As one poster who lives in Japan said if the so called illegal manipulations where not done in the 90’s there probably would not have been an Olympus today.
It would be like saying if a medical company had not performed unethical tests on unwitting participants in a study, the company may not have survived.
Still, I am loathe to take as "fact" that what Olympus did was "necessary" for its survival. If this were the case, why only Olympus? Where are all the other scandals? Still hidden away waiting to explode?
Or are you arguing that Olympus was quietly fixing the problem and Woodford's poor timing stopped them from fixing the problem themselves? With a collapsing DSLR division, that would seem to be quite a reach, no?
In the 90’s Olympus was put in a precarious position when the Japanese stock/bond market crashed (bad investments. ) The way I see the action is more of a fanatical crime of passion. Decisions had to be made to protect the company ( Not personal pockets) so a hard decision (If somewhat illegal ) was taken. This decision was to protect the company , employees , and short term future on the business. The people doing this knowingly did this to protect the thing they loved and not for personal gain. ( Yes a salary at the end of the month would be nice.) Tough times called for tough measures. As they say Pride comes before a fall and this is where Olympus came unstuck. This dead wood should have been cleared out of the system. But think about this how does a new president's now blessed with this lovely info go public with thing’s that happened 20 years ago. You try and clean up the mess. The tools to clean up the mess where wrong. At this stage it appears there were no private jets liners and cruisers parked in the Caribbean and 24 hour around the clock parties for employees and customers. No BOD directors fat pay outs ( Liquidating assets) while waiting for the hammer to fall. The company was solvent and functional unlike the norm in the rest of the world east and west of the pacific.
You know, if I blew all my money on lottery tickets hoping to be able to pay my mortgage in a depressed economy, lied on loan applications to get the loan to cover my stupidity, and then went deeper into the hole with more of the same, all in the name of being able to keep my home hoping that as the economy recovered I'd be able to pay back those debts, I think some would sympathize with me, others would call me a fool and think I deserved to be homeless.
But to blame the person who uncovered what I did and seek to buy my house, when that person was my accountant who I fired for finding out what I did?
No, I don't think so.
Did the investors lose any money until Woodford went public. Maybe I am a stupid African boy that lives is a mud hut but , Profits = Dividends which are paid to share holders . So if the profits were inflated then surly the investors where overpaid. As to the overvaluation of the company that is to complex for an African boy like me maybe a commodity mover can explain it in more detail.
Wrong yes, but also understandable actions. The means does not justify the end , but left with few to no options what would most people do.
As to books . Woodford is going to do his thing. I wonder if the past Olympus president's might also do a book. Probably not as it would not be the right thing to drag dirt around.
Now to get slaughtered by the moralists.
Well, it's obvious that you're a "by all means necessary" kind of guy, and feel that a "by the book" kind of guy who also has ambitions is the real evil.
Funny thing is, like Olympus, Woodford did what he felt he had to do to survive, the difference being that what he did was legal. Yet he's the bad guy, in your eyes, and not just a bad guy, but almost evil incarnate.
Interesting way to look at things. I wonder how people on this board would have felt if this had happened to Canon, Nikon, or Sony. Too bad we can't peer into those alternate universes, 'cause I'd like to place a rather healthy bet on what we'd see.
