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Jim Ryan:"I have the best job in the world, but with each year that passes, jet lag gets harder and harder to deal with"

Z

zedinen

Member
Many thanks to Luxe Magazine


Getting To Know You…
Name:

Jim Ryan.

Title:

President and Global CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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Where is home?
I live in Highgate, in North London, although work requires me to travel a lot, principally to the Bay Area in California but also to Tokyo. There’s a big difference between where you live, and where your home is.

Even after almost fifty years away, I still think of Newcastle as my home. Nothing beats the feeling when the train crosses the bridge and you look up and down the Tyne. Nothing.
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"I have the best job in the world."
I run Sony’s global PlayStation business. PlayStation is now the largest and most profitable part of Sony. That’s all very important, but just as crucial is my accountability to be towards the PlayStation Community, and how I ensure that people are surprised and delighted by the games and services that we offer them.

This is a non-trivial challenge as what gamers love in Tokyo can be very different to what gamers love in Dubai, which again, can be very different to what gamers in Ohio love. I guess I’m biased but I think I have the best job in the world.
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Jim Ryan is ready to retire.
A day in the life of you?

It depends on where I am. If I’m in the UK, I get up very early for the London/Tokyo crossover, break around midday, then sleep, eat and have a walk, then start again around three just as the West Coast is getting going, and slog through on Teams until supper.

By the end of the day, my eyes are bleeding from looking at a screen for too long… Face-to-face is better but that requires me to be on the West Coast or in Japan. Those trips are always energising but also exhausting.

With each year that passes, jet lag gets harder and harder to deal with. The human body simply isn’t designed to teleport across continents – anyone who thinks regular long-haul business travel is exotic and exciting is out of touch with reality!
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He doesn't mince words.
Three reasons you love where you live?

I don’t really. I’m happy in London but I don’t love it here. It makes all the sense in the world from a family and work perspective to live here, but if I left, I wouldn’t miss it that much.

Best dress?

T-shirt and jeans, always. I wear a tie maybe twice a year and hate it. Since lockdown I’ve even started to find a collar uncomfortable – when you stand back and think about it, both the collar and the tie are absurd, unnecessary affectations.
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Jim doesn't care about material possessions.
I’m fortunate enough not to care in the slightest about material possessions. Cars and clothes don’t interest me in the slightest and entertainment is all digital now. I have an old watch that was my dad’s which I value hugely for sentimental reasons.
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Lessons In life.
At work, I always say ‘stay humble, do your best, and enjoy yourself’. It took me many years to figure out something that is extremely simple and straightforward – I think it applies well enough to all aspects of life. I think if you live along those lines, things will end up OK over time.
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His biggest dream.
I would love to be in the stadium when NUFC wins the Champions League. I think this will happen within the next ten years.
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UVteWh0.jpg
 
Heimdall_Xtreme

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
Lessons In life.
At work, I always say ‘stay humble, do your best, and enjoy yourself’. It took me many years to figure out something that is extremely simple and straightforward – I think it applies well enough to all aspects of life. I think if you live along those lines, things will end up OK over time.
Click to expand...

137557988949.png


The man that close many studios talking about humble.
 
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Arsic

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I completely agree with business dress being so unnecessary and idiotic.

The best work productivity I’ve ever produced has always been in sweat pants and a t shirt. Being uncomfortable or out of your element makes you unable to fully concentrate.

If I could go into a business meeting wearing an anime shirt and sweats I’d be in bliss.
 
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SlimySnake

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
taking trips in this day and age is idiotic but companies still force it because the execs want to go out and have fun away from families, fuck hookers and do blow etc. the thing is the rest of us just want to stay home and join via zoom.

Realistically he should only be traveling to LA once a year. For the game awards. To show support for his devs. Tokyo every quarter to talk to the board. But that’s it. Everything can be handled over teams nowadays. Let’s face it. He’s the CEO, no one’s going to leave him on Read. His secretaries should be connecting him at all times anyway.
 
Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I am many many years younger than Jim Ryan and I recently flew to Switzerland. Coming back was a 9.5 hour flight.

It was awful doing it twice (there and back). I can't imagine doing it multiple times per year for consecutive years.

But we still got to hear "jIm rYaN wAs FiReD!"
 
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rofif

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Brucey said:
And he's answering about material possessions, so he doesn't have physical games, movies etc, just a digital library. Personally I like physical so it's time for him to go lol.
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oh ok it went over my head.
psn doesn't even allow you to change region, so I am not going full digital. And psn speeds and prices suck in Poland.
Old games and deals are fine on PSN but new games are always cheaper on disc.
And I like having some ownership and not connecting games to my account... since I don't trust sony to help me recover it if something happens or if I move
 
Elog

Elog

Member
SlimySnake said:
taking trips in this day and age is idiotic but companies still force it because the execs want to go out and have fun away from families, fuck hookers and do blow etc. the thing is the rest of us just want to stay home and join via zoom.

Realistically he should only be traveling to LA once a year. For the game awards. To show support for his devs. Tokyo every quarter to talk to the board. But that’s it. Everything can be handled over teams nowadays. Let’s face it. He’s the CEO, no one’s going to leave him on Read. His secretaries should be connecting him at all times anyway.
Click to expand...
This is simply not correct. Team building does not work without sitting down face-to-face. Day-to-day execution tasks work great over zoom/MS Teams. Any type of advanced discussions with divergent views require physical presence to be efficient (you can zoom/ MS Teams partially). Creative processes benefit greatly from a lot of face-to-face interactions.

The more senior you are in your role, the more advanced discussions you have and the more physical meetings are required for efficiency.

So while zoom/MS Teams can take out a good chunk of both travel as well as office presence requirements, there is still alot that cannot be replaced by those tools if you want the best end product.

I am willing to bet significant amounts of money that if we actually plotted the split between % remote work against the games you find great, you would find a fairly strong inverse relationship between the two variables.
 
Loomy

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Elog said:
This is simply not correct. Team building does not work without sitting down face-to-face. Day-to-day execution tasks work great over zoom/MS Teams. Any type of advanced discussions with divergent views require physical presence to be efficient (you can zoom/ MS Teams partially). Creative processes benefit greatly from a lot of face-to-face interactions.

The more senior you are in your role, the more advanced discussions you have and the more physical meetings are required for efficiency.

So while zoom/MS Teams can take out a good chunk of both travel as well as office presence requirements, there is still alot that cannot be replaced by those tools if you want the best end product.

I am willing to bet significant amounts of money that if we actually plotted the split between % remote work against the games you find great, you would find a fairly strong inverse relationship between the two variables.
Click to expand...
That is simply not entirely correct.

Team building for sure benefits from getting together in person. But it's entirely possible to run a successful operation completely remotely. Gitlab has been doing it for years before covid was a thing.

I've been in situations, for example, where running a design sprint remotely has been a bad experience, and running one in person has been a terrible experience. I've also been in situations where the opposite has been true. If you adapt your tools and the way you work/communicate to the situation, you can be very successful being fully remote. My current work is.

But you are right about team building. You need to get people together every once in a while.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Hudo said:
That's what you get for letting Motorstorm die.
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He did the opposite: other ones before him killed Evolution and Liverpool Studio.

He "resurrected" them by acquiring Firesprite, whose leads are mostly the ones from Evolution + Liverpool Studio + Bizarre Creations.

Loomy said:
Everyone trying to find reasons for why he is leaving (Oh no! Factions??? GaaS???). The man is just old. If he was fired, he would be gone already. You don't fire your CEO and let him hang around as CEO for an extra 6 months.
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He's the most successful CEO than any console maker or game publisher ever had. Sony is now the top 1 gaming company, over Tencent. SIE is performing better than ever in most metrics.

There's absolutely no reason to fire him. He wasn't fired, he retired because he's old.
 
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Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
yurinka said:
He did the opposite: other ones before him killed Evolution and Liverpool Studio.

He "resurrected" them by acquiring Firesprite, whose leads are mostly the ones from Evolution + Liverpool Studio + Bizarre Creations.


He's the most successful CEO than any console maker or game publisher ever had. Sony is now the top 1 gaming company, over Tencent. SIE is performing better than ever in most metrics.

There's absolutely no reason to fire him. He wasn't fired, he retired because he's old.
Click to expand...
Exactly. If anything he tried to reverse course with that decision.
 
Raven117

Raven117

Member
SlimySnake said:
taking trips in this day and age is idiotic but companies still force it because the execs want to go out and have fun away from families, fuck hookers and do blow etc. the thing is the rest of us just want to stay home and join via zoom.

Realistically he should only be traveling to LA once a year. For the game awards. To show support for his devs. Tokyo every quarter to talk to the board. But that’s it. Everything can be handled over teams nowadays. Let’s face it. He’s the CEO, no one’s going to leave him on Read. His secretaries should be connecting him at all times anyway.
Click to expand...
There are some meetings that you just have to do in person. There is more going on in a room than just a face and and a voice.
 
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ulantan

ulantan

Member
yurinka said:
He did the opposite: other ones before him killed Evolution and Liverpool Studio.

He "resurrected" them by acquiring Firesprite, whose leads are mostly the ones from Evolution + Liverpool Studio + Bizarre Creations.


He's the most successful CEO than any console maker or game publisher ever had. Sony is now the top 1 gaming company, over Tencent. SIE is performing better than ever in most metrics.

There's absolutely no reason to fire him. He wasn't fired, he retired because he's old.
Click to expand...
Yeah well there is no new locoroco he clearly doesn't know what he's doing...



/s
 
SlimySnake

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Raven117 said:
There are some meetings that you just have to do in person. There is more going on in a room than just a face and and a voice.
Click to expand...
Sure. he's the CEO though. Herman and others under him should be at those meetings.

From what he's saying he was going to LA and Tokyo once or twice a month. thats nuts. His presence would be required when doing acquisitions or signing exclusive deals with other CEOs. I dont think he actually needs to visit PS HQ or ND or SSM just to show his face.
 
Raven117

Raven117

Member
SlimySnake said:
Sure. he's the CEO though. Herman and others under him should be at those meetings.

From what he's saying he was going to LA and Tokyo once or twice a month. thats nuts. His presence would be required when doing acquisitions or signing exclusive deals with other CEOs. I dont think he actually needs to visit PS HQ or ND or SSM just to show his face.
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Depends on that nature of the meetings and what he is trying to accomplish. That said, I’m sure he could have lived in the west coast of the US and done just fine. A bit self-inflicted there
 
Yoboman

Yoboman

Member
Seems like CEOs of PlayStation don't last long because of this, I recall Hirai also said the same

Maybe Sony needs to have a hard look at why they are grinding these guys out. MS and Nintendo don't seem to have this issue all things considered
 
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