainment, and concurrently serve as the president of the subsidiary Xinghai Games."

Reform is about making more friends and fewer enemies, so that you can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Take the Star Ocean game as an example.
After the reform, President Rogers was directly promoted.

Not only does it have the management rights to the existing gaming business, but it also has the management rights to all entertainment projects of Xinghai Group.

Therefore, he will definitely strongly support this reform.

Of course, the president of Xinghai Music Company also benefited from it.

Although the company is still a marginal industry of Xinghai Group, he also got the position of vice president of Xinghai Entertainment.

Only when everyone makes progress can reform be a joyful experience.

"Yes, I will take your orders."

Rogers was very happy, even though Xinghai Entertainment was basically an empty shell except for the gaming sector.

But it doesn't matter. With this title, he can lead the company to expand into other areas of the entertainment industry.

Now he has a rough idea, which is to set up an advertising production company.

Even if there is no external expansion, the group's internal business alone is enough for the advertising company to make huge profits.

After successfully completing the reorganization of Xinghai Games and Xinghai Music, Masato Takeshita was satisfied.

“The rest of the companies will remain as they are for now.”

"If the effect of the restructuring is good, then we will encourage more companies to participate in the restructuring."

"If the effect is not good, then we will find another way."

Having said that, Masato Takeshita had already made up his mind that even if the reform was not very effective, he would continue to implement it.

There are already signs of management chaos within the group. If it is not sorted out properly, it will easily become a mess.

By then, it will become very difficult to maintain the company's original status, let alone development and expansion.

In addition, internal chaos in the group can easily breed corruption.

He doesn't want the money he and his employees have worked so hard to earn to go into the pockets of a few bad apples.

After the meeting, Masato Takeshita left Rogers alone.

The young man poured tea while asking, "Does Rogers-san have any ideas about the candidates for the presidents of the two subsidiaries, Xinghai Game Production and Xinghai Game Publishing?"

"Thank you, President."

After Rogers took the tea, he lowered his head and thought for a while.

"Well, I think it would be more appropriate for the president of Xinghai Game Production Company to recruit someone with experience from outside the company."

Apart from him, there is no management within Star Ocean Games who can take an overall view of the game production.

If we don't recruit someone from outside, the position will have to be left vacant temporarily, and he will then take on the role part-time.

"Oh, do you have a target in mind?"

"Not yet."

Rogers shrugged and looked at his president calmly.

"But there are so many game companies out there that we can always find the right person."

"Okay, then we'll find a suitable one through Deloitte."

Masato Takeshita did not give the position of president of Star Ocean Game Production Company to Rogers.

He wanted to find a manager who was more to his liking.

At the same time, this is also a way to throw sand into Xinghai Entertainment to prevent Rogers from dominating the market.

“Deloitte is really professional in this area.”

Rogers knew what his president was thinking, but he was not prepared to object.

Because no matter who becomes the president of Star Ocean Game Production Company, there is not much difference.

There's no way around it, since our president loves games so much and is always paying attention to the development direction of the game company.

Even if you push for someone you know, your rights will be greatly restricted, just like yourself before.

"Then for Xinghai Game Distribution Company, have you thought of a candidate for president?"

Speaking of which, Rogers is not sleepy.

Because game distribution and game production are completely different, Masato Takeshita rarely pays attention to them and basically does not interfere in their management.

This is the real hot commodity, and it is more suitable to arrange employment for one's own people.

Of course, the decision to do his best to help his subordinate win the position of president of Star Ocean Game Distribution Company was also related to Rogers' previous work.

Rogers previously founded Bulletproof Software, which mainly engages in game distribution.

Naturally, there are talents in distribution within the company.

Bulletproof Software was later acquired and merged by Star Ocean Games, and the company's members naturally joined Star Ocean Games, and its business capabilities were further enhanced.

It can be said that Rogers has many choices when it comes to distribution.

"I think that Honma Hayato-san has strong business capabilities and is suitable to be the president of a publishing company."

Masato Takeshita had no intention of sidelining Rogers, so he simply agreed.

"OK, then let's follow Rogers-san's arrangement."

(End of this chapter)