Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 376 Top talents need to be actively sought out
After the meeting regarding Zensuke Suzuki's resignation as vice president and his appointment as director, Masato Takeshita called Rogers into the meeting room.

What do you think of the position of Vice President Suzuki?

"It's great, I can spend more time with my family."

Perhaps it's due to his age, or perhaps he's already enjoyed everything he could. Rogers isn't power-hungry and prefers spending time with his family.

Therefore, the headquarters job that was causing so much trouble for Hiroaki Kobayashi and others was no problem for Rogers at all.

"If I asked you to take over Suzuki's position, would you be willing?"

Rogers is usually very adept at social maneuvering, making him perfectly suited for public relations and similar jobs.

It can be said that he is the best candidate to succeed Suzuki Zensuke in the entire Xinghai Group.

"No problem, I'm happy to take on this responsibility."

Rogers was overjoyed, finally free from the endless work.

He will have more time to spend with his family and friends now.

Especially Mr. Yamauchi from Nintendo, he hadn't seen him for almost half a year.

"Okay, but you have to wait until Xinghai Entertainment has a suitable successor first."

"Understood. I believe the chairman can take down Kalinsky quickly."

Rogers knew very well that Kalinsky was the most suitable person to succeed him.

This colleague is not only successful in the gaming industry, but also knows many senior American media professionals, which can help Starsea Entertainment expand its influence in the United States.

"Yes, I'm planning to ask Kikuno-san to help me make an appointment with Kalinsky, and then the two of us will go to visit him together."

The easiest way to win over top talents in this world is to treat them with respect and courtesy. Even Zhuge Liang, who is regarded as the embodiment of wisdom, could not resist this tactic.

Of course, one must not be arrogant or overbearing during the process. If so, it will only backfire.

"No problem, I'm available anytime."

"Okay, then you can go ahead and get busy."

"OK, I'll be going now."

After Rogers left, Masato Takeshita contacted Shinji Kikuno at a suitable time.

"Here's the thing, I'd like to meet with Mr. Kalinsky. Could you please make an appointment for me?"

"Anytime is fine, I can fly there anytime."

"Okay, no problem, see you there."

Less than half an hour after the call ended, Shinji Kikuno called him back.

"This Saturday, okay, no problem."

"Yeah, don't worry."

"OK, see you on Friday."

Few people would choose not to meet with Masato Takeshita's invitation, and Kalinsky was clearly not one of the very few.

Besides, he had been thinking about changing jobs, but he just hadn't found a suitable opportunity yet.

Now that Xinghai Entertainment seems to be extending an olive branch, he certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to refuse.

Listen to the terms first; it's not too late to politely decline if they don't work out.

After hanging up with Shinji Kikuno, Masato Takeshita stopped letting Rogers cause any more trouble.

"Hello, this is Takeshita."

"Yes, that's right, they agreed."

"The official meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday. We will depart on Friday morning."

"Okay, you can wait at home. The company will send a car to pick you up."

Although all middle and senior managers at Xinghai Group are provided with chauffeured transportation, some prefer not to be picked up and instead drive home themselves. Rogers is a prime example.

However, when there is official business, they will still provide pick-up and drop-off service to avoid any trouble.

After arriving in the United States by plane, the two soon met Kalinsky.

"Hello Mr. Kalinsky, I am Masato Takeshita from the Xinghai Group."

"Hello, Chairman Takeshita, I am Kalinsky, head of Sega North America."

After exchanging polite greetings, Masato Takeshita introduced Rogers to him, and the two exchanged similar pleasantries.

After about three to five minutes, Masato Takeshita finally got down to business.

"Mr. Kalinsky must have sensed that Sega was going to be in trouble."

"As long as I'm here, Sega won't be in trouble."

Although Sony has developed more powerful consoles thanks to its CD technology, in the gaming field, software has always been superior to hardware.

Kalinsky was very confident that even if there were problems at Sega headquarters, he could still achieve good results with his superb marketing skills.

"I have great faith in Mr. Kalinsky's talent. You are a genius who can lead Sega to take away most of the market from Nintendo."

"I believe that in the initial stages, Sega can still gain an advantage by virtue of its heritage and Mr. Kalinsky's abilities."

"But Sega's new console was too outdated and couldn't stop the trend of the times."

Sega in its early days could indeed compete with Sony, but Sony's lead was era-defining, much like the disruptive impact of smartphones on feature phones.

Sony's PlayStation console had too much storage capacity and too much 3D performance, which Sega couldn't compete with.

"Sega's console is still being modified, and I don't think it will be outdated when it launches."

Sega's new console is scheduled to launch before Christmas this year, a full year later than the PS console.

Even so, Sega never considered switching the technology to optical discs.

Kalinsky's North American Sega was so successful that the leadership at Sega headquarters lost their technological sensitivity.

In their pursuit of greater profits, they have become as stubborn as Nintendo was in the past.

It's just that Nintendo and Sega are such interesting rivals.

While Nintendo monopolized the global gaming market, Sega focused on hardware research and development, thereby achieving a breakthrough.

Now that Sega has achieved good results, Nintendo has started to pursue an advanced hardware strategy, while Sega has become more conservative.

These two really know how to play the game; they've both become the very thing they used to hate the most.

"Do you believe this yourself?"

"Forehead……"

Kalinsky suddenly found himself at a loss for words, unsure how to refute the argument.

He was an employee of Sega and was well aware of the stubbornness of the Japanese headquarters.

He had already been hated by most of the leaders except for Hayao Nakayama because of his outstanding performance, and he was powerless to change Sega.

In a way, Hayao Nakayama was both Kalinsky's mentor and the culprit behind his current difficult situation abroad.

Because Hayao Nakayama liked to use Kalinsky's achievements to reprimand the employees in charge of the Japanese market.

Why can other companies sell tens of millions of units, while you only sell two or three million?

To put it simply, Kalinsky has become someone else's child.

In such circumstances, progress is only encouraged on a very rare occasion, and most of the time it will only provoke hostility.

Kalinsky's Japanese colleagues were all ordinary people, and as a result, he was silently bullied.

It can only be said that exceptionally talented individuals are not suited to working in mediocre companies. Even with the support of the company president, it would be difficult to get things done.

Unless he becomes president and has the power of life and death over the company. "Indeed, Mr. Kalinsky himself knows it's impossible."

Takeshita Masato shrugged, then smiled and continued.

“Sega’s problems are unsolvable, and President Nakayama can’t withstand the pressure from the vast majority of senior management.”

"Isn't the fact that the chip you recommended was rejected a clear example?"

Sega's new console initially followed a design provided by Kalinsky. However, after a series of internal struggles, his Japanese colleague ultimately gained control of the console's design.

The core chip of the new host was also changed from being designed by an American chip company to being designed by a Japanese chip company.

However, the Japanese design was outdated and destined to be a failure.

Of course, if Sega had a first-party game lineup as strong as Nintendo's, they could probably manage a draw.

Unfortunately, Sega is heavily reliant on third-party game developers.

However, third-party game developers tend to be opportunistic, prioritizing whoever provides the most funding. Sega is falling behind Sony, and people will quickly abandon Sega.

"I know, but President Zhongshan has been very kind to me."

"Isn't everything you've done for the Sega Mega Drive enough?"

Hayao Nakayama selected Kalinsky, and Kalinsky brought him great rewards, helping him gain more power at Sega.

The two people complemented each other, and neither owed the other anything.

Besides, Nakayama Hayao will be leaving soon, so Kalinsky's current insistence is irrelevant.

"Well, I'll think about it again."

Kalinsky remained somewhat hesitant, wanting to wait before leaving Sega, yet fearing that Starsea Entertainment might be an even bigger trap.

"No problem, both the company and I respect your personal opinion."

Masato Takeshita certainly didn't think he could win Kalinsky over on their first meeting; he just needed Kalinsky to show interest.

He smiled and changed the subject, beginning to talk about the rights and obligations of the president of Xinghai Entertainment.

"Xinghai Group has a lot of things to do every day, so it's difficult for me to take care of all the subsidiaries."

"Normally, if I have any ideas, I usually leave them to the company president to do. I only look at the final result."

"Of course, I will look at the content if it fails. But as long as the loss is not too great, I will only get a general understanding of the details."

"Even if the losses are very serious, I won't investigate further as long as the employees are fine."

"After all, the gaming industry is all about luck; no matter how well-made a game is, it's useless if you're unlucky."

As long as they act within Masato Takeshita's control, the presidents of the various subsidiaries of the Seikai Group enjoy unlimited freedom.

Of course, compared to Gerstner becoming the president of IBM, the constraints imposed on the Starsea Group were still quite high.

After all, everything in the group had to follow his command.

Masato Takeshita didn't intend to hide it and quickly told the truth.

"I have some talent, so I also arrange some things at the subsidiary."

"For example, at Xinghai Entertainment, I would have my employees create games that I personally design."

"The games 'Snowman Brothers' and 'Snowman Elimination' from Xinghai Games are mini-games that I designed myself."

"Another aspect is acquisitions. I will specify some companies as acquisition targets."

"For example, we acquired a majority stake in Square Enix."

At this point, the young man's mouth became dry. He drank half a cup of coffee in one gulp before continuing.

"Of course, if you have any projects you're interested in, you can provide me with the information. If there are no problems, I'll agree to them."

“Xinghai Group is rich, and Xinghai Entertainment is rich too. We can easily produce billions of dollars in cash.”

Capital is invincible in any field.

The rapid rise of Xbox in later generations is the greatest manifestation of the power of money.

Upon hearing this, Kalinsky had already made up his mind.

Xinghai Entertainment is great; having ample cash reserves is the key to success in the industry.

"Furthermore, Xinghai Group's technological level is among the world's top."

"In the software field, we have Xinghai Operating System, Xinghai Industrial Software, and Xinghai Office Software, which are popular throughout Asia."

"In the technology field, we have CPU chips comparable to Intel's, the world's most powerful flash memory chips, and world-class graphics card chips..."

Xinghai Group is far stronger than Sony in the technology field.

The reason Sega doesn't use the latest CD technology for its new console is because it's worried that it can't compete with Sony in this area.

While Starsea Entertainment may not be able to match Sony's level, it can achieve the same level as Sony's consoles, or even surpass them, through other means.

After all, CD audio-visual technology is only one part of the host computer; hardware such as graphics cards and memory are equally important, as are the software responsible for operating it.

However, for the time being, Xinghai Entertainment has no choice but to withdraw from the game.

He is still waiting, waiting for the most suitable opportunity to arrive.

Kalinsky, after hearing Masato Takeshita's introduction to Seikai Entertainment, became even more interested and couldn't help but ask questions.

"anything else?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know the specifics either. You can ask President Rogers about that."

He is the chairman of Xinghai Group, not the president of Xinghai Entertainment.

He only knew the general outline of Zixinghai Entertainment; Rogers needed to provide more specific details.

"Yes, let me explain these things in detail."

Rogers then began to give a more comprehensive introduction to Star Ocean Entertainment.

For example, the film division of Tokuma Shoten, which was acquired recently, and Studio Ghibli and Starsea Animation, which have not yet left much of a mark in the United States.

He also gave a general introduction to the music record companies.

The company they invested in, Being, became a trendsetter in Japan, and their own company, Seikai Music, also achieved great success.

Rogers also briefly mentioned the company's development direction.

Xinghai Entertainment is preparing to enter the toy and related products industry in order to achieve full-chain development.

"Oh, Xinghai Entertainment is planning to enter the toy manufacturing industry?"

"Yes, our company has many well-known animation and game IPs, it would be a shame not to turn them into merchandise."

Rogers was aware of Kalinsky's work experience, which is why he specifically mentioned the company's plans to enter the toy industry.

Clearly, his guess was correct; Kalinsky is now also very interested in the toy industry.

"As far as I know, the toy industry worldwide is in decline. Is this the right time for Xinghai Entertainment to enter the market?"

Rogers' lips curled into a smile; he knew Kalinsky was now more interested in Starsea Entertainment.

He then confidently replied, "Playing is human nature; the toy industry is only superficially declining."

"The toy industry right now, like Barbie before Mr. Kalinsky took over, needs a revolution."

While affirming the future of the toy industry, Rogers also praised Kalinsky, saying he was indeed very suitable for public relations.

"Not at all, President Rogers, you flatter me."

Kalinsky was very happy, and his positive impression of Xinghai Group increased even more.

(End of this chapter)