VP? Probably.
> When you foresaw this huge danger to your employer, ten years in advance, you didn't keep mentioning it to people
It only takes a couple of slaps to make us shut up[0]. They didn't want to hear from me, so I stopped trying to tell them stuff. Simple.
In this case, what I did, was start learning about the iPhone, and start doing coding on my own, once Apple allowed us into the system (They didn't actually publish the iOS API for a while). I actually wrote a number of apps that would have integrated our products with the iPhone, as the years went by, but ... you guessed it ... they were ignored. I considered them as practice.
I remember once, one of my Japanese peers saying "You know, I sometimes see something, and say to myself 'Chris mentioned this, like three years ago.'." But he never listened to me, at the time I was mentioning that. In fact, even after telling me that, he still refused to listen.
I knew the company was being steered into the rocks, and was not allowed to help correct the course, so I spent my time, preparing a lifeboat. I don't have to justify to anyone, why I stuck around. If I have to explain, they wouldn't understand.
Ego is a powerful force. We will utterly destroy ourselves, in order to salve our own insecurities.
> change companies
That seems to be everyone's answer, these days. I guess I'm stupid. I have not found it an attractive choice.
[0] "A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow."
-Charles Browder
If no one listens to me when I'm right, that's my problem, not theirs.
Everyone has their own incentives and motivations. If my goal is to actually effect change, the onus is on me to translate my strategy into a plan that is executable by self-interested, messy human beings.
There were many factors to consider. Factor One, was that I am not Japanese. Even though I had a level of "insider trust," that is very rare for westerners, I wasn't "one of them."
Second, if you are familiar with the way Japanese companies run, hierarchy is crucial. Once you are informed that your input is not welcome, you are expected to just shut up, and fall into line. Pick up a musket, and kneel on the front row. Even if you know you are doomed, you shut up and aim.
This has caused many problems. The Fukushima disaster was exacerbated by it.
Another factor, was that I am not Marketing. "Staying in your wheelhouse" is something that is not unique to Japanese companies. The VP I mentioned was not Japanese. I was ignored, because I wasn't Marketing. I could have been an intern in Marketing, and I would have had more cred.
I should also mention, that this was the same VP, that, in the 1990s, I mentioned that digital imaging was going to dominate, gave me a lecture about how film was never going to die. He was able to reverse course, quite quickly, on that one, though. The iPhone thing was a second chance. He didn't recover from that.
And, of course, there's the old "It's not a problem, if we can't predict it 100%, ten years in advance," or "If you complain, you also need to have the solution."
That second one is a killer. Many disastrously bad "solutions" come about, because the issue had not been explored enough, when the "solution" was presented.
Sometimes, it is best to not have an answer, until you understand the question.
Most execs don't see themselves at that company in 10 years time, so that type of problem just doesn't register for them.