Reinventing the Millennium

The temperature in Tokyo in November is moderate and relatively dry.

Fang Zhuo was in a very good mood when he came to the city again this time, so he got up early the next morning, briefly walked around the hotel, and bought a few Japanese newspapers.

Without exception, the front pages of these newspapers are all about the recent turmoil in Japanese companies.

Compared with the popularity and casualness on the Internet, the tone of the local media in Tokyo is very serious. Fang Zhuo does not understand Japanese, but he can see the dark-colored logos of Toshiba or Sony being quoted on the page.

After the assistant translated, he felt an even more solemn and desolate atmosphere.

WikiLeaks has naturally been criticized for its malicious intentions, but now the company heads and CEOs named have also been criticized one by one, including Takata's Shigehisa Takada, Olympus's Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, and Kobe Steel's Kawasaki Hiroshi…

These highly respected big names and heads of giant companies in the past have all fallen from their pedestal as if overnight. They used to be interviewed by the media and often gave their opinions on the global industry. But now, when they see the media cameras, they want to hide in the company or in the car.

"Face the reality, there is no point in escaping!"

"They should be punished more severely!"

"We witnessed the sinking of a commercial aircraft carrier!"

In addition to putting these figures on the page, criticizing the system, criticizing culture, criticizing this and that, the media is trying to find all the factors that can explain this fraud.

Fang Zhuo carefully watched the reflections of the Japanese media and thought that he might be able to borrow them for use.

The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders was held in the afternoon, and in the morning was a small meeting to decide on the final list of submissions. Participants included some shareholder representatives, board directors and group executives.

Yes, although the conference is around the corner, the board of directors has still not been able to hand over a complete list of top executives.

Stringer's voluntary resignation and the fraud scandal of Japanese companies disrupted everything. Coupled with the resignation of outside directors during his term, the functions of the board of directors have essentially disappeared.

As of today, there are essentially only two people left competing for the position of CEO.

One is Ryoharu Nakahachi, an old man who once competed with Stringer for CEO, the other is Yoshihisa Ishida, one of the "Sony Four Musketeers", and the other Hiroshi Yoshioka who also has status and qualifications...

During Fang Zhuo's communication with the shareholder representatives, everyone really had no confidence in pushing a person in charge whose business had lost at least US$2 billion to the CEO position, so he was naturally eliminated.

Also noticed by some shareholders was Hirai Kazuo. His evaluation has always been good. However, his appearance was boycotted by Nakahachi, Ishida and Yoshioka Hiroshi, and the former's subjective initiative was submerged in the water.

However, Fang Zhuo didn't care much whether it was Nakahachi Ryoji or Ishida Yoshihisa, so some Sony shareholders and senior executives were very confused.

Sony's equity is very dispersed. The current largest shareholder is American Depositary Receipts Company Moxley and Company, which represents the stock trustee of JPMorgan USA and did not attend this meeting.

Second after it is the American BlackRock Group, but it only holds 6.27%, followed by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, holding 5.7%, and Japan's Nomura Securities, holding 5.01%.

Below 5%, there are Sony Financial Holdings, American Vanguard Investments, Toyota Motor, Sumitomo Insurance, State Street Investments, etc.

Not only Sony, but many large companies in Japan have dispersed shareholdings and cross-shareholdings among themselves. This has resulted in a situation where the management rights belong to the company itself, but in the event of a crisis, they can still join forces to ensure dominance.

But, let’s face it this time for Sony… Stringer’s resignation did leave a mess that caught people off guard.

The current media comment is that Stringer and Woodford, two British people, made everyone very hurt, and jointly started a shocking fraud scandal led by Sony and Olympus.

Before the morning meeting started, Fang Zhuo also made an overseas phone call and chatted with Stringer, the head of Sony, for a while.

Stringer has told Kazuo Hirai that he has no chance to take the position this time because his objections are too great, and Kazuo Hirai can only accept it.

"Is it Nakabachi or Ishida?" Stringer couldn't help but ask about the final nomination at this time.

"I communicated with people from BlackRock, Vanguard Investments, and State Street Investments last night, but they couldn't make up their minds. The Japanese side is not very clear either. It might really be a lottery." Fang Zhuo said the most practical situation. .

Sony has officially announced that it will hold a shareholder meeting and require company reforms to deal with the crisis. The announcement seems to be orderly, but there is still no unified opinion internally. It was originally a mess, but now it is probably half a mess.

Stringer was silent for a while: "If I had known better, I wouldn't have been so anxious to resign."

"If I had known earlier, you would have honestly been your Sony America. It would have been better than now." Fang Zhuo said.

Stringer sighed, who would have thought.

The nomination meeting was not held at Sony headquarters, but in a hotel.

By the time Fang Zhuo led people into the conference room, almost everyone had arrived. Judging from the scene, there was a clear distinction between the representatives of foreign investment shareholders from the United States and those from Japan.

Fang Zhuo first nodded to everyone who greeted him, then hesitated for a few seconds before pointing to the reserved seat, wondering whether he should laugh or cry: "Are you sure you want me to sit here?"

The seats reserved for shareholder representatives and group executives are the main seats at the long table.

Although Fang Zhuo is no stranger to such a location, this is not Yike, but Sony.

"Please, Mr. Fang." Nakabachi Ryoji stood up and bowed, inviting Sony's external director Fang Zhuo to take a seat.

Fang Zhuo was helpless. If he continued like this, he would really become the chairman of Sony.

He nodded, sat down directly, and gave the warning he gave back then: "There is not much time left for Sony."

After Fang Zhuo said this, he pointed to his watch: "There are still 5 hours."

Well, that's what I'm talking about.

The shareholders' meeting is at 3 p.m.

Nakabachi Ryouji glanced at Ishida Yoshihisa inadvertently, and coincidentally, Ishida Yoshihisa also looked over.

Fang Zhuo opened the document and used Sony's own financial status as an entry point: "Mr. Stringer has resigned, and Ms. Katsumi Ihara has also resigned. Sony is missing a CEO and CFO. They have already taken responsibility for Sony's poor situation."

"But when I knew Sony's estimated losses this year, I had to think that it was not enough for them to be responsible alone."

Fang Zhuo paused and said, "USD 7.5 billion."

There was silence in the conference room.

Fang Zhuo gave his own evaluation: "Excellent writing."

In addition to the US$2.4 billion write-down of deferred tax assets, TV, computer, consumer electronics and other businesses still lost US$5.1 billion.

Hoyle, senior vice president of BlackRock Group, spoke out this time and expressed the feelings of many shareholders: "This is an unacceptable number. I thought I could see someone having a caesarean section for this."

Fleming, another American pioneer investor, laughed: "Stringer is not Japanese."

Hoyle glanced unkindly at the Japanese senior executives sitting across from him. Stringer, wasn't there a group of them here?

Ryoji Nakahachi and Yoshihisa Ishida felt restless at the same time, and Hiroshi Yoshioka, who was sitting a little further away, couldn't help but swallow his saliva. Sony's biggest loss this year is his business...

"Hey, what are you talking about? Sony has reached rock bottom. I believe it has rebounded after this turmoil." Sitting in the main seat, Fang Zhuo had the obligation to change the topic, "Stringer has resigned, no matter what Nakabachi and Ishida, they are both Sony people who value the company more than themselves, and this time they are also putting their personal reputations on the line."

Hoyle looked at the two Japanese people. He opened his mouth to speak but held back the urge. Why did these two people feel so average?

He turned to look at Mr. Fang and suggested, "Mr. Fang, why don't you become the CEO?"

As soon as these words came out, many people nodded slightly. After two years of work, Mr. Fang might actually be better than the two Japanese people at Sony.

Fang Zhuo smiled and asked Nakaba Ryoji, "What do you think, Mr. Nakaba?"

Nakabachi Ryoji was startled, maybe he really meant this...

"Foreign aid cannot save Sony. Facts have proved that it still needs people who know Sony better to save it." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Mr. Zhongbo, Mr. Ishida, Sony still looks forward to your unity."

As he said this, he opened two lists of high-level officials favored by Nakahachi Ryoji and Ishida Yoshihisa. Both of them wanted to help their own people get on the horse and pull the other side's people down. It can be said that they were very united.