The Welshman, the Walkman and the Salarymen
The article The Welshman, the Walkman and the salarymen discusses the transition process at Sony, as conducted by a team of relative outsiders headed by Sir Howard Stringer. The article outlines many of the challenges that Sony faced. These include a lack of technological innovation, an obsolete organizational structure and an organizational culture in need of significant overhaul. Stringer had been able to enact an overhaul of the structure and culture at Sony's American group and was now being asked to do the same in Japan. The Japanese operations, however, presented many challenges not faced in the US operation. Among them were retired salarymen who blocked progress, senior engineers who were so hardware oriented as to be dismissive of software (today the key driver in the industry) and a complete lack of focus on shareholder value.
There was little cohesive, corporate-wide focus. Since the wave of restructuring and culture overhaul has taken hold of Japan, economic performance has improved. Products needed to be market driven, not engineer driven. He also sought to shift organizational focus towards interbusiness communication. The Sony case serves as an allegory for Japan's economic recovery. This included more focus on innovation speed, not just innovation results. 's program sought to modernize Sony on many different levels. After the central bank cut interest rates to zero, stagflation occurred. Stringer demanded that shareholder value again become a significant point of focus for the firm. Japanese corporate culture also needed to change. The leaner Sony was in a better position to enact greater strategic changes. This inability to stimulate the Japanese economy was unprecedented, and indicated that the root cause of the recession was deep-rooted structural issues. The article was written partway into Stringer's tenure, so the end results were unclear. One was to reduce holdings to core businesses. While Sony was not a member of a keiretsu, it was build with the same philosophical mindset.
Common topics in this essay:
Sony Sony,
Japan Japanese,
Howard Stringer,
PlayStation Portable,
Welshman Walkman,
japanese economy,
,
japanese government,
shareholder value,
change included,
retired salarymen,
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