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[UbiSoftologist]

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Howard Stringer talked about Kutaragi's future and Sony's product strategies. The following are some excerpts from the article ''Resuscitating Sony'' published in WSJ today:

1) Stringer on Kutaragi:

Resuscitating Sony

As Struggling Giant's CEO,
Stringer Aims to Streamline
Operations, End Complacency

By KATE KELLY and PHRED DVORAK
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 16, 2005; Page B1

...Mr. Stringer must also address the questions raised by the removal from Sony group operations of Ken Kutaragi, the creator of the PlayStation videogame machine and a man that many saw as Mr. Idei's successor.

In recent years, Mr. Kutaragi was key in driving Sony's semiconductor strategy, pushing a multibillion-dollar investment into an ultrafast processor chip dubbed "cell." He had also been entrusted with oversight over key electronics divisions like TV sets. Yet Mr. Idei decided to relieve Mr. Kutaragi of all his nonvideogame responsibilities, prompting speculation about whether Sony is going to change strategic direction -- or even whether Mr. Kutaragi might leave the company.

Mr. Kutaragi declined to comment, but a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., the videogame unit, said that he has no intention of leaving...

WSJ: What is Mr. Kutaragi's future at Sony? Is he disappointed about his change of duties?

Mr. Stringer: I have no indication that he doesn't intend to stay. Every company needs the sort of brilliance in residence that he represents ... people whose mind leaps in imaginative vaults, to arrive at different conclusions. So I've gone out of my way to say he's very important. We've both discussed coming back to PlayStation and helping to bring Sony Entertainment into different parts of the electronics company. It's very important to find ways that these silos can work together...[silos] worked in the analog era, not in the digital one.

Ken has been very gracious with me, and in public. We have long had a very good relationship because we talk the same language. Obviously he's a brilliant engineer and I'm not, but we've talked about PlayStation and movies and games and so forth. We've put a free edition of Spider-Man 2 in with PSP as an incentive for people to buy it. I think of him as someone who can solve many of Sony's problems.

2) On iPod:

WSJ: Can you effectively compete with the iPod, or do you have to cede that particular territory?

Mr. Stringer: You don't cede anything. In this business, one device can swiftly follow another. We just had a device that was on display in Germany -- the Sony Ericsson music phone and that had a better delivery, downloaded music more effectively than the iTunes equivalent.

We're not even remotely ceding territory.

3) On Cell:

WSJ: What about the cell chip? Is it still a centerpiece of your strategy?

Mr. Stringer: The alliance with IBM and Toshiba is very important to us, we're very committed, and it's another quantum leap in its field. There is no slowing that down because of all these management changes. We have a company that also needs to demonstrate to the world that we are committed to innovation.

4) On the management changes:

WSJ: What events led to the management shake-up?

Mr. Stringer: I wasn't in Japan when much of it was going on. I know that Idei had been toying with new structures for a while and thinking about succession for a long time and we had discussions about it, though never involving me, over the last couple of months. The timing of it surprised me except that so much often gets done in the March/April time frame. There is seemingly a transition of job changes at this time, and the sense of that anniversary coming up, and the need to shake something up so that Transformation 60 was something to celebrate.

I felt that there was a groundswell within the CEO's office, the sense that decisions had to be made, I just didn't know what they were going to be. And I felt that the organization was beginning to viscerally react to the bad news around them.

WSJ: We're told that lots of different leadership scenarios were floated in the weeks before your promotion, including the idea of having co-CEOs.

Mr. Stringer: That's probably right. There were lots of conversations with board members, but I only ever spoke to one of them.

The board got into it after Idei raised the issue rather suddenly, and there were lots of discussions about various options and names got floated almost as if to see what feedback people were getting from within the organization. In a funny kind of way, it set up a democratic approach to it without doing it officially.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

should have added a game instead of a movie, lets say wipeout pure

 

[john tv]

I like this guy. I'd love to have an opportunity to speak to him someday. He seems incredibly bright to me.

 

[The End]

should have added a game instead of a movie, lets say wipeout pure

They should have brought over Lumines. It has the universal appeal of Tetris, the greatest pack-in of all time.

 

[jarrod]

should have added a game instead of a movie, lets say wipeout pure

No way, they should've picked up Lumines to pack-in for the west. Cement the idea of PSP/Lumines as the spiritual successor to GB/Tetris.

Futuristic racers have limited appeal but everyone loves a block drop puzzler.

 

[The Faceless Master]

No way, they should've picked up Lumines to pack-in for the west. Cement the idea of PSP/Lumines as the spiritual successor to GB/Tetris.

Futuristic racers have limited appeal but everyone loves a block drop puzzler.

yah but then $ony would probably sell the PSP for US $300 MSRP

 

[Lord Error]

Oh yes, Lumines as a pack-in was my pipe dream the moment I started playing the game and seeing how much it would make sense.

However, everyone knows at this point that PSP does a great job with games. Having a movie pack in should show people what to expect from it's media abilities, as I think most are still quite sceptical about that. From that point of view spidey movie pack in makes sense.

 

[gofreak]

I look forward to the day we hear from Kutaragi again, in a "back to business" interview so to speak. I can't help but feel a little uneasy while he remains quiet. Has he been heard from in the press since all this happened?

 

[speedpop]

I demand a Kutaragi dummy spit! I want it NOW and I wanted it YESTERDAY so I want it fucking TOMORROW as well.

 

[Ghost]

Sony movies working with Sony Computer Entertainment...madness


Can we expect more of this (prepare for an 80's flashback....) synergy?

 

[TekunoRobby]

Odd, I must have skipped the interview.

Stringer's definitely on top of his game. Great comments on Kutaragi.

This suprised me a bit though:

WSJ: What events led to the management shake-up?

Mr. Stringer: I wasn't in Japan when much of it was going on. I know that Idei had been toying with new structures for a while and thinking about succession for a long time and we had discussions about it, though never involving me, over the last couple of months.

 

[jarrod]

Sony movies working with Sony Computer Entertainment...madness


Can we expect more of this (prepare for an 80's flashback....) synergy?

Well, no more madness than SCE and SEL working on PS2/PSX/PSP or other Sony divisions (SME, SOE) making PlayStation games. These are good moves, but not really unheard of.