[LRflex] Re: IMG: Another couple of Church shots

Good Mornin' Charlie!

You said:


Glad I didn't know more about Lee when he was in power, I'd have
been worried sick. :-)
I'm not so sure about that... I had the opportunity to speak with the man on several occasions. And, despite some personal disagreements with him, I still feel he was the right man for the times. He shepherded a moribund firm into the digital era. He took a firm on the verge of bankruptcy and made it profitable. He was also a staunch advocate of the "R" series.
Balancing that is the fact that a number of the M8's flaws (lack of IR filter, etc) can be also laid at his feet, for (as I understand the story) he insisted it be out for Photokina '06 when the engineers wanted another 8 months "to get it right". Fixing those flaws has been expensive for Leica, but, would a firm hemorrhaging money have survived another year without a digital M?
I suspect that most of his problems stemmed from his American-style management methods and how they were received within, and without, Leica. I am sure he stepped on many toes, some of which needed to be stepped on, and perhaps others, at least not so hard.
While I believe Steven Lee was the right man for the times... I never saw him as a "long term" man. He is a turnaround expert. Still, I thought he'd last 3 to 5 years.
What fascinates me, through all of this, is that CEO's are rarely ever dismissed. They are asked to resign. So, what did he do that was so awful that he was, apparently, summarily dismissed?
As for the future... that will depend on whether Leica can stay on the course of modernizing it's thinking and manufacturing techniques to produce viable, competitive products in Germany. If they can, I suspect all our concerns will become minor. Should that not happen, the company could fail, once again. Perhaps, this time, for good. 

Interesting times....









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David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Limited Edition Prints at: www.furnfeather.net
Personal Web-site at: www.main.furnfeather.net
Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4

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