• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Sony Music Australia Behind the scenes with Denis Handlin

Saidera

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
388
Likes
309
Location
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
21f13f227647d24cd1930db9be5d7a9fc332354a
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN SHAKESPEARE
I was so shocked by what I read here today: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10...in-toxic-regime-australian-industry/100523030
But on the other hand I wasn't exactly shocked, I sort of expected that something of this sort had been hidden behind the corporate veil: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/21/sony-music-australia-allegations-toxic-work-culture

This isn't exactly useful news but it does relate to the music industry and might deter those thinking of working in Australia's music industry. There are also considerations to be made for future changes.

When it comes to the history of Sony in Australia, Denis Handlin is one of the big names. But in terms of the accusations made of the undesirable 'workplace culture', there might be a somewhat modified kind of Japanese work ethic/standards at play here. One that is foreign to the Australian way of work but is also different to the Japanese way. Yet the 'intimidating' use of power and 'ruthless management style' which causes employees to feel 'utterly miserable' is not unlike some hard core bukatsu club activities in Japanese schools. I certainly remember that bukatsu experience and having been brought up as an Australian, I never could fully accept it. Sure, after testing the limits of your physical and mental endurance, other things in life seem too easy in comparison, but query whether it is necessary to go the extreme lengths and risk 'traumatising'. Chanting that every other competitor is incomparably worthless was also a surprise to learn. Respecting competitors and aiming for mutual benefit and peaceful diversity should be the way. After my bukatsu experience, I brought that bukatsu mentality into Australian Saturday sport and my goodness how out of place it was! Saturday sport is just for fun basically, but bukatsu is to endure and win at all costs. One wonders where Mr Handlin picked up the Japanese 'ruthless management style' which clearly gave Sony an edge over any other foreign competitors.

Overall, this news reminded me that behind all the smiles, honours and beautiful stories in Japan or elsewhere, there are countless people who more or less suffered, worked overtime, eroded their health, gave up their lives to the company whose products/services we might have enjoyed. Of course there would be serious occasions when the criticism is justified, and there are definitely great difficulties in finding the right knowledgeable employees to undertake satisfactory work or who are capable of being trained or work independently/aligned to your requirements. But when the leader promotes such an unbelievable 'workplace culture' these justifications just don't hold up anymore.

So with that, I express my acknowledgement and respect for the many and varied sacrifices that countless people made while working in various multinational corporations. Often those sacrifices did not lead to much difference compared to if those sacrifices hadn't been made. Hopefully there will come a time when all forms of unnecessary suffering can be minimised and peace restored.
 
Last edited:

Galliardist

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
2,558
Likes
3,273
Location
Sydney. NSW, Australia
There is one problem with your implied conclusion about Handlin and “Japanese management style”.

Handlin became head of CBS music in Australia in 1984 and was already known to be acting in this way before Sony took over in 1991 - and as the programme made clear, Sony Music International continues as CBS Music did, to operate out of New York, not Japan.

Horrific management is not a problem of any one country our culture.
 
OP
Saidera

Saidera

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
388
Likes
309
Location
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
G’day.

It’s always nice to meet Australians on ASR.

I confess I haven’t read the information carefully nor viewed the programme. My first post contains wrong implied conclusions. It’s apparent that this kind of management isn’t tied to a specific country or culture. But I do reckon the Japanese are overworked. Often I call them in the middle of the night and they answer the phone while burning the midnight oil.

Music may help to bring out more of the better qualities of humans.

Pop music perhaps didn’t do that for him. Should try classical.

Actually the media reports all kinds of societal/systemic issues, and they do so continuously. We become aware of them but what can we do? This example shows that action does happen when the media becomes involved. But there are so many other unsolved matters that are just kept as a historical precedent. Some matters are deemed to be (or will be) solved when first reported, but in fact it is merely self-satisfying and the old ways quickly resume.

At least Australians are ‘young and free’. I am optimistic about the future. By getting involved I hope to drive positive changes to benefit the downtrodden. I will stand up for the weaker party. I won’t let the useless self-satisfying continue. All the injustices occurring daily behind closed doors, all the unnecessary suffering behind the abstract descriptions, I seem to understand them but I am able to objectively use sound arguments to try and achieve justice. I will believe in justice rather than outrightly denying its existence. I can’t stop before I’ve even started. Make way for the younger generations; we are a trouble-laden generation indeed…
 

Galliardist

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
2,558
Likes
3,273
Location
Sydney. NSW, Australia
G’day.

It’s always nice to meet Australians on ASR.

I confess I haven’t read the information carefully nor viewed the programme. My first post contains wrong implied conclusions. It’s apparent that this kind of management isn’t tied to a specific country or culture. But I do reckon the Japanese are overworked. Often I call them in the middle of the night and they answer the phone while burning the midnight oil.

Music may help to bring out more of the better qualities of humans.

Pop music perhaps didn’t do that for him. Should try classical.

Actually the media reports all kinds of societal/systemic issues, and they do so continuously. We become aware of them but what can we do? This example shows that action does happen when the media becomes involved. But there are so many other unsolved matters that are just kept as a historical precedent. Some matters are deemed to be (or will be) solved when first reported, but in fact it is merely self-satisfying and the old ways quickly resume.

At least Australians are ‘young and free’. I am optimistic about the future. By getting involved I hope to drive positive changes to benefit the downtrodden. I will stand up for the weaker party. I won’t let the useless self-satisfying continue. All the injustices occurring daily behind closed doors, all the unnecessary suffering behind the abstract descriptions, I seem to understand them but I am able to objectively use sound arguments to try and achieve justice. I will believe in justice rather than outrightly denying its existence. I can’t stop before I’ve even started. Make way for the younger generations; we are a trouble-laden generation indeed…
Hello

I'm actually a migrant from the UK. I don't know about here in Australia, but in the 1980s the UK had a period when some companies were trying to import Japanese work practices ("we have to be more like the Japanese to succeed"). Some seriously nasty managers at the time actually used "Japanese style management" as an excuse back then, as I recall it. So you may not be as far out as I first thought when i read your comment.

The rise to the top of people like Handlin is all too common. The long term solution is to change the rules of the game, as it were, so that sort of person either can't win, or has to be more decent in order to gain the success they crave. That's a small-p political question and one that demands you be "for" things rather than just "against" the individual incidents of badness. There's a rule against political discussion here, so I'll stop at that point - apart of course from welcoming your determination to do something about it!
 

restorer-john

Grand Contributor
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
12,580
Likes
38,283
Location
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
To me, it was yet another beat up by the woke left 'journalism' that spews from the ABC on a daily basis. Several days before, trying to make the Four Corners show part of the national news broadcasts and likely a few days after. :facepalm:

I'm old enough to remember Caroline Jones presenting the show in the 1970s, the Moonlight State (Chris Masters) investigation in the 80s, so this #metoo, jump on the bandwagon drivel is just a big yawn. What used to be essential viewing is now a national joke of a program.

All those so-called bullied employees could have left if they didn't like it. But they stayed, took the money and did nothing. CBS and then Sony Music were in the rock and roll recording and promoting business in the 80s. A crazy time, huge amounts of money, schmoozing, drinking, sex, drugs and money. What did they expect?

Don't apply today's snowflake, cancel culture mentality to things that went on 20-35 years ago. They were all adults.
 

Galliardist

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
2,558
Likes
3,273
Location
Sydney. NSW, Australia
To me, it was yet another beat up by the woke left 'journalism' that spews from the ABC on a daily basis. Several days before, trying to make the Four Corners show part of the national news broadcasts and likely a few days after. :facepalm:

I'm old enough to remember Caroline Jones presenting the show in the 1970s, the Moonlight State (Chris Masters) investigation in the 80s, so this #metoo, jump on the bandwagon drivel is just a big yawn. What used to be essential viewing is now a national joke of a program.

All those so-called bullied employees could have left if they didn't like it. But they stayed, took the money and did nothing. CBS and then Sony Music were in the rock and roll recording and promoting business in the 80s. A crazy time, huge amounts of money, schmoozing, drinking, sex, drugs and money. What did they expect?

Don't apply today's snowflake, cancel culture mentality to things that went on 20-35 years ago. They were all adults.
Sorry, you don't have a get out of jail free by using the words "woke", "snowflake" or "cancel culture" with this one. Nor can you go on to just place it in the 1980s or any other "crazy time". Clearly, you didn't pay attention to the "when" here.

Underneath it all, this is a story of a traditional, old fashioned bully who could go as low as a tirade of abuse and throwing a phone at his chauffeur for not having the cost of a meat pie in his pocket. Someone who kept it up for over 30 years as a senior manager, then the boss at the Australian subsidiary of one of the world's largest music companies - while the highest levels in that company were aware of it for much of that time. And we were only shown a selection of the lower level employees who would have borne the brunt of the power he was given.

I'm not sure what part of bullying was acceptable 20-35 years ago, and the behaviour went on until the guy was fired - this year.

Now, having said that, and believing this is a story that deserved to be told, there are some areas where it was clumsy. The metoo aspect of the story was a key part as it led to the eventual demise, but for me it looked like a disjointed bit stuck on the end. The programme didn't seriously explore the New York senior management aspect either, and that was what would have lifted this story to greater importance in the end.
 

restorer-john

Grand Contributor
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
12,580
Likes
38,283
Location
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
The programme didn't seriously explore the New York senior management aspect either, and that was what would have lifted this story to greater importance in the end.

I agree. Maybe they were stonewalled by New York management, but like you say, it went nowhere in the end. So, someone was a big fat bully and got sacked eventually. Happens every day all over the world. Probably at the ABC too.
 

AnalogSteph

Major Contributor
Joined
Nov 6, 2018
Messages
3,337
Likes
3,278
Location
.de
I can't help but notice the parallels:

Those into their true crime stories are likely to be quite familiar with characters like Mr. Handlin, bullies when sober and even nastier when drunk. He either must have been extraordinarily effective or, more likely, either well-connected to corporate head office and/or sharing a similarly cavalier attitude. Upper management of multi-billion dollar corporations tends to attract those after money and power like a pile of cow dung the flies, and let's just say they generally aren't exactly saints.
 
OP
Saidera

Saidera

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
388
Likes
309
Location
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Thanks everyone. I wish they were saints.
 
Top Bottom