Can anyone comment on Tatsumi Kimishima's performance?
Paging Shikamaru Ninja, paging Shikamaru Ninja on what this means in accordance to Nintendo's recent realignments...
My personal opinion is that Kimishima was more of a "hold the fort down" kind of person - his position in NCL makes sense given how much Nintendo has invested in their home market and getting their consoles back on track and their operating plan is in place - Kimishima just needs to execute on the existing NCL strategy - i.e. dependability is more important than innovation for Japan now since the operating strategy is in place and sales are accelerating for them
So, it's not about whether Kimishima was good in his role at NoA - it's about whether his skills are aligned with his current role - and I think they are
Iwata being CEO of NoA is a great thing - I think he is going to make a lot of decisions to globalize Nintendo's output and really invest heavily in the Western development talent and products - further, I truly think Yamauchi encouraged him to do it - Yamauchi wanted to go to the US many times in the 80s and 90s but with his son-in-law in charge and the mutual respect Yamauchi and Lincoln had - he never did - still, even despite all of NoA's success - he always wanted Nintendo to be a global company and wanted to personally be running American operations - and I am sure with all of NoA's troubles and Iwata still being relatively young - now was the time to do it - Iwata has really improved his English over the past few years and is developing into a global CEO/President now (along with the engineering/products background which is really important)
Many people have been craving Western collaborations with Nintendo for a while - this makes those collaborations extremely likely now IMHO
I see this move akin to Larry Page giving Eric Schmidt the boot and assuming the CEO title - this is no doubt going to really, really motivate NoA when the President of the company is moving to the US and personally setting up strategy
First 100 days will go something like this:
1. Strategic review of all management personnel in the company and cleaning house + setting up JDs for new hires - I am sure Nintendo will hire head hunters to find top notch people to really increase the level of energy - recruiting will probably be totally revamped as will promotion and performance management and evaluation (something NoA has barely touched in 20 years)
2. Review of all retailer strategies and channel strategies - probably see huge boosts to Nintendo's digital strategy - double down with all retailers in terms of kiosks - probably an expansion of Nintendo World retail format - yes probably improved relationships with Amazon given they are in the same city
3. Review of all internal development and strategic expansion and collaborations - EAD Seattle? Probably more strategic collaborations and partnerships with third party developers. Retro might stay the way it is since Nintendo is happy with them now and feel they are best off managing themselves. Probably more direct investment in products like sports for example.
4. Review of all third party development and developer relations in general - Miyamoto interestingly mentioned Madden as a game that "had been refined over time" similar to Animal Crossing (interesting choice to positively comment on EA that way) - my sense is that they are going to go deep and really push to strategically rebuild third party relationships across the board