Sony Scraps Japanese-style Egalitarian Salaries in Battle For AI Expertise (nikkei.com) 43
Sony will increase salaries by up to 20% for new recruits with high-tech skills in fields such as artificial intelligence, moving away from the traditional Japanese emphasis on seniority to better compete in a battle for talent that crosses industries and international borders. From a report: Traditionally, new graduates hired by Sony all receive the same entry-level salary, then are assigned a pay grade after more than a year based on their role. Starting this year, grades can be set for standout hires in as little as three months, resulting in annual salaries as much as 20% higher than colleagues'. Japanese companies have a deep-rooted tendency to pay new employees equally regardless of individual qualifications. But global competition for top talent -- particularly in the tech industry, where big American players like Google and Apple dominate -- has made it increasingly important to offer new graduates compensation in line with their abilities from the time they enter the company.
Capitalism always wins (Score:1, Insightful)
If you want talented people then these people need to feel their talent is appreciated. If they are not getting what they believe to be sufficiently compensated then they will leave. How do we determine "sufficient" compensation? The market will decide.
Forcing compensation to meet any other definition of "fair" will inevitably fail. There is no "minimum wage" besides zero. Inflating wages to meet some value of "fair" just forces people that cannot meet that level of value per their work hour will be un
Your education would have been socialist, if. (Score:1, Insightful)
"Capitalism notices the consequences that why it works." = Bullshit that doesn't know what an externalized cost refers to. Socialized losses, privatized profits. That's why it doesn't work a la carte. You're simply uneducated.
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Nice theory. Let me predict you [blindseer] are another one of those incredibly naive libertarians. I have yet to encounter one who actually understands what "freedom" actually means...
Speaking as a Sony shareholder (per my longer comment below), you are SOOOO wrong. Short-term value is NOT real value, but that's the only value today's stock market can even pretend to assess. (In reality, the stock prices (and market caps) are merely the transient "opinions" of soulless gambling algorithms.)
I'll add one mor
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Arguing whether "Capitalism" or "Socialism" "works" better depends on what your definition of "Capitalism", "Socialism" and "works" is.
Pure Capitalism and Socialism exist as definitions only. They will never exist in reality because they are both corrupted by individual humans.
This is an awesome short story I came across on Slashdot last week...
https://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
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People are motivated by both current and potential future earnings; starting at a low salaray with the expectation that job performance will be recognized and rewarded quickly is a trade-off many people will make when they are starting out with minimal or no experience.
The catch is that your current salary is pretty easy to measure objectively, but future earnings are hypothetical. The employer merely talks about rewarding merit rather than doing people will figure it out pretty quickly.
Collusion to keep salaries down (Score:2)
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and they have long standing supply chain relationships too instead of competition. Companies hire those with best grades in a wave right when they graduate and most the rest are screwed for getting a good job even if they have "people skills" and managerial ability.
maybe one day they'll wake up and start being competitive for business and employees, and their economy won't be in recession all the time
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I don't live in Japan, was relating the problems I know from friends who do live there. I have a job and make 2.5 times the U.S. median household income. So I'm doing very well, thank you.
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On the edge of deserving an insightful mod?
There are (at least) two aspects from the perspective of the corporate cancers (such as Sony has become). Per your [FeelGood314's] comment, one is the desire to keep the workers divided and racing to the bottom of compensation levels. Stretching the metaphor a bit, but as long as fresh cells can be obtained, why would the cancer care if all of its cells are starving to death?
The other aspect could be described as professional courtesy. You know the old joke about s
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I'd like to see where you get the idea that Republicans hate marijuana.
Seems to me that if they hated it that the Republican controlled federal executive branch would be raiding a lot of marijuana dispensaries all over the USA. They are continuing a Democrat policy of being hands off on this.
As I recall from my history lessons in high school this is how prohibition of alcohol ended, with the slow erosion we are seeing now with marijuana laws not being enforced. The states either stopped enforcing the proh
Unhappy shareholder speaks: Sony lost its way! (Score:2)
I used to look forward to attending the shareholders meetings. This year's is coming on the 18th, but I probably won't bother to go. So:
How did Sony lose its way?
On the positive side, Sony used to have a vision that led to the creation of great products. Similar to Steve Jobs at Apple, the founder Akio Morita was able to guide the development of products so great that no marketing "expert" could predict the need. He also made some huge blunders and learned from them, which should again remind you of Jobs. A
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Perhaps I was kicked out of the rat race for insisting "I am a man, not a resource in human form"?
To which they thought, Wait a sec, this one's a human! We'd better get rid of him before he tries to run behavioral science experiments on us.
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What are you trying to say?
If it's some kind of ad hominem attack, then the "discussion" is obviously terminated, but perhaps you simply write poorly? On the other hand, if you have nothing to say (clever or otherwise), then perhaps you should cleverly say nothing.
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On the negative side, the attempts to be more international have, in my opinion, never helped Sony
Good point, Sony is solid when they do their best to make the best products for the Japanese market.
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On the negative side, the attempts to be more international have, in my opinion, never helped Sony
Good point, Sony is solid when they do their best to make the best products for the Japanese market.
That was not my original intention, but perhaps it has some validity? I was mostly thinking in terms of the short-sided pursuit of higher quarterly profits, trying to solve the insanely unsolvable problem of greater relative profit. I was even trying to be diplomatic by saying "international" when I was mostly thinking "American".
However it is true that most of Sony's greatest products (such as transistor radios and the Walkman) were influenced or even driven by the special circumstances of Japan. Sort of j
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Just had a job offer from them (Score:2)