Sony - All Change at the Top with a new CEO

After seven pretty disastrous years as CEO, Sir Howard Stringer is passing the baton of Sony’s CEO to Kazuo Hirai. Stringer will remain with Sony as Chairman. Will the new CEO achieve the turnaround in Sony’s fortunes that Stringer has been attempting in recent years? It’s a tough ask - but it will be fascinating to see how Hirai goes about things…

Here are a couple of videos which tell the story (in different ways) of the succession at Sony. Some useful insights into the culture of the business too.

As president of the Consumer Products & Services Group at Sony as well as chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, Hirai is already considered to be one of the most powerful executives in Sony. His main tasks will be turning Sony’s TV business around (it is heavily loss-making) and, perhaps more importantly, finding a way to compete with Apple, Samsung, Google, HTC and others in the mobile gaming market.

In a press release issued at the time of this announcement, Hirai made the following comment about his proposed strategic direction for Sony:

“The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains.

The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways,”