Sony and its boss Stringer theory
Critics call Howard Stringer a failure. They are wrong
THE share price has fallen by a quarter this year. The company has lost money for three years in a row. Hackers have breached its online service, exposing mountains of confidential customer data to potential mischief. Sony’s boss, Sir Howard Stringer, looks a like total failure.
But looks can be deceptive. Sir Howard took the reins in 2005 and plans to retire soon. During his time at the top, he has overhauled the Japanese consumer-electronics giant. He has outsourced operations, shifted production overseas, sold business units and developed new ones. The company still lags behind big rivals such as Apple and Samsung, but it is far healthier than it was six years ago.
Sir Howard has suffered a string of bad luck. Before an earthquake walloped ten of Sony’s Japanese factories, the firm was expected to report a net profit of ¥70 billion ($817m) for the year to March 31st 2011. But the quake will have cost it some ¥17 billion that year and ¥150 billion the next. The cyberattacks will also cost billions, says Sony. Its network was hacked again this week, affecting users in Greece, Canada and elsewhere. Analysts guess that the breaches could cost Sony ¥100 billion.
Adding to the misery, Sony was forced to revalue the tax breaks (accumulated from previous losses) that it expects to deduct from future tax bills. The company reduced these “deferred-tax assets” by a hefty ¥362 billion. This does not affect its operating profit or cashflow, but it forced Sony on May 26th to report a net loss for 2010 of ¥259 billion.
In 2005 Sir Howard inherited a company that was bloated and badly run and had missed the technology shift to flat-panel televisions. A Welshman with an American passport, he was hired on the assumption that a foreigner can make painful changes that a Japanese boss might feel culturally obliged to duck. (Carlos Ghosn, a French-Brazilian, has done something similar at Nissan, a Japanese carmaker.)
Sir Howard spent the first few years shunting aside deadwood managers who sabotaged his reforms. He promoted talented young executives, such as Kazuo Hirai, who at the age of 50 heads Sony’s gaming and network services, and is tipped as Sir Howard’s successor.
Sony has been buffeted by the financial crisis, the strong yen and the earthquake, none of which was Sir Howard’s fault. He bears responsibility for the data breach, because he is the boss, but there is scant evidence that Sony’s defences were worse than the rest of the industry’s.
Sir Howard’s changes have begun to pay off. At the end of last year, Sony’s sales of televisions grew by 44% and those of its computers rose by 28%. Its gaming and mobile-phone activities turned profitable in 2010. The television business still suffers losses, but is on a firmer footing. Sir Howard shut superfluous factories—including one in Ichinomiya, which made the Trinitron televisions that were once a symbol of Sony’s technical brilliance. Today more than half of Sony’s TVs are assembled by outsourcers, up from a mere 20% in 2009.
In recent months Sony has unveiled new smartphones, along with a clever strategy to persuade developers to produce video games for them. The firm has designed innovative tablet computers that could compete with Apple’s iPad. Sony’s Vaio notebook computers offer an alternative to Apple’s laptops. The hardware is important because it is a gateway to online services, where Sony’s future is thought to lie. That is one reason why the cyberattacks hurt the company so much.
Many of the firm’s employees are conservative foot-draggers, but Sir Howard has shaken them up. Perhaps he has made Sony safe once more for a Japanese boss.
Sir Howard has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation since June 2005. He added the title of President in 2009. He is also a Representative Corporate Executive Officer of Sony Corporation.
From 1986 to 1988, Sir Howard served as President of CBS News, he developed the programs the award-winning 48 HOURS, which continues as a primetime hit to this day.
楼主选文章越来越有经验了。I like today's article, a descriptive one.
First of all, a healthy company won't just rely on one powerful man. It won't work that way.
Secondly, Sony used to lead the electronic and gaming industry for quite a long time. Before Howard joined Sony, it was reeling under higher overhead costs. Howard came and transformed the strategic direction. He offshored R&D units and removed inefficient manufacturing plants across the globe. His contribution to Sony is remarkable.
Finally, some time, you need a bit of luck to do everything. No one will have expected an earthquake or any kind of nature disaster like this. The only way to deal with it is to stand their ground and fight back all odds during such a crisis.
I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.
Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less.
To date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world. A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.
As we have announced, we will be offering a “Welcome Back” package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.
As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible.
I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.
As a result of what we discovered we notified you of the breach. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger.
In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.
In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for – all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony.
THE share price has fallen by a quarter this year. The company has lost money for three years in a row. Hackers have breached its online service, exposing mountains of confidential customer data to potential mischief. Sony’s boss, Sir Howard Stringer, looks a like total failure.
今年股价已经跌去四分之一。公司在过去三年一直亏损。电脑黑客黑了sony的在线服务，致使大量的客户保密资料被揭露而存在潜在的危害。Sony的老板，Howard Stringer先生看起来整体是失败的。
21,21
There is an introduction of Howard Stringer's career. He had a 30-year career at CBS, where he was a journalist, producer and senior executive. He served as president of CBS from 1988 to 1995. He left CBS in 1995 to set up TELE-TV, a media and technology company formed by US telecoms Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, and Creative Artists Agency in February 1995. He left two years later to join Sony as president of its US operational unit . He was made a Sony group executive officer in May 1998.Since June 2005, he has been chairman and CEO of Sony overseeing the entire businesses of Sony. On April 1, 2009, he became president of Sony Corporation and ousted Ryoji Chubachi in what was seen as prelude to broader corporate restructuring.
In this article, the worst failure stinger encounted is that millions of Sony customers had personal data stolen by the cyberattacks.This hurt customers' trust seriously even though Sony did a lot of remediations.
Although with a series of failure, we have to affirm that, Stringer promoted the company's reform when the corporation was having trouble with losses and was facing increasing competition from rivals. And he strengthened the competition capacities of Sony and furthered its development.
follow21,21
Howard Stringer is indeed innocent,in his tenure ,sony suffered financial crisis,great earthquakes and heckers attacked.Add to the misery,the company was forced to revalue their tax breaks.He suffered a string of bad luck and should copy with the stress or pressure which comes from his firm.because the worse environment ,the sony company suffered great losses.
I think we should take another look at the leader.If you were him ,can you do those better?Of course ,sony ,as a transnational company,has many its own core-compentece,such as its tablet computers , vaio notebooks and cycber-shot...Its products are popular in public.
Mr Howard makes a great contribution to this firm ,we should take it objectly.If we put the case to be true , why the company not to dismiss the boss?
Almost every big multinational has encountered or will face a variety of problems like what sony's in.Though a good CEO is necessary ,a good system is more better.BUILT TO LAST,written by James C.Collins,has show us what a good systerm should do.As a good manager ,they must improve the frame of management of the company .Human has limited life,but systerm will always go !
18,18
A string of bad luck is awful enough for a manager, but the so called entrepreneurship contains the ability to take risks, including bad luck. So there is no reason to complain about the environment, that's the law of the jungle.
SONY is not so popular in recent years, not as in my childhood at least. The era of mobile comes, and SONY's brand in the international market lags behind its rivals. The world changes every minute, even Sony was once the biggest, time won't promise this all the time.
sony若能重现辉煌，也算是经典案例了。对这一句比较感兴趣：
A Welshman with an American passport, he was hired on the assumption that a foreigner can make painful changes that a Japanese boss might feel culturally obliged to duck. (Carlos Ghosn, a French-Brazilian, has done something similar at Nissan, a Japanese carmaker.)
整理学到的新词：
outsourced
外购、外包(工程)
cyber attack
n. 1. 网络攻击
shunt [ʃʌnt]
分流
sabotage ['sæbə,tɑʒ]
破坏;妨害
buffet ['bʌfɪt]
冲击；打击
foot-dragger
拖后腿的人
19,19
Successfuly escape from morning's meeting....
Back to the paper, I think this one teaches us how to look at an event more objectively. And it is this kind of event that advanced the IT industry.
Horward, boss of sony, spent much of his time at the top to make a Sony sustainble company at the cost of selling some units, outsourcing, and develope new products. As a network game giant, a breach of its network and the potential danger to the condidential information of its users, Sony has its fault. But it is clearly indicated that there is scant evidence showing that Sony's defence is worse than the rest of the industry. Then why the hacker choose Sony as the object? I think one possible element is that the hacker thought the defence of Sony is the best of all and the breach of this defence proves the hacker's skills. This is not the fault of Horwars or Sony's, it is just an incident that may advance more network safety for users. Of course, Horward had done his own contribution to the inhustry.
Well, firstly, i'd like to lay out some new words~
deceptive 骗人的，靠不住的; overhaul 检修，大修；彻底革新; rival 竞争者; hefty 很重的，异常大的；bloat 肿胀的，臃肿的；sabotage 破坏；buffet 冲击，打；scant 不足的，贫乏的; unveil 揭开…的序幕
Then, i will state my view
The heading (also the author's opinion) says "Critics call Howard Stringer a failure. they are wrong" but i think the argument doesn't prove the point. "Sony has been buffeted by the financial crisis, the strong yen and the earthquake, none of which was Sir Howard's fault."Can it explain why the company has lost money for three years in a row ? There must be something wrong with Sony or the giant cant be still lags behind big rivals such as Apple and Samsung~So i dont think Sir Howard is innocent…
手机党伤不起啊，这样回复太花时间了。。。
Many of the firm’s employees are conservative foot-draggers, but Sir Howard has shaken them up. Perhaps he has made Sony safe once more for a Japanese boss.
许多公司的员工是保守的,但howard吓动摇了他们。也许他，作为i一个日本老板，再一次使索尼安全。
foot-draggers：拖后腿的意思？
What point is there cutting back on our own emissions, the foot-draggers ask, if our efforts are obscured by a vast and growing cloud of pollution from China?
Many of the firm’s employees are conservative foot-draggers, but Sir Howard has shaken them up. Perhaps he has made Sony safe once more for a Japanese boss.
许多公司的员工是保守的,但howard吓动摇了他们。也许他，作为i一个日本老板，再一次使索尼安全。
foot-draggers：拖后腿的意思？
What point is there cutting back on our own emissions, the foot-draggers ask, if our efforts are obscured by a vast and growing cloud of pollution from China?
12,12
Sony has been buffeted by the financial crisis, the strong yen and the earthquake,.......but there is scant evidence that Sony’s defences were worse than the rest of the industry’s.
外界因素确实对索尼十分糟糕，但是自身的网络安全受到黑客的频繁攻击不得不说这是索尼自己的失误。感觉尤其是在PSP的板块上，索尼的网络损失无疑是最大的。随着PSP2、PS3等新产品的上市，索尼的创新能力实在让我们佩服，但是对索尼的网络安全的考验也越来越大。如果在自己的产品还没有达到生产的规模经济之前就将改良后的新技术外漏，是无法与苹果、三星等相抗衡的
2,2
We can't blame Howard Stringer for all these, but he, as the president of Sony Company, do have something to reflect after experiencing all these failures. Actually, I am still not sure whether Sony's 3D TV will have a success or not. Nature disasters such as earthquake are the things we can't predict, but the executive officers should figure out more effective ways to boost the company's sales, and thus, increase the profits.
21,21
1. It's not fair to put all the responsibility on Howard. Although he is the chairman, president and CEO of Sony, it still takes the board to make important decisions.
2. There is a rumor that hackers attacked Sony because of its tough attitude to George Hotz's releasing PS3 'root key'. I think Sony really should learn from Microsoft. Microsoft didn't sue but help the hackers who hacked the kinect.
3. Nowadays, cloud computing and cloud storage are quite popular. As people put more and more information on the 'cloud', it's necessary for these companies to build a trusty security system for their databases.
I'm a little curious about why Mr. Howard chose a Japanese company to start his career. He experienced almost all kinds of challenges, such as working for a not so friendly, serious and maybe stingy nationality, taking over a bad managed laggard, experiencing financial cricis period, suffered by natural disaters, destroyed somewhat by high-tech nuclear energy, and even hacked by invaders.
If he can handle all the above things smoothly, in my mind, he is really a legend.
刚看了the best，不知道怎么评选的？
deadwood [?dedwud]- deadwood
扫码加好友，拉您进群
全部版块
我的主页
收藏
