D&D General WotC Founder Peter Adkison On Hasbro's Layoffs

Peter Adkison, who owned Wizards of the Coast until it was sold to Hasbro in 1999, oversaw the relaunch of Dungeons & Dragons with D&D 3rd Edition. Today, he commented on this week's round of Hasbro layoffs, which have ripped through WotC. Adkison left WotC in 2000 and currently runs a production company called Hostile Work Environment.

Like many of you, I'm saddened to learn about the layoffs at Hasbro.

Caveat: I have no idea of what’s happening behind the scenes at WotC. If you’re asking who’s at fault, or to what extent it was or was not justified, that’s outside the scope of my knowledge. This post is about my own reflections.

When I read about the layoffs at Hasbro my immediate feeling was shame. Shame for when I did the same thing, at the same company (WotC, before we sold it to Hasbro).

I have made lots of mistakes, tons of them, more than I can even remember. And while I regret those mistakes, and I’m sad for those hurt, I realize it’s part of learning and it’s part of being human.

But layoffs, when handed poorly, or when they are unnecessary, aren’t just mistakes. They are failings of character. Those times when I had a failure of character, those are the moments that haunt me.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I' I honestly regret now not doing a straight 17 or 20 in the military from back in the day.

Yeah, government pensions look better all the time. (Of course, some of them might not pay out, but that's another story.)

 

[occam]

You're saying that layoffs meant to increase shareholder wealth, apart from any other external financial conditions, are killing multiple industries? What are examples of such industries?

Local newspapers, for one, many of which are owned now by hedge funds that are laying people off from profitable newspapers until the point that the content gets so meager that they can no longer attract enough advertising to stay in business, and they shut the business down because it's not even in good enough shape to be sold to anyone else.

Are you claiming that the only reason local newspapers are facing financial difficulty is because investor-focused managers are conducting unnecessary layoffs to goose stock prices? That there are no other, perhaps more fundamental, factors at work in the long-term decline of the local newspaper business?

I wonder what the results of a survey here would be of people currently subscribing to a local newspaper, either in print or online? (And before the inevitable hands are raised, obviously what counts are overall numbers, not anecdotes.) I assume you're not unfamiliar with what the historical trend generally looks like. To support your case, you'd have to demonstrate that layoffs preceded poor financial performance, rather than followed it.

Similarly, Toys R Us and Bed, Bath and Beyond were both killed by leveraged buyouts forced upon the companies by hedge funds. They were already struggling to deal with the headwinds created by Amazon

Exactly. I won't quibble with you over whether layoffs proved the "death blow" to these companies, but the damage to them was extensive and goes way back, for reasons other than layoffs.

You also haven't made the case here of "killing multiple industries", only that individual companies can fail, which happens all the time. (Although I'd probably buy an argument that generational changes are impacting broad categories of consumer goods, like toys, which is relevant to the situation at Hasbro.)

 

[TheSword]

I'd take an honest pension over this gambling over the crumbs we get as a thank you, Those rich dude playing with all our retirement money in bulk will still retire in style and complain it wasn't enough for their "work." Meanwhile, I still might not get nothing, like back in the aughts when my 401k dropped like a stone.

I' honestly regret now not doing a straight 17 or 20 in the military from back in the day.

I could be wrong, but when someone asks, "When did employee feel like they didn't own any loyalty to companies anymore?" I point to the replacement of the pension with the 401k.

It’s not pretty but I guess you get out what you put in. We can’t blame investors for the fact that there are more pensioners now then there were alive 40 years ago and therefore simple division tells us there’s no money in the pot for cushty final salary pensions.

If it was easy we’d all be rich - or nobody would. At the end of the day these folks have a certain skill set and have capital they’re willing to risk. If someone thinks they can do better then best of luck to them.

Investment has been accessible to millions more people as technology and information sharing has become more available.

 

[Zaukrie]

Local newspapers, for one, many of which are owned now by hedge funds that are laying people off from profitable newspapers until the point that the content gets so meager that they can no longer attract enough advertising to stay in business, and they shut the business down because it's not even in good enough shape to be sold to anyone else.

More than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. have closed since 2004.

Similarly, Toys R Us and Bed, Bath and Beyond were both killed by leveraged buyouts forced upon the companies by hedge funds. They were already struggling to deal with the headwinds created by Amazon, but "shareholder value" was what dealt them the death blow. Both now exist only as brands acquired by new companies. (Bed, Bath and Beyond is now the name being used by the former Overstock.com.)

Focusing only on shareholder value is like prioritizing the fleas' and ticks' health over the dog's.

Instant Pot and Pyrex.....what an example of private equity being awful (IMO, of course).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are you claiming that the only reason local newspapers are facing financial difficulty is because investor-focused managers are conducting unnecessary layoffs to goose stock prices?

No. Did you not see me talking about the difference in print ad revenue and online ad revenue?

 

[mamba]

Investment/investors also allow company’s to grow and employ more people. If businesses were limited to the capital they themselves could raise we’d all be ploughing fields.

I work for a company that does just that, it’s in tech and maybe 10,000 employees, so no, that kind of sustained growth / financing can work too, no need for everyone to be farmers

 

[Staffan]

It's not nitpicking.

"EVERYONE would do it, these folks' hands are clean, my hands are clean, because YOU WOULD DO IT TOO" is sophistry. Deciding how everyone else would behave to not-so-coincidentally absolve parties of any fault is an argument that deserves to be called out.

And, for the record, "everyone is doing X, so it's no big deal" has been the basis for excusing a lot of evil in the world. It's not worth trotting out.

The "everyone else is doing it" argument didn't fly with our moms when we were little and it doesn't fly as adults now.

I'm pretty sure no-one asked Cocks "Hey, you wanna run Hasbro? And how does 9 mil a year sound?" I mean, if someone throws that kind of money at you, sure you take it. If someone asks if you're a god, you say yes, and the same goes if someone asks you if you want 9 million a year. What's more likely is that they said "Hey, wanna run Hasbro?" and the dude responded "Sure, for 9 million a year." (or possibly more and then they negotiated for a final value) – which means he thinks 9 million is adequate compensation for the job.

 

[TheSword]

No. Did you not see me talking about the difference in print ad revenue and online ad revenue?

Or maybe the public not being quite so keen to print billions of single use pieces of paper every day that will go in the bin?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or maybe the public not being quite so keen to print billions of single use pieces of paper every day that will go in the bin?

I'm not interested in litigating this with you. I promise, there's a lot of information out there about this issue. If you're genuinely interested in this issue, and not scoring internet points, I already told you what to Google.

 

[TheSword]

I work for a company that does just that, it’s in tech and maybe 10,000 employees, so no, that kind of sustained growth / financing can work too, no need for everyone to be farmers

The company funds it’s in entire business simply from its own profit? Never took a bank loan, or an overdraft. Never sold shares? Makes you wonder how they got started.

Good for them though. They’re a rare beast. Masters of their own destiny. Imagine what they could have achieved with more resources?