Nintendo CEO Takes 50% Pay Cut

The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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Nintendo CEO Takes 50% Pay Cut


Nintendo's upper management is taking a wage cut in response to poor 3DS sales.

Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata is having a bad week. Just yesterday, Nintendo announced that it's lowered its predicted earnings for the 2011-2012 fiscal year by 82 percent [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.303433-Nintendo-Slashes-Profit-Forecast-by-Four-Fifths?page=1] and that the (relatively) slow selling Nintendo 3DS is receiving an $80 price cut [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111935-Nintendo-Slashing-3DS-Price-by-a-Third], less than six months after the handheld's launch. Now it seems Iwata himself is also getting a price cut.

The fourth CEO of Nintendo, who was named one of the top CEOs in the world by Barron's Magazine back in 2007, will see his yearly income of approximately $1.7 million, which includes both his salary and performance based bonuses, cut in half. Other representative directors, including Mario-creator and general lovable oddball Shigeru Miyamoto, will be taking a 30 percent pay cut while nonspecific execs are losing 20% of their wage.

The pay cuts are ostensibly part of Nintendo management "taking responsibility" for poor 3DS sales, the cause of which Iwata speculated on last month. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111045-Nintendo-Admits-3DS-Sales-Are-Below-Expectations]

"The current situation," he said when asked about the 3DS' slow sales, "resulted from the fact that the delay of developing Nintendo 3DS software and launching online services, like Nintendo eShop, 3D video services and so forth, occurred simultaneously, so we could not meet people's high expectations that they had before its launch, and we did not see momentum after the launch."

Source: Kotaku Japan [http://www.kotaku.jp/2011/07/iwata_paycut.html] via Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/29/iwata-taking-50-pay-cut-over-3ds-performance/]


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Jumwa

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Jun 21, 2010
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What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
 

mysecondlife

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Feb 24, 2011
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whoa... CEOs ACTUALLY didn't layoff hundreds of their employees just so they can keep their regular wage.
 

puffy786

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Jun 6, 2011
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Usually, as cited in the news, CEOs plan for profit is
1. Destroy the Business you are working for.
2. Something (They know but I'm not a business expert)
3. PROFIT!!!

(Yeah I know that joke is overused)
 

figment of mind

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Jun 26, 2008
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Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
And we sit back and watch them squander that money while killing the company until every ounce of life is taken from it and they file bankrupcy and close down, letting tousands of workers lose their job and fucking them over while everyone else in the world who gave a crap looks at the goverment and asks, "Why didn't you guys do something to stop this?", and said CEO's go on to work as CEO or another high rank job at another company and bleed them dry...

Also, anyone else under the impression now that CEO's are vampires and that we should stake them?
 

CrazyCapnMorgan

Is not insane, just crazy >:)
Jan 5, 2011
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Wait a minute...

Those who manage a company take responsibility and a pay decrease for failing to live up to the standards they profess? And the "little" guys are not being punished for their leader's inabilities?!

What kind of backwards universe did I just stumble into here?!?!?!?!

Wait, they aren't in America. OK, issue resolved.

OT: Just another reason that, though they have some weird practices (i.e. girls faces with their tounges out on toilet paper, animated porn, etc.) Japan has a more sophisticated and, dare I say, balanced business ethic than those in my country. Kudos to Nintendo CEOs for taking that initiative.
 

Not G. Ivingname

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Nov 18, 2009
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Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
Japanese business is more "honorable" in the name of forming good business relations. Sign a contract with a Japanese company, and they won't try to "change" the deal or not follow through. It has to do with the cultural background of the nation and their self image. They also don't want all their investors to die of a heart attack from the news.
 

Mariena

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Sep 25, 2008
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It's incredible that they take some responsibility when things go bad instead of laying off 400 employees and giving themselves a big bonus.

Then again, you can't really complain with a yearly income of 1.7 million...........
 

mysecondlife

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Feb 24, 2011
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figment of mind said:
Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
And we sit back and watch them squander that money while killing the company until every ounce of life is taken from it and they file bankrupcy and close down, letting tousands of workers lose their job and fucking them over while everyone else in the world looks at the goverment and asks, "Why didn't you guys do something to stop this?", and said CEO's go on to work as CEO or another high rank job at another company and bleed them dry...

...and that's terrible. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitle643yzv8u]

Also, anyone else under the impression now that CEO's are vampires and that we should stake them?
try wall street bankers using tax payer's bailout money to give themselves bonus after they drove America's economy to shitter. that always makes my blood boil.

American CEOs can go fuck themselves but I'd rather see those bankers burn at the stake.
 

Black Watch

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Aug 9, 2010
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Sometimes, I clinch my 3DS in my hand as get down on my knees and scream at the heavens. All the while wondering why Ocarina of Time is the only good game on the system.

OT: It is nice to see that they didn't say: "OOPS! LOST PROFIT, FIRE EVERYONE!"
 

Vivi22

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Aug 22, 2010
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Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!
While this is surprising, I think it surprised me more that his pay including bonuses before the cuts was only $1.7 million. A CEO of a company that's been practically printing money for five years wasn't being paid in the multiple tens, or even hundreds of millions? I didn't think companies like that existed.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
And then he lays off people anyway.

It's like the damn Twilight Zone.
 

EHKOS

Madness to my Methods
Feb 28, 2010
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It's so nice and refreshing to see this, and comming from Nintendo makes me smile even more. My hat is off to you Iwata!
 

Staskala

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Sep 28, 2010
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Jumwa said:
What kind of bizarro universe is this news report from?! A CEO taking a pay cut for failing to do their job correctly?!

I don't know how things work in Nintendo, but here in North America when a CEO bungles something horribly, we give him pay raises and government bail out money.
That's normal in Japan, those who fucked up have to take responsibility.
It not necessarily a good thing though, in politics it leads to a nice game of "shifting the blame" before anyone gets chosen to take it.
Still better than the Western approach where the problem is fixed by no one admitting fault.
 

jawakiller

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Jan 14, 2011
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Muhoohaha...

My plan to overthrow the bastards is starting to succeed.

Wait, that wasn't me. They did that to themselves. Well after making such a shitty system they don't need my help failing I guess.
 

thehorror2

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Jan 25, 2010
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This kind of thing shouldn't be news. If we lived in a sane world, it wouldn't be. If a company finds itself in the position where people have to start taking pay cuts, executives (KOTICK!) should be the first on the chopping block. They're the group making the most money already, while also being the most likely culprits for the company as a whole doing poorly.