Panasonic merges consumer and broadcast divisions

For most companies, this type of move is not good news. Companies do this to seek 'synergy', which means they want to cut costs and find common ground between businesses. It is a terrible distraction for at least two years while the executives fight for position to lead the new company. Meanwhile, middle management and employees worry about their jobs. Re-organizations slow down development. The top executives hand out directives to have common manufacturing, design, sales, distribution channels and try to synergize as much as possible. This causes lengthy distractions as each product group has to sort out how it is going to synergize with the other guys they've never talked to before. Looking for common ground is usually a bad idea as one or the other product is compromised. Constant struggles take place as everyone tries to sort out how the new company will work. Re-org after re-org occur until they settle down. Large amounts of time are wasted to get all of their software tools moved to one common platform. Staff needs to learn new tools and ways of operating leading to more distractions. Sales, accounting, HR, customer support, manufacturing, distribution, will all cut staff to obtain these synergies.

It would take brilliant leadership to make this not be a big distraction and a not be a detriment to both businesses.

Look for executives to announce how wonderful this will be and then watch for layoff announcements in about 6-9 months after the merger is executed.
 
Paul F said:
For most companies, this type of move is not good news. Companies do this to seek 'synergy', which means they want to cut costs and find common ground between businesses.
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I hope Panasonic is not going 100% prosumer on us but it looks like it from here. Lets hope that the truly pro stuff makes it into the prosumer side of things. An AF-200 that costs under 5K with a 444 codec would be a good start.:happy:
 
I'm still waiting for a full frame 35mm or APS-C camcorder in VG20 form-factor with XLR audio and full manual control over ALL parameters and a simple efficient prosumer codec.
Come on, Panasonic - you can do it!
 
This happens when a hack brings RAW for motion pictures to the prosumer level, if not consumer as well, to be more accurate. With no excuse anymore for broadcasting acceptance. So, this sort of step is pretty normal as of today. Who said soccer moms are meaningless for this business? :P
 
Emanuel said:
This happens when a hack brings RAW for motion pictures to the prosumer level, if not consumer as well, to be more accurate. With no excuse anymore for broadcasting acceptance. So, this sort of step is pretty normal as of today. Who said soccer moms are meaningless for this business? :P
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Kinda what I was thinking. When the price performance barrier is shattered bringing cinema quality to consumer pricing, I guess we just merge the two divisions. The only thing that may separate them are things like XLR vs RCA connectors etc. $10K for XLRs??! :-)
 
Many of these old school Japanese electronic companies just need to get leaner and meaner. The world has been changing and most electronics have been condensed inside of computers, tvs and smart phones. There are also more players in the market like Apple, Google, LG, Samsung that didn't really exist to the extent they do now back in the 80's-90's when Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer and JVC were rocking it.

Personally I think most of these companies make too many products and need to just pull an Apple and reorganize down to a handful of really great products they put a lot of time and thought into.
 
roxics said:
Personally I think most of these companies make too many products and need to just pull an Apple and reorganize down to a handful of really great products they put a lot of time and thought into.
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If they don't make the products, who will? They are diversified to stay in business, so that when one division hits lean times, other, more profitable divisions can keep the company afloat. Apple is already running into problems trying to find the Next Big Thing. It's going to be especially hard without Jobs's vision.
 
bitcrusher said:
I hope Panasonic is not going 100% prosumer on us but it looks like it from here.
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What would lead you to this conclusion?

All the recent announcements at NAB were about full-bore professional cameras and formats. And with this merger, it sounds like the consumer video factory is being absorbed into the pro factory, and the head of broadcast is now the head of the new division.

I would expect that, if anything, this means that more innovation will be coming to the pro cameras. Seems like the consumer factory was making a lot of advancements, but the market for consumer camcorders has disappeared (been totally obliterated by cell phone cameras; who buys a dedicated consumer camcorder anymore?) So you have a lot of talented engineers with no market to work their magic on, and so they're being folded into the pro camcorder factory. I certainly wouldn't expect that to mean that there's only going to be prosumer stuff from now on, but I would expect that it might push new technologies into the pro cameras. Stuff like the advanced iAuto and OIS from the AC90 should probably be expected to start propagating throughout the handheld lineup, for example, which would be great... you don't HAVE to use those things, but if you need them, it's vastly better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it!

It should also put them on stronger footing to compete for the new news market, where stations have actually been one of the few customers for standalone consumer camcorders. Now the broadcast division should be able to produce appropriate camcorders for broadcast that will meet the needs of the solo reporter/cameraperson, without the station having to resort to buying their cameras from Best Buy, etc.
 
Tzedekh said:
If they don't make the products, who will? They are diversified to stay in business, so that when one division hits lean times, other, more profitable divisions can keep the company afloat. Apple is already running into problems trying to find the Next Big Thing. It's going to be especially hard without Jobs's vision.
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I think maybe these companies make too many products that essentially do the same thing, not to say they shouldn't stay diversified...but some of the camera line ups are ludicrous.
 
roxics said:
Many of these old school Japanese electronic companies just need to get leaner and meaner. The world has been changing and most electronics have been condensed inside of computers, tvs and smart phones. There are also more players in the market like Apple, Google, LG, Samsung that didn't really exist to the extent they do now back in the 80's-90's when Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer and JVC were rocking it.
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Indeed. Electronics is upside down today.
 
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