Kutargai 'refocused' on Sony Gaming

[Shifty Geezer]

KK's been moved off the board to become only head of Gaming again.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=7199

Though he has remained head of PlayStation, KK was promoted to executive deputy president of the corporation, handling the Broadband Network Co., in March '03, responsible for BluRay development

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=1447

What does this mean? KK wants to fully focus on realizing his PlayStation dreams? The board see him as a threat to the CEO position and have pushed him back a step?

This suggests to me KK wouldn't take the CEO post even if offered - he lives and breathes PlayStation and that's want he wants to work on.

 

[one]

Apparently there's no change in the plan for the Cell processor.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D88M2QJO0.htm?campaign_id=apn_tech_down

Stringer said Sony will stick with the plan to build new products around the next-generation computer chip called "cell," which will power the next upgrade of the PlayStation video-game machine as well as other gadgets.

... and here's what Stringer said in January
http://news.com.com/Can+Sony+reinvent+itself+as+cool/2008-1041_3-5543793.html

Is it fair to say you're in real harmony at this point? The Connect service is pretty new.

Real harmony may be an exaggeration, but harmony of purpose, anyway. There's nobody saying, "We know what we're doing; you don't," anymore.

Now, together, we can fashion this out. We're working very closely with PlayStation, whereas we didn't two or three years ago, and we're very happy with that relationship. All in all, I think the company is realizing that there can only be advantages if we work together. If we don't work together, it's not going to fly.

We've seen what happens when you don't work together--music suffered, electronics suffered. So with music as a template, you have something that is set. I mean, does Connect have to be solely a music service?

Well, it's more; we're working with PlayStation. They've accepted Connect service. We're working on video players--so we're working across the company.

Is video something that the market is ready for?

PSP will play movies. It's ready for it. The next generation will have hard disk drives or flash memory or whatever. But even now, you can take a Memory Stick, and take a movie off PSP and play it somewhere else. That's already revolutionary, and that is coming in March.

But is the market, meaning consumers--are they ready to accept video on portable devices?

Well, more than half a million PSPs were sold in 10 days in Japan. That's the driver. We haven't marketed movies yet, but it is self-evident that for particular age groups, once you have that device, its sole purpose is extremely valuable.

I never considered video on a portable device because I never thought the screen was worth anything. The screen on the PSP is really sharp. It's better than a movie screen, and God knows we all watch movies on airplanes--and that is a fairly hideous experience. This is a good experience.

 

[rabidrabbit]

It would look like Mr. Stringer was a good choice for the job, as he's certainly more restrained than Ken Kutaragi.
Kutaragi would have been a bit too "rebellious" and "wacky" character for a position that needs someone with authority and charm.

 

[one]

It would look like Mr. Stringer was a good choice for the job, as he's certainly more restrained than Ken Kutaragi.
Kutaragi would have been a bit too "rebellious" and "wacky" character for a position that needs someone with authority and charm.

Apparently resigning Idei slapped Kutaragi for it
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/03/07/sony/index.php

Asked about Kutaragi's apparent demotion, Stringer was quick to praise him and the importance of the PlayStation to Sony, while Idei was coy about why Chubachi was chosen over Kutaragi as Sony president.

"A good feature of Dr. Chubachi is that he's a good listener," said Idei.

 

[Carl B]

Well, they better not try to bottle Kutaragi up - whether they like his personality or not. This man is responsible for their present profitability, and honestly seems better equipped to read the electronics needs of the consumer than the rest of Sony the last couple of years.

Anyway I hope it all works out for the better in the end; corporate infighting not needed here.

I do find it interesting hat the word is Stringer doesn't speak any Japanse. Is that a viable situaton?

 

[cthellis42]

Plenty of companies beneft from someone in charge who's full of vision and exhuberance, even if they're a bit wacky from time to time. Consider the turtlenecked Soul of Apple... At least it's better than being wacky fpr no reason.

 

[Carl B]

I thought I'd post this post from JapanToday here - another news site/forum to which I belong, as I am generally interested in most affairs related to Japan.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty well put together.

And of course to give credit where credit is due - the original poster is someone that goes by the handle 'lyrical01.'

No, Stringer wasn't responsible for the whole movie business from day 1 -- that was Morita-san's idea, and Ohga-san's folly for quite a while. You can read about it in John Nathan's book about Sony, and also in Nancy Griffin's fun book, "Hit and Run". Many of the weak negotiating skills Sony showed when it bought Columbia Pictures were still in evidence when I left there about 2 years ago.

One reason for Sir Howard's ascension is probably because the movie studio has been doing OK recently. But history shows that the movie business is very cyclical; no one keeps picking hits indefinitely, and no studio has held onto a top spot for long.

Since his background is as a TV reporter and movie exec, he will be, like Idei and Andoh, yet another CEO without any background in electronics or engineering. (Idei and Andoh were MBAs.)

While most people in the US think of Morita-san as the founder who embodied Sony -- and he was a marketing genius, no doubt about it -- few realize that Morita-san's background was in applied physics. The culture on the Japan-side of Sony is an engineering culture, not an entertainment or MBA culture. And in Japan, the most revered guy at Sony isn't even Morita-san, it's the other founder, Ibuka-san -- an engineer's engineer. His photo is in many cubicles and offices.

The New York HQ culture where Sir Howard held court is entirely the opposite -- very entertainment biz (East Coast style), pretentious folks in fashionable black and BS business plans for "broadband platforms" and the like. It really didn't mesh with the engineers in Tokyo, Yokohama and Atsugi.

Of course, the Japan side of Sony has its own mishugas to deal with -- complacence, byzantine intramural rivalries & turf battles, ignorance about how to collaborate with foreign companies (Philips being possibly an exception). They underestimated the talent in Korea, and may yet underestimate the talent in China. But the heart and soul of the original Sony spirit is still in Japan, not in Wales or NY.

 

[hey69]

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/04q3_sony.pdf

not so related but still intresting

 

[Deepak]

It could well turn out to be a good decision if KK focusses solely on Playstation.

 

[pahcman]

wonder how it affects his ego morale, influence and visions for playstation...

it seem stringer want to focus more on content than hardware.

 

[one]

A well-written article about Stringer and Sony...
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/050310/244/fe2og.html

Crush the Silos Inside Sony

There's no doubt Sony has the most enthralling assets of any entertainment company. But even Sir Howard admits that Sony needs "better integration between our services and our device portfolio." Translation: Studio execs and hardware geeks don't talk.

Stringer has to set up a framework where executives around the world from games, music, movies, and hardware meet often, hatch plans, set goals, and -- if they fall behind -- take responsibility. If that means planting cosseted Hollywood execs in stiff, white-collar environments in Tokyo for six months at a stretch, so be it. If senior staff can't meet these requirements, Sony shouldn't be the right home for them.

Breaking the silos is probably the hardest task Stringer faces. The Sony factions are as wily as they come. Back in 2002, Idei and other senior executives came up with the sensible idea of selling off its Sony Life insurance division to General Electric (NYSE: GE - news) (GE). It was profitable but made little sense for a consumer-electronics giant. There was just one catch: Sony Life execs rebelled, leaked nasty stories to the Japanese press about Idei, and forced Sony to cave.

Stringer thinks the ammunition is in place to blow up some silos. Phil Wiser, Sony's chief technology officer in North America, is deep inside the inner circle of engineers in Tokyo. And, Stringer adds, "there's no longer resistance to content people participating in everything." The Welshman has pushed hard to break down resistance inside U.S. operations, especially between the movie studio and the games and electronics divisions. "Howard is pretty insistent about supporting the other parts of the company, " says Michael Lynton, Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman.

Stringer's lieutenants are now looking forward to such connections with Japan. "Tokyo is now Howard, so I think we'll see ever more co-operation between music and electronics," says Andrew Lack, CEO of Sony BMG Entertainment.

A key silo issue is the role of Ken Kutaragi, the official Sony bad boy. Kutaragi created the PlayStation in 1994 and has run the game unit ever since. His gang delivered an astounding 68% of Sony's $650 million in operating profits last year. In the recent power shift, he was knocked off the board. With his brash manner, "Ken doesn't have a lot of friends in the home office," says one insider. But Stringer should rise above that and find a suitable cross-boundary role for one of Sony's most creative dynamos.

 

[HappyBread]

Wall Street Journal

Can anybody post the full article?

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

Mr. Stringer: 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 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.

 

[one]

Here's a Nikkei Business article that contains some words of Kutaragi after the announcement of the management change
http://nikkeibp.jp/wcs/leaf/CID/onair/jp/flash/364013 (machine translation)
I'll translate it later if time permits.