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Sony chief executive Sir Howard Stringer has won a decisive battle in his quest to rebuild Sony as a global consumer electronics superpower with the announcement that he will replace the firm’s president, Ryoji Chubachi.
The surprise move, which leaves Stringer firmly in control as Sony braces itself for its first operating loss for 14 years, mirrors executive shake-ups at other major corporations hit hard by the collapse in global demand for cars and consumer electronics.
Stringer, the 67-year-old Welshman who already holds the positions of chief executive and chairman, said the reorganisation “is designed to transform Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company with its next generation of leadership firmly in place”.
The shake-up will consolidate Stringer’s position as the firm attempts to ride out the financial storm…
Stringer announced the creation of two new business groups, headed by younger executives, to break down the “silos” that have prevented full integration of the company’s hardware and software, and to devise “cool new products” that will appeal to digital-savvy young people around the world.
The “epoch” of Stringer’s rule has seen R&D closed down and many of the bright designers and engineers who could devise “cool new products” looking for jobs in competing firms.
Eideard said, “The “epoch” of Stringer’s rule has seen R&D closed down…”
That sucks. I noticed that HP did well when its CEOs came out of engineering and it started its fall when that practice ended. Do you know Stringer’s backround?
Google is your friend:
Stringer had a stellar career in marketing at CBS Television Network. Whoo-hoo!
Stringer had a degree in Modern History. Say bye, bye to Sony.
Yes Eideard, can you give us more details to support your assertation? Does Stringer’s appearance at Sony coincide with the company making less innovative and consumer friendly products of quality and more WTF is THAT products like the recent Onion joke, for instance?
Certainly, concentrating power into one hand so much is very dangerous for anyone and Sony has been slipping for years in making good things that work and consumers love along with good product support.
Every successful business (or person, or government, or anything else) is a combination of several necessary but not sufficient factors.
Completely ignorant to think “any” engineer would be successful/better at Sony over “any” marketing puke.
Who could possibly think THAT?
This sounds like a powergrab to satisfy a fat ego.
Oh man. Sony is now toast.
Sony used to be known for the world’s best consumer electronics.
But their problem is that they keep shooting themselves in the foot by trying to DRM everything. The reason for this is that they tail wags to dog at Sony now. Ever since Sony bough content production companies they let those divisions dictate what the hardware can and can not do. They cripple their hardware to appease the idiots in Hollywood that think it is still 1976.
And now they will have a Hollywood dinosaur running everything. I guess you can forget about doing anything practical or cool with your Sony hardware.
#3 Paddy-O, your statements are absurd. When tech company’s mature, having propeller heads running them are often the worse thing you can do. Why would you make such a ridiculous comment on Sony?
At Intel, Craig Barret (Physics professor) was replaced by Paul Otellini (Marketing and Finance). The results are astonishing.
Steve Jobs college expertise was in Calligraphy. He replaced propeller heads from Compaq (sculley) and an MIT professor (Amelio).
The list goes on and on. Just where do you come up with these assertions? I think you rely on old and stale conventional wisdom. You are truly are Republican.
# 8 Dallas said, “your statements are absurd. When tech company’s mature, having propeller heads running them are often the worse thing you can do. ”
Yeah, like HP or MS. ROFL!
Can’t wait for Sony stock to go under $2 a share. I’ll have to get some then.
While the thought of having an Engineer be CEO, I cringed at the thought that most Engineers are unwavering know-it-alls. This hideous personality prevents any type of progress and compromising opportunities. I work with several now and know even I do that myself, thinking my answer or my way is the BEST and ONLY way.
That’s not to say each one of us isn’t a great person, we are 🙂 but sometimes we’re just too pig-headed to listen to others 😀 Having said that however, Engineers can’t do any worse then some of these idiotic CEO morons lately. I mean, 2+2=4 and not “I’ll leech the company and employees and wait to be let go with a huge severance package.” 😀
#11: Engineers actually design and make things, unlike marketers. They are not good at marketing, because most engineers see through most marketing ploys aimed at the public.
Sony used to have good engineers and designers that actually thought about what people would want to buy, and made them easy to use. What happened to those people?
#8 Dallas:
“You are truly are Republican.”
Dude, what does this have to do with ANYTHING?
# 13 brm said, “Dude, what does this have to do with ANYTHING?”
Please don’t ask. His mental state is VERY unstable…
Well, I haven’t bought anything from Sony for years.
Looks like that trend is going to continue.
#13 Dude. You need to capture the entire context if you ask me a question. This is what I wrote.
“I think you rely on old and stale conventional wisdom. You are truly are Republican.”
If it went over your head, I’m implying that relying on old wives tales is a very conservative (Republican) mentality. I believe you would agree with that. Change and new thinking is simply not in your DNA.
I quit buying anything made by Sony after the rootkit fiasco. If they made something that wasn’t made by some other outfit (usually better and cheaper) then I just did without. Screw Sony — they’re yesterday’s news.
Sony may have peaked with Trinitron. I always wanted a MiniDisc, but they went nowhere. Then when the PlayStation Portable came out, I thought it was the coolest portable media player ever, until the company did everything it could to prevent it being used for that. They could have sold millions, maybe tens of millions.
Sony is looking more like Commodore all the time. Aviation accident investigators have a term that fits: “Controlled flight into terrain.”
Of course, it’s just barely possible they can turn things around. I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath.
Good bye Sony, I will miss you. If there’s a good way to destroy a profitable corporation, its putting a westerner at its helm.