Serious questions are today being asked about the performance of Sir Howard Stringer the Welsh-born former TV journalist who as the CEO and Chairman of Sony has just announced that the Japanese consumer electronics Company will make losses this year of over A$3.8 Billion dollars.
The problem for Stringer is that he is a Westerner in very Japanese Company and although a great many of the shareholders are from the USA and Europe there is still a strong current of support in the Company particularly from the engineering and technology sides for a Japanese CEO.
The loss only strengthens their case say Analysts who believe that Stringer may walk away from the top job at Sony.
On the other hand Sony has not really come up with anything new over the past few years instead Companies like Apple, and even ASUS with their Netbook have taken share away from Sony.
Now Samsung is starting to tear into their LCD TV market share. In Australia the overpriced PS3 Playstation is in third spot behind the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360.
When Stringer was appointed chairman and CEO of Sony in 2005, he set out to destroy the factions dividing the electronics giant and uncover the synergies needed to grow. However this appears not to be working.
On the other hand when Stringer did take over Sony was an absolute basket case. The Japanese management at the time had misread the boom in flat panel TV's by still trying to push large screen CRT TV's. And when they did move to flat panel TV's they chose Plasma and it was not till 2006 that Sony consolidated behind LCD with the creation of the Bravia brand.
Sony badly needs a stunning new product that screams Sony innovation. They use to have it with the Walkman but that was demolished by Apple who yesterday recorded massive profits from their notebooks, iPods and the 3g iPhone all products that Sony competes against but in a poor way.
