Charlie Rose interviews Howard Stringer

[patsu]

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/20...howard-stringer-chairman-ceo-sony-corporation

The last Howard Stringer interview thread was 1 Nov 2005. So I started a new one. Feel free to move it elsewhere.

 

[tirminyl]

I watched this interview earlier today and I thought it was a very good interview. With each interview I see Howard in, I like him more and more. He is really open and keeps a certain ease about him. It was interesting to hear about how they will use their services. It seems as though they want to use the PSN as an iTunes like service and distribute content to the PS3, PSP, mobile phones, and tv's along with any other electronic device developed internally or externally.

 

[Nesh]

Very very nice interview so far. I still havent finished but there is something that I ve heard which is why I am posting right now in here.

He said something about delivering content to mobile phones and other devices. I remember Phill Harisson demonstrating something similar with a Sony Ericsson and the XMB/PSN. But I still havent seen this with any other device other than the PS3 and PSP.

Has this put into practice and slipped under my nose?

 

[Iron Tiger]

Very very nice interview so far. I still havent finished but there is something that I ve heard which is why I am posting right now in here.

He said something about delivering content to mobile phones and other devices. I remember Phill Harisson demonstrating something similar with a Sony Ericsson and the XMB/PSN. But I still havent seen this with any other device other than the PS3 and PSP.

Has this put into practice and slipped under my nose?

I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're talking about, but I remember seeing Phil Harrison take a picture with his phone and "beam" it to his PS3, which placed it in a picture frame in Home.

Now if Sony had iPhone-styled commercials just showing little feats like that, they might start to get the message across that the PS3 platform has more potential than the average old game system. As it is, no one I know has any idea that it can run Linux, or that it even has a built-in web browser. And it might just blow a lot of people's minds to see that you could play PS3 games like Bionic Commando Rearmed on your PSP.

 

[NERO]

Charlie Rose is one of only a handful of great interviewers from the US so I'm sure this will be entertaining. I applaud Patsu's find and look forward to seeing this thing.

 

[Akumajou]

very insightfull interview, thanks Patsu.

 

[Nesh]

I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're talking about, but I remember seeing Phil Harrison take a picture with his phone and "beam" it to his PS3, which placed it in a picture frame in Home.

I think thats the one

Now if Sony had iPhone-styled commercials just showing little feats like that, they might start to get the message across that the PS3 platform has more potential than the average old game system. As it is, no one I know has any idea that it can run Linux, or that it even has a built-in web browser. And it might just blow a lot of people's minds to see that you could play PS3 games like Bionic Commando Rearmed on your PSP.

Damn right. This makes me wonder why on earth havent they communicated that to the consumer or done more about it. Especially when Stringer talked that much about it in the interview and its one of their aims to integrate connectivity between products and promote digital distribution

This is exactly what they should have done. Someone has to pass your post to Sony

 

[Crossbar]

Thanks, that was probably the best spent 40 minutes on the internet for quite some time for me. I can see why Stringer got his sir title obviously a very hard working and intelligent man.

 

[ErnstH]

Thanks for the link. Nice interview and very nice site.

 

[patsu]

Actually, I found the link in GAF. Enjoyed the interview myself. Howard Stringer and company has a long road ahead of them.

Hope to see further iterations of the Playstation Network. By end of this year, the PSPs in Japan will be part of this network (via PS Store and the global ad hoc network infrastructure). The Playstation Home open beta will start end of this year. The MMOs will come sometime next year. I expect a rocky (and shaking) start accompanied with negative PRs given their track record. They seem to move painfully slowly with modest impact.

Sony needs to streamline their strategies, and organize their effort around SWAT teams. I know groups in Apple, Microsoft, Google that can rollout impactful products within months, and high profile websites literally overnight. Sony won't be able to achieve this performance level if their communication overhead is high, and they have too many "small" things to deliver.

IMHO, "Life with Playstation" channels should have been combined with PS Home (Folding@Home integration with LwP has no economic impact. In fact, some folders prefer F@H to be separated from LwP), Sony's Blu-ray Reward should be packaged with PS Home Rewards, Bravia Internet Link should be replaced by PS3 discounts, some (most ?) of the regional PSN presences should be combined into one, etc. Most of these complications seem to be due to inward-focused organizational boundaries and (short term) hardware business accounting practices.

Good thing their people are creative and driven. Still... for what they have already done, they could have gained (much) more mileage when stacked together properly.

 

[Acert93]

I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're talking about, but I remember seeing Phil Harrison take a picture with his phone and "beam" it to his PS3, which placed it in a picture frame in Home.

Now if Sony had iPhone-styled commercials just showing little feats like that, they might start to get the message across that the PS3 platform has more potential than the average old game system. As it is, no one I know has any idea that it can run Linux, or that it even has a built-in web browser. And it might just blow a lot of people's minds to see that you could play PS3 games like Bionic Commando Rearmed on your PSP.

I had suggested this back in late 2006/early 2007. A running series of commercials focused on a single element of the PS3's presented in a simple yet engaging message would have gone a long way to communicate how wonderful the product was, implicitly justifying the price, and differentiating it. Of course they don't ask forum hacks what our opinions are

 

[Nesh]

I had suggested this back in late 2006/early 2007. A running series of commercials focused on a single element of the PS3's presented in a simple yet engaging message would have gone a long way to communicate how wonderful the product was, implicitly justifying the price, and differentiating it. Of course they don't ask forum hacks what our opinions are

Send them an email and tell them that you are a market researcher

 

[thambos]

Google video used to have all of the Charlie Rose interviews up for free. Not anymore though.

CR always has good interviews.

 

[Akumajou]

Actually, I found the link in GAF.

Not to derail the thread but what is this GAF you speak of?

 

[Nesh]

Gaming Age Forums

 

[emacs]

cool. thanks for the notice!

 

[obonicus]

Unsure if this needs a new thread, but a NEA interview with Howard Stringer.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/HONSHI/20090427/169423/?P=1

Reading through it, he mentions expanding the Playstation Network to more devices than just the PS3 (and I suppose the PSP). His mention of the Wii was also pretty interesting.

 

[patsu]

This is depressing coming from the top man:

Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organizational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, [despite ?] a large number of employees share my opinion on this.

What's the problem if Sony drops whatever pet projects (e.g., RollyPolly, Their digital book reader, their Vaio bundled software) they are working on, and focus on PSN or even Playstation Home now ?

This is strange:

Management must act as salesmen, selling engineers on change. We have to explain that change is not something scary; it's an opportunity

Shouldn't Engineers be at the forefront of creating and accepting changes ? Why do they need to be sold ideas to ? (Come to think of it. Must be changing requirements that give the impression that the marketing people can't make up their mind).

This is good:

A number of people from the West Coast group firms were very unhappy to see me use the chumby device, and asked: "Why did the CEO of Sony demonstrate a chumby device?" However, I did this deliberately, because people shouldn't be bound by old customs. Plus, I didn't want to add extra cost to the presentation.

This is interesting:

I was pretty depressed. Hiroshi Yoshioka-san, who was put in charge of televisions from 2008, said he would like to take me out to dinner with some of his young people.

When I got to the restaurant there were about 30 employees there, all young people of around 30 years old or so, from different divisions including TVs, personal computers and so on. They had a box full of questions they'd written. I pulled them out one at a time and answered them. We discussed a lot of the problems that Sony faces.

It was the most fun I'd had in months at Sony. I'm not being political. They were really smart, and so full of energy. All I could think of was how to get them to solve Sony's problems now, instead of waiting until they were 50.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

What's the problem if Sony drops whatever pet projects (e.g., RollyPolly, Their digital book reader, their Vaio bundled software) they are working on, and focus on PSN or even Playstation Home now ?

If Sony drops developement of the E-reader I'll never buy another Sony product ever again. It's the one Sony product I just couldn't live without at the moment. The Amazon Kindle is but a shadow of the E-reader when it comes to supporting open standards.

Shouldn't Engineers be at the forefront of creating and accepting changes ? Why do they need to be sold ideas to ? (Come to think of it. Must be changing requirements that give the impression that the marketing people can't make up their mind).

I think it's more of selling Sony engineers on HIS ideas, rather than just necessarily new ideas. I'd imagine engineers more than any other type of person have their own ideas about what would work best. And if you have a particularly imaginitive engineer, they may actually be resentful of any management putting restrictions on what they can and cannot do.

Just throwing out ideas... And there is always the feeling in any organization in any business sector that it's best to keep doing something a certain way because that's what got them there in the first place.

Regards,
SB