NYT: Sony to Name Non-Japanese Exec to Top Position (Sir Howard Stringer)

[DeepModem Mom]

Sony to Name Non-Japanese Executive to Top Position
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
and KEN BELSON

Published: March 6, 2005


Sony is planning to name Howard Stringer as the chairman and chief executive of the company, marking one of the first times a major Japanese company has appointed a foreigner to its top position, according to people briefed on the plan.

Sony's board is expected to meet on Monday morning in Tokyo to approve the selection of Mr. Stringer, a Welsh-born executive who had a 30-year career as a journalist at CBS and most recently has held the top position at Sony's United States unit.


If the appointment is approved, Mr. Stringer would replace Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's current chairman and chief executive, these people said. Mr. Idei would step down a year ahead of his planned retirement, which was supposed to coincide with Sony's 60th anniversary next year.


Mr. Idei was the first non-engineer to run Sony, and his departure will come two years into his three-year plan to overhaul the company. During his 10-year tenure, Mr. Idei used his background in marketing to reshape Sony into a more media-focused company. He rebuilt the company's movie group and promoted the "convergence" of Sony's well-established electronics business with its music, movie and game software holdings.


Yet the strategy, which was first devised in the 1980's by the company's co-founder, Akio Morita, has been slow to evolve. Sony's engineers initially resisted the growing power of the media divisions. By the time Mr. Idei corralled them into cooperating, the company's electronics division was under attack from a host of low-cost rivals and emerging giants like Samsung Electronics and Apple Computer....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/business/06cnd-sony.html?hp&ex=1110171600&en=f8d38741020ddddd&ei=5094&partner=homepage