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We're all pretty sure about what's going to happen, aren't we? The assumptions many make here, without really knowing the facts, are astounding!
Piano Industry Consultant
Co-author (with Larry Fine) of Practical Piano Valuation www.jasonsmc@msn.com
Contributing Editor & Consultant - Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer
Retired owned of Jasons Music Center Maryland/DC/No. VA Family Owned and Operated Since 1937.
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Hi Norbert,
" Unfortunately, in the past six years the private equity and hedge fund businesses have not been able to produce the returns investors are used to, so they are under pressure to step up their own performance."
"Could there be much larger investors lurking around the corner waiting to make their move - when time is right?"
Yes, absolutely. If a company is an object to be bought and sold like any other, then that's exactly what will happen, destroying the core values of the company by frequent changes in management and methods.
This has worked out well for high-end product-oriented businesses, like Louis Vuitton (think luggage and accessories), but not well for highly process-oriented business like wine (think Moet et Chandon and Ornelia). Mondavi PR started promoting "wine culture" and "wine philosophy" (there is no such thing) the minute they expanded into France and Italy and formed partnerships with Rothschild. They even started a wine museum on their campus in Napa, and put a lot of money into a non-profit center, Copia, for the same thing nearby. At the same time their quality of their core California product offering went down.
The Steinway firm has always promoted a "Steinway Mystique" as an added value to owning a Steinway. Such a pity that owning an expensive musical instrument doesn't make you a musician! Just like drinking wine doesn't make you a sage, or an art connoisseur. It will get your drunk though, and a piano won't even do that for you.
Is this the main reason Kohlberg bought Steinway? The "Steinway Mystique"? If so, it will add nothing to their bottom line; as a matter of fact the Steinway holdings will become a loss center (it already is). They'll try to maximize profits by cutting costs, firing staff, changing production methods (sound familiar?), putting more responsibility on the dealers, and pumping more money into marketing. When those things don't produce the remarkable results investors and Boards expect, they'll move the works to China or Bangladesh like everybody else doing Big Business these days. These maneuvers will not make a better expensive piano, because pianos are not expensive purses with a fancy logo stamped all over them.
Now, this has not happened yet, and I could be very wrong about the whole thing (in which case I'll be very pleased and happy to say so). But it would take an enlightened management team with a whole pile of cash and no concerns about the profits to avoid it.
News Flash: None of the key players are enlightened.
As a matter of fact, the bean counters who advise the parent corporation have no imagination whatsoever, and must be spoon-fed every thought, condition and idea. The turn of events simply cannot end well.
I've got my ash bucket almost full. Had to clean out my wood stove anyway, as the chimney sweep is coming for the annual cleaning this week.
Now I just wonder when the mourners are showing up...
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All this doom and gloom conjecture is WAY premature. As has been pointed out many times, the piano industry is rather unique. This case is no exception.
Also, there are many factors in play that most posters here are completely unaware of.
Hi Steve, This might be the case. Care to share any of them with us? The wine industry is also unique. Globalization and Robert Parker have changed it completely, and not for the better. If you've got a different comparison to make, I'd be relieved to hear it.
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You'll get us all going soon, Greg.
What about the world's leading pianists prostituting themselves to asset strippers and brand marketeers with no interest in their artistry?
And Steinways in stacked up in supermarkets like wine and on Amazon like everything else ... but my guess is that Hamburg at least will be OK.
Last edited by Withindale; 07/03/13 01:25 PM.
Ian Russell Schiedmayer & Soehne, 1925 Model 14, 140cm Ibach, 1905 F-IV, 235cm
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Marty,
"However, I doubt that the writers at "Market Place" are a PR team."
Do you know anything about reporters? Have you ever been interviewed by one? That blurb came right out of a press release written by the holding company PR team.
You can't possibly think that a busy, underpaid reporter at NPR did more than spend 5 minutes reviewing the press kit Kohlberg sent over before putting their piece together and going on the air with it?
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Hi Steve,
This might be the case. Care to share any of them with us?
Sure. My rate is $125/hr. with a 4 hour minimum.
Piano Industry Consultant
Co-author (with Larry Fine) of Practical Piano Valuation www.jasonsmc@msn.com
Contributing Editor & Consultant - Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer
Retired owned of Jasons Music Center Maryland/DC/No. VA Family Owned and Operated Since 1937.
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We're all pretty sure about what's going to happen, aren't we? The assumptions many make here, without really knowing the facts, are astounding! I'm going by what happened to my baker's pension after the "investment group" that purchased Wonder Bread and Hostess was finished pillaging the company. They took a company with small but steady profit and raped it. When they were done, they were filthy rich, the company was bankrupt and they got the press top blame it on the same workers that they had spent the last 10 years screwing over. Hopefully, Kohlberg is an enlightened outfit that will invest heavily and improve Steinway. Some feel that selling Steinway is not in the best interest of the stockholders, that there is a lot of upside to holding onto it.
Gary
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Sure. My rate is $125/hr. with a 4 hour minimum.
Oops! I read that as "a 4 drink minimum."
Gary
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Hi Steve,
This might be the case. Care to share any of them with us?
Sure. My rate is $125/hr. with a 4 hour minimum. And a bargain at that! Signed, Satisfied Client
"Don't let the devil fool you - Here comes a dove; Nothing cures like time and love." -- Laura Nyro
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Hi Steve,
So...you're just teasing?
Or you really don't know anything, like the rest of us?
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Hi Ian,
Oh, I really hope you're right about Hamburg!
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Hi Steve,
So...you're just teasing?
Or you really don't know anything, like the rest of us? Not teasing at all. I am a professional (read "paid") consultant. I have extensive connections that I have cultivated for many years, including the principals of virtually every piano manufacturer. And I hear many things others do not. Information is an asset, and a market I deal in.
Piano Industry Consultant
Co-author (with Larry Fine) of Practical Piano Valuation www.jasonsmc@msn.com
Contributing Editor & Consultant - Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer
Retired owned of Jasons Music Center Maryland/DC/No. VA Family Owned and Operated Since 1937.
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Hi CC,
Joe88 has posted a few times about about having to perform on badly prepped Hamburgs. It's a difference whether one performs on new Hamburg ones or on old ones..
Pls excuse any bad english.
Centennial D Sept 1877
Working on Berceuse op.57 Nocturnes op. 9-1,3 15-1,2,3 27-2 32-1,2 Going Home (Mark Knopfler)
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What does it say about a company that thinks it's OK to send out an instrument that someone is expected to pay 50, 60, 70 or $110K for in LESS than 110% "optimum" playing condition? Mind you, they are also not willing to discount a dime off that outrageous price, because, after all......"it's a Steinway"!! From my perspective, the best thing these new owners could do for that company is fire everyone in the New York office/factory and replace them with personnel from Hamburg. You've been around here for a while so you should be aware that Steinway offers two levels of prep to dealers, no prep and mostly prepped. The difference being that no prep costs less. Consequently that's the one most dealers buy because they figure they can prep pianos for those who are players and save a few $$ (more profit) when someone buys a piano for furniture. The company is not shifting burden to unwilling dealers, quite the opposite!
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Hi Steve,
"Not teasing at all. ... Information is an asset, and a market I deal in."
Are you trying to tell us you know something that we don't?
BTW, nobody here's going to pay you anything to hear it, so just say so if you're just giving us a high sign!
Last edited by laguna_greg; 07/03/13 06:14 PM.
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HI Bernard.
You'll have to ask him. Since he gives more than 30 concerts a year, I'm assuming he can tell you the difference.
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Hi Steve,
"Not teasing at all. ... Information is an asset, and a market I deal in."
Are you trying to tell us you know something that we don't?
BTW, nobody here's going to pay you anything to hear it, so just say so if you're just giving us a high sign! False premises lead to false conclusions. Keep in mind these are not snap decisions by the principals, but part of long-term planning.
Piano Industry Consultant
Co-author (with Larry Fine) of Practical Piano Valuation www.jasonsmc@msn.com
Contributing Editor & Consultant - Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer
Retired owned of Jasons Music Center Maryland/DC/No. VA Family Owned and Operated Since 1937.
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False premises leads to false conclusions.
Right conclusions will always be same: "what will be will be" Highest bidder wins. Now and - in future. Norbert
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Hi Steve, Look, it's nice that you get paid to give your opinion to the industry. I'm also a leading expert in one of the fields I work in, with many publications to my credit, so at times I also am paid to give an opinion, often under oath, in front of a judge or a clerk of the court, and with much higher stakes. And for a bigger hourly than you, apparently. You'll find a link to my company bio in my signature line, and I also have a detailed CV in Linked in as do you. I recognize when somebody is being coy. Fine, be that way. However, since you are not willing to share your information freely, everything you say is suspect, every single thing. You could be: 1- Just trying to get attention for yourself and thereby promote your own brand, or 2- Shilling for the New Steinway to protect the brand, as a paid consultant. Either way, it's a complete waste of our time. I do hope you'll forgive my and other people's cynicism on this count. You've posted here many times in a way that was exemplary. But, really, your behavior right now is driving me and a few others to doubt you. It looks like you might still be working solely for the industry, the way you're posting. Since you won't say anything, how do we know your posts here are not just another (paid) bullet-point of a larger PR campaign to maintain sales of an (now) ailing brand during transition? Many of us have seen this happen far too often to pretend this is not likely. Such behavior gives the piano industry a bad rep. I am unimpressed with your claims of "long-range planning". The principals are not Japanese, who do this on a consistent basis and with some limited success. Westerners are constitutionally or philosophically incapable of doing anything close to it. Not to mention that not even the Japanese expected their economy to be in a stagflationary slump for 10+ years because they planned wrong this once. Really. Please! Stop being so coy and prove me wrong! I'm begging you! Say the Right Thing Now!!!
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Norbert,
Did I tell you lately how much I appreciate your clear-sighted, disinterested comments here, more and more?
I must have forgot today...
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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