Sony just unveiled their new management, intended to
establish optimized decision making processes as "One
Sony" and accelerate the company's overall business
management.
The changes are effective April 1, 2012.
Under the leadership of Mr. Hirai, Corporate Executive
Officers Masaru Kato, EVP and CFO, and Tadashi Saito, EVP
and CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) will oversee the Sony
Group's overall financial management, corporate and
business strategies.
With respect to the electronics businesses, in addition
to Mr. Kato and Mr. Saito, Shoji Nemoto, Corporate
Executive Officer and EVP who will oversee technology
strategy, and Kunimasa Suzuki, Corporate Executive
Officer and EVP, who will oversee product strategy, will
take key roles in the management team that will support
Mr. Hirai and work together with the heads of each
business group, platform and headquarters function.
Sony is positioning digital imaging, game and mobile as
the three core pillars of its electronics business. Sony
also plans to accelerate its efforts to drive innovation
and new business creation.
Mr. Nemoto will implement a process of stringent
selection and focus in the area of R&D, to enable the
company to optimize resource allocation. As Officer in
charge of the User Experience & Product Strategy and
Creative Platform, Kunimasa Suzuki will assume
responsibility for planning and design in relation to all
consumer related products and services, with the aim of
strengthening horizontal integration and enhancing the
user experience across Sony's entire product and network
service lineup.He will also oversee the mobile business
that Sony has identified as one of its core electronics
business areas, including smart phones, tablets and PCs.
The Home Entertainment Business, including the TV
business, which is continuing to address the challenge of
enhancing profitability, will be overseen directly by the
CEO, Mr. Hirai, who will also be Corporate Executive
Officer in charge of these businesses. Hirai has been
outgunned in recent years by rivals like Apple and
Samsung Electronics. The maker of Bravia televisions and
Vaio laptops expects a 220 billion yen ($2.7 billion) net
loss for the year to this month, a fourth straight year
of losses, and due in large part to a TV business that
has not been able to keep up with nimbler and cheaper
rivals.
Sony's new home entertainment division replaces the
consumer products and services group that Mr. Hirai had
led.
Sony will also form a new unit to oversee its medical
business, which it has described as a growth area.
The company's device and semiconductor businesses, an
area where Sony is excelling with its image sensors and
other device technologies, and the core device R&D
activities which support these businesses,will now be
led by Tomoyuki Suzuki.
Sony has been scrapping production capacity for several
months, moving closer to Apple's "asset-light" business
model of keeping design and product development in-house
and outsourcing manufacturing.
It said last week it was selling part of a chemical
products subsidiary, while in December it agreed to sell
its near-50 percent share in a liquid crystal display
venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean
company.