Is the Sony ship sinking?
N’Gai Croal has a post up at Newsweek about what the recent management changes at Sony mean – is this just “a rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic,” or can Kutaragi turn it around?
Apparently, those of us here in the US have little insight into the world of Sony Japan. Croal mentions a 2004 interview with a Sony veteran, in which he discovered that there are other executives at Sony, who are widely unknown to outsiders, and strongly dislike Kutaragi. The Sony veteran said that these executives were terrified of Kutaragi’s management style, and would not follow him as a leader. Seven months later, that interviewee’s prediction came to pass, when Sir Howard Stringer was promoted to Sony CEO instead of Kutaragi.
Croal uses this point to illustrate that trying to use last week’s management shuffle to predict Sony’s future is useless. Is this a promotion, or is he gently being pushed out? We don’t even know if it was a voluntary move or Kutaragi was forced into the new position.
While we can’t predict exactly where Sony’s going, it’s very likely that a PS4 and a PSP2 are in the planning stages, that the PS2, PSP, and PS3 lines need to be managed for several more years, and the online service, online store, and firmware updates for all the newer machines will keep Sony busy. In this regard, Croal likens the move to when Bill Gates ceded everyday control of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer – the next generation needs to be groomed to take over the operations, while Kutaragi needs to be freed up to be a visionary. All in all, it’s a very interesting analysis of the current situation.
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