-Sony names non-Japanese to top position

[fractured78]

Never thought I'd see the day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/busine...artner=homepage (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/business/06cnd-sony.html?hp&ex=1110171600&en=f8d38741020ddddd&ei= 5094&partner=homepage)
Link requires membership. If anyone can find a link that doesn't please post.

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The board of Sony Corporation is planning to name Sir Howard Stringer as the chairman and chief executive of the company, marking one of the first times a major Japanese company has appointed a foreigner to its top position, according to people briefed on the plan.


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[quenelf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4324557.stm

For fun, here's the stupidest quote (from some random financial worker), which is a top quality example of business bollocks:
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"The brand still has the magical power to attract customers globally. Before that evaporates, the new management should turn back to the company's origins and do something new - for example by launching epoch-making new products," he added.


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Well DUH. Epoch-making new products - would that be a good thing or not, what do you reckon? Maybe the previous boss was sitting around all day phoning staff going, 'hey have you had any ideas for epoch-making new products lately? you have? well can them, we're just going to keep on with the same old shit'.

--quen

[Johnny]

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quen said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4324557.stm



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Seems odd that they demoted Kutaragi-san but, well, it's okay with me after I read this:

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Sony also demoted a third top executive. Ken Kutaragi will step down from the board and give up responsibility for semi-conductors and home electronics goods, but he remains in charge of the games division.

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[fractured78]

Yeah, business quotes are always pretty funny. Let's state the obvious and call ourselves pundits shall we? /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[rhony2]

Well, I read this and a few others. It's not that surprising given that 2/3 of their employees are non-Japanese and they do 71% of their business outside Japan. They are a true multinational.

Stringer's movie division produced more profits this past year than all of their hardware divisions and the name "Sony" has far more of a cachet in the US than in Japan.

Personally I find Sony products to be on the pricey side - I don't think they can charge their "name" premium in the US like they used to. I think the last Sony product I purchased is my Laserdisc player which is over 10 years old.

As for the "demotion" of the games divison chief, he had quite a lot of power and influence during the original Playstation which for many years accounted for 40% of Sony's profits, but the Playstation 2 was, in comparison, a dud. I understand there is a Playstation 3 in the works right now that he is going to be concentrating on it.

The outgoing chairman has only lasted for 5 years during which Sony stock price dropped like 3/4. I'm not sure they'll give Stringer that long. But he did approve the Spiderman movie franchise which has become a monster money-maker and he pushed for the aquisition of MGM. Releasing all those old titles on DVD has also proven to be a huge moeny-maker. SO I think this was inevitable.