HTC hemorrhages top execs under uncertainty about the company’s future
The list of top execs at HTC who are leaving the company is continuing to grow, as news has just surfaced that HTC’s Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was in charge of HTC’s overall global product strategy, which is interesting given the recent release of HTC’s new flagship phone, the HTC One.
Other execs who have left recently include:
- Jason Gordon, HTC’s Vice President of Global Communications
- Rebecca Rowland, HTC’s Global Retail Marketing Manager
- John Starkweather, HTC’s Director of Digital Marketing
- Eric Lin, HTC’s Product Strategy Manager
Lin even tweeted:
To all my friends still at @HTC – just quit. leave now. it’s tough to do, but you’ll be so much happier, I swear.
Speculation is currently running rampant as to why so many people are leaving HTC, but one thing is for sure: this is not a coordinated effort by the competition to try and break the company. Instead, these execs are heading to a variety of different companies like AT&T or Microsoft.
Some possibilities include:
- Lower morale due to the horrible failure of the HTC First (the Facebook Home phone)
- HTC exec Peter Chou apparently makes snap decisions without fully considering long term consequences.
- Supply shortages have plagued the launch of the HTC One.
- The writing could already be on the wall, considering Samsung has already sold 10 million units of the Galaxy S4 in its first month after release.
What is your speculation regarding this mass exodus of HTC’s leadership? It started to look like things may have been turning around for HTC, so it’s disconcerting to see this story, for sure. Is there any hope left?
[The Verge]
