WSJ on in-fighting at Sony

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Geo

Mostly Harmless
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Saw this linked over at [H]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/sonys-problems-start-at-the-top-241418.php

and then this one elsewhere

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4862&Itemid=2

Unfortunately, the original Wall Street Journal piece is subscription only, so we can not link/quote the entire thing here (which is my indirect way of saying if anyone does they'll find themselves smacked upside the noggin). It appears that the WSJ piece is nearly entirely from Stringer's pov, and relies heavily on extended interviews with him. It's not quite a pure interview, but features many direct quotes from Stringer.

Surely there are significant cultural issues involved, but as a westerner myself I did find myself siding with Stringer vs Kutaragi on the appalling corporate etiquette of springing major decisions on the boss at a board meeting, and not informing him of cost overruns in the first place.
 
Joshua Luna said:
Surprising that Stringer is bashing KK in public like this and their situation sounds absolutely terminal.
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Personally, I can never recall a high-profile internal corporate spat for a company that size or bigger that got to that point publicly and wasn't terminal for one or the other of the participants in relatively short order. The board is really on the spot now, in my view. But then I'm a westerner, and that's the standards I'm applying to the situation. . . .
 
I think Stringer going in as a Westerner probably didn't sit well initially. KK seemed to then ignore Stringer or downplay his role and carried on as if he was incharge. Now Stringer went right after him in public. Someone's head is going to roll!

For it to end up in public light as this, things must be much worse behind closed doors, from a corporate politics perspective.
 
RobertR1 said:
For it to end up in public light as this, things must be much worse behind closed doors, from a corporate politics perspective.
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Slower than expected sales from your #1 brand in a market you have a pseudo-monopoly -- and are in danger of losing substantial market share -- can do that. It seems the PS3 had a lot of hands on it (part of the lack of focus?) and with things getting tight it looks like Stringer will need to blame someone. That could be the tension: KK knows things could be bad and thus was doing everything he thought he could do to get things back on track, and going over Stringers head did NOT sit well. So he lost the control he needed to do what he thought must be done and now may also get the brunt of the blame. Pure speculation, but I am sure there are a lot of politics involved. I am sure Carl, one, Titiano, and others could give us their own interpretations as they follow Sony internals quite closely.

Whatever it is, this isn't really good.
 
RobertR1 said:
I think Stringer going in as a Westerner probably didn't sit well initially. KK seemed to then ignore Stringer or downplay his role and carried on as if he was incharge. Now Stringer went right after him in public. Someone's head is going to roll!

For it to end up in public light as this, things must be much worse behind closed doors, from a corporate politics perspective.
Click to expand...
To put things in a stereotypical cultural difference argument is off the point IMHO, actually this is not the first time this kind of accusation was done if you remember how Kutaragi was kicked out of the board of Sony Corp and how the ex-CEO (who is Japanese) commented about it back then.

Stringer must achieve his profit goal so he'll do everything he has to do for it. Probably this article is his second attempt of "Stringer vs Sony". The first attempt was about layoff, Stringer openly criticized reluctant execs in an interview which is a generally frowned upon act just like Kutaragi's criticism against Sony Corp in an interview. I guess Stringer as a former journalist is used to using news media to put pressure on others, but I'm not sure how it turns out.
 
I have heard Japanese companies sometimes hire foreign CEO's when big layoffs are needed.

Because in Japan, a guy working for a company should have a job for life. It's dishonerable to fire him.

But, by having a foreign CEO come in, he is not bound by the Japanese system, and they save face, so to speak. Because, it's a foreigner laying people off. Outside the system.

I think this might be Stringer's job with Sony.
 
Rangers said:
I have heard Japanese companies sometimes hire foreign CEO's when big layoffs are needed.

Because in Japan, a guy working for a company should have a job for life. It's dishonerable to fire him.

But, by having a foreign CEO come in, he is not bound by the Japanese system, and they save face, so to speak. Because, it's a foreigner laying people off. Outside the system.

I think this might be Stringer's job with Sony.
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I believe its not actually the guy who is firing losing face, its the man/woman being fired. Sony needs more foreigners to work for them because the japanese ways clearly aren't working anymore. They need to do way more marketing for theyr upcoming titles(ala heavenly sword), new features and what is theyr future plan. They simply need to be more open with the Playstation brand. Not that Sony is in that bad situation really, its only matters of games, when there's enough games that 600$ price tag won't seem so heavy.

Ken might be too tired of working with his baby as much as he did previously. Thats why they need fresh people to make connections so disasters like losing GTA and Assassin's creed won't happen again.
 
one said:
To put things in a stereotypical cultural difference argument is off the point IMHO. . .
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Possibly, but it's how the article itself frames much of the problems (not just KK and PS3, btw, it's a broader article than that). Btw, I'm not at all sure that it's Stringer that comes out on top here in a duel to the death. Sure, he does have the benefit of position, and that should not be underestimated. However, 1.) He could be seen by the board as the one who has dumped this mess into public, embarrasing us all, and 2.) The article had a bit of special pleading flavor to it of Stringer blaming all his woes on having to deal with Japanese. That might not go over too well back at HQ.
 
This is not going to go over well with the board for sure. It is very irresponsible to openly trash some the senior management, the corporate culture, and basically claim that he is the only good thing going at Sony right now.

I read the whole WSJ article it almost read like a postmortem of his term as CEO. It sounded like he was on his way out anyway and just wanted to get in a few last digs at his opponents before he got slapped with a severance package that forced him to stay silent.

Comments like this affect stock performance and share holders attitude toward a company. It didn't sound like a man who wanted what was best for the company or had any loyalty to it's employees. He comes across as a cowboy who is trying to make a name for himself.
 
inefficient said:
This is not going to go over well with the board for sure. It is very irresponsible to openly trash some the senior management, the corporate culture, and basically claim that he is the only good thing going at Sony right now.

I read the whole WSJ article it almost read like a postmortem of his term as CEO. It sounded like he was on his way out anyway ....
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You may very well be right, he may soon be expended as he seems done with the dirty job of restructuring management and probably made a lot of enemies in the process.

Now someone with a clean record can take over and hopefully reap some profits from that work.
That wouldn't after all be an unusual scenario.
 
Hold on why is every jumping down stringers back? because he moved kutagari out of a position where he was doing a number of things he should not be doing? such as publically putting blame for his mistakes on other divisions, and not communicating with those above him? I think stringer talking about the problems publically won't have any affect on the stock price as he's explaining why kutagari is in the postion he's in now (after the fact).

The kind of things that affect stock price are going over budget and coming in late. Hearing about the reasons why "now" won't have any effect on the bottom line. Shareholders don't care when you say, "we had a person causing a lot of problems with his projects and he's since been moved into a position where he can't do any damage". The problems have already been reflected in the stock price.

Anyway I don't think him explaining why certain things are where they are means he's on his way out. Obviously the board understands what has happened already and they needed to approve the moves stringer made.
 
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Management infighting and poor communication between divisions! Yet more (superficial) similarities to Saturn era Sega! :p
 
Qroach said:
Hold on why is every jumping down stringers back?
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Because Stringer has not even been with Sony 2 years yet. Kutaragi has been with Sony since he graduated from University. Stringers current legacy is firing people and killing off unprofitable ventures to increase profits. While Kutagrai's legacy is the Playstation1 and Playstation2.

It's about the total sense of loyalty that Stringer lacks. He is just a gun for hire. He was given a fee to get a dirty job done. The power he wields is the power the board of directors has put in his hands. Kutaragi is much more invested in his company. No only does has he has devoted his whole life to his company, It's very likely he owns vastly more company shares.


In one of the articles it mentioned how 100 Sony engineers got together and did a mock funeral after Stringer killed off the Aibo project at Sony. The head of the project actually resigned. That just shows how much resentment there is toward him. To the engineers working there Stringer is bean counter man who is killing off creativity and exploration in engineering in favor of predicative deliverables and the bottom line.
 
This clash is a textbook example of the two opposing forces of profit-making. You have the cost-cutter versus the creator and IMO the creator has over-reached his bounds. Stringer has appropriately been called-in as a hitman of sorts for elimination of waste (nitch unprofitables), however Kutaragi will likely be able to hide within his brand. There will be a forcefield around the Playstation brand as long as Kutagragi wants.
 
inefficient said:
Because Stringer has not even been with Sony 2 years yet. Kutaragi has been with Sony since he graduated from University. Stringers current legacy is firing people and killing off unprofitable ventures to increase profits. While Kutagrai's legacy is the Playstation1 and Playstation2.

It's about the total sense of loyalty that Stringer lacks. He is just a gun for hire. He was given a fee to get a dirty job done. The power he wields is the power the board of directors has put in his hands. Kutaragi is much more invested in his company. No only does has he has devoted his whole life to his company, It's very likely he owns vastly more company shares.

In one of the articles it mentioned how 100 Sony engineers got together and did a mock funeral after Stringer killed off the Aibo project at Sony. The head of the project actually resigned. That just shows how much resentment there is toward him. To the engineers working there Stringer is bean counter man who is killing off creativity and exploration in engineering in favor of predicative deliverables and the bottom line.
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You're post basically wreaks of compassion for kutagari without looking at the issues invovled. Saying kutagari is much more invested is a waste of time. You don't know if he devoted his whole like to the company. You're also speculating how many shares he has? That argument holds zero water.

What does it matter if stringer was only with the company for two years. when sony decided they needed to make more profit and cut costs, they decided who would be in charge. When the person in charge of the only money making division they had at the time was going over budget with the PS3, and not doing what he should have, they made a change. It's cut and dry.

I'm sure those engineers were sad to see that project cut, but you know what, life goes on. It was cool and all form a consumer standpoint but a total waste of time and money from a business standpoint. I'm sure those engineers were happy when stringer defended them from the blame for PS3 costs when kutagari pointed in their direction.

Killing off creativity? That's a bunch of bollocks.
 
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Qroach said:
kutagari
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Who's kutagari? :p

It's a good relief that Stringer got on board after PS3 got finalized, if Kutaragi hadn't be faithful to his goal Cell would have only had 6 or 5 SPEs and there would be no Heavenly Sword or Playstation Home.
 
one said:
Who's kutagari? :p

It's a good relief that Stringer got on board after PS3 got finalized, if Kutaragi hadn't be faithful to his goal Cell would have only had 6 or 5 SPEs and there would be no Heavenly Sword or Playstation Home.
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I though Phil was responsible getting NT.
 
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