“They Burned the House Down”: An Interview with Michael Lynton

In 2014 Sony Pictures was subjected to the most devastating hack in corporate history. Highly sensitive data—salary details, private e-mails (some of them harshly critical of top Hollywood talent), unreleased movies—was leaked for all the world to see. For good measure, the hackers wiped out everything on Sony Pictures’ servers. Then they threatened retaliation against any theaters that proceeded with the release of The Interview, a Sony comedy involving the fictional assassination of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

In this edited interview by HBR’s editor in chief, Lynton talks about the company’s initial reactions: It had to keep the business operating; deal with employees who feared that their information would be made public; deal with the press, which was publishing some of the leaked e-mails; deal with the parent company in Tokyo; and deal with the FBI. Lynton discusses lessons learned, advice for other executives caught up in similar crises, and the paramount importance of projecting “a sort of cheerleading optimism.”

HBR Reprint R1507J