Tom Kirby
 Expect huge amounts of derp and rage, punctuated by /tg/ extracting humor from it. |
Chairman and former owner of Games Workshop. How bad is he? Forbes magazine allegedly described him as a "fucking tosser," which for those unfamiliar is akin to being called an unpleasantly diseased scrotum by Nurgle, or being asked to control one's temper by Angron.
He continues GW's quest to make Warhammer as unplayable as possible and be as much of a dick to the devoted fanbase as possible. His reward thus far has been a company rapidly trending downward towards dissolution and irrelevance, or at least that's what people have been saying since about 1993. There's a recurring theme of the media calling him a straight-talking person followed by him giving nothing but vague and/or evasive replies when he speaks, making it some kind of media in-joke.
It's worth noting some good things did come out of the first part of Kirby's GW management career, notably the meteoric rise of Warhammer 40,000 and the company's survival during the early digital age that laid low most of its competitors. Games Workshop's subsequent descent into arrogance and stagnation during his extended tenure says much about the perils of one guy calling the shots for too long. Kind of like the Imperium of *BLAM* The Emperor protects! His is the best of all possible galaxies!
Update: As of January 1st, 2015, Tom Kirby stepped down as CEO of Games Workshop[1]. The company's board of directors decided to use Tom Kirby's "we recruit for attitude and not for skill" logic in order to find their next CEO, thus it looked like anyone interested in the position merely needs to apply for it. This entailed some rage and butthurt from neckbeards denied an interview. (While it's fair since he is presumably looking for people with GOOD attitudes, not rage-filled snowflakes, that depends on how he defines "GOOD"). It was said among fans that a suitable candidate cannot be found, Tom Kirby's wife would probably take his seat as CEO. Yeah.
The new CEO is named Kevin Rountree, who used to be their COO, and before that, their CFO (and before that, middle management). He is generally regarded as a breath of fresh air for an organization drowning in an ocean of bad ideas and has put GW on a more customer-focused footing.
Bottom line, Tom Kirby was a typical douchenozzle, next financial quarter thinker type, in an industry that thrives first on genuine creativity and imagination. He only cares about leeching the phenomenon the great Ian Livingstone created.
He is now gone, stepping down after GW released their 2016-17 financial reports that showed massive profit increases under Rountree. He remained consultant for 12 months before being replaced, and the company is now completely rid of him.
The Press Announcement[edit]
One of the best insights of how much of an asshole he was can be found in the press announcement he made one year prior to his dismissal as CEO, trying to do pathetic damage control to excuse the massive losses the company was suffering. More importantly, plenty of comments made by kirby denounce his douchebagginess and are proof of how incompetent and poor his leadership was
Highlights:[edit]
"Games Workshop has had a really good year."
- – Opening statement right after showing how profits plummeted
"We recruit for attitude and not for skill."
- – Explaining how he was appointed
"All niche market customers are like that. It is what defines the niche — quality above price."
- – He introduced finecast
"We do no demographic research, we have no focus groups, we do not ask the market what it wants. These things are otiose in a niche"
- – Probably his most infamous quote
"Ignore everything that (does) not lead to 'insanely great products"
- – Prophetic of how they were going to drop Fantasy in favor of the more marketeable and accessible Age of Sigmar