Sony was a bruised behemoth when Kaz Hirai took the helm in 2012; the company is now on the verge of recording its best-ever financial performance since all the way back in 1998. The former PlayStation president has completely transformed the juggernaut’s fortunes, then – but what is the secret to his success? A brilliant new Nikkei article explores the backstory of Ridge Racer’s biggest fan.
Hirai, in essence, spent a lot of time between Japan and America growing up, making him what’s known as hen-Japa (“odd Japanese”) as opposed to jun-Japa (“pure Japanese”). This fusion of cultures has set him apart from his buttoned up peers, and helped him to analyse Sony’s business from a global point of view.
There’s a lot more in the Nikkei article, including his approach to management – he is calm and never loses his temper at work – and his personal style; Hirai, for example, wears jeans and sneakers in the office, as opposed to a three-piece suit. He is, by Japanese standards, apparently a bit of an oddball – but one who just so happens to have saved a sinking ship.
[source asia.nikkei.com]
Comments 4
I don't think Sony were sinking - at least not fro the gaming perspective but their film, mobile and electronics divisions were struggling big time. Arguably, Hirai took over at the right point - a year before PS4 launched. No doubt MS's poor E32013 fell right into Sony's hands - launching the more powerful system at a lower price and MS's 'mistakes' really helped catapult the PS4 sales. Not only did this really help steady Sony as a company - offset those losses elsewhere, this also gave Sony more capital to invest too. Sony's film studio's have had a few more successes of late and their electronics division aren't doing too bad either - helped no doubt to the growing interest in 4k and people replacing their AV systems to access this. People are 'replacing' rather than waiting until something goes wrong and then looking to repair/replace.
Also in 2012, we were in a financial crisis globally. the leisure area is usually the biggest area affected by financial crisis. People hang on to their TV's, Bluray players etc instead of replacing, people buy fewer games, don't go to the cinema so much or buy movies. Expectation was 'low' for Hirai but fortunate timings really helped him.
Another aspect of course, is the changes to PS+. Now making it compulsory for online gaming, it saw a massive increase in subscribers - another area that really helped Sony turn things around. Whether that was Hirai or not, there are still a number of external factors that really contributed to the position Sony are now in and coincidentally helped Hirai too.
@BAMozzy Sony's problems were bigger than just PlayStation, although the success of the PS4 has helped with their current situation.
They were bleeding absolutely colossal sums of money a decade ago, though. The likes of which a resurgent PS4 wouldn't have made up for if the whole business wasn't restructured.
@get2sammyb I am sure I said that the problems were much bigger than 'Playstation'. I mentioned the fact that in 2012, Sony were losing big on the mobile, TV/AV market and their films were flopping - at least in terms of the investment and returns they were getting. I also stated that we were in an 'economic' crisis and the fact that Sony's audience are those in the leisure sector - a sector that suffers hardest in difficult times.
However, a year later, Sony were helped by MS - not just E3 mistakes but their design and component choices of the XB1, the price etc too. The success of the Playstation 4 has really helped.
You can't ignore 4k either which launched in 2014. People opting to replace TV's even though their older 1080p TV was not broken. In times of recession, you only replace TV's IF you have to - especially if your current TV does everything a new TV does - its not an 'upgrade'. Its new tech, like jumping up to 4k, adding HDR etc that makes people consider upgrading.
Sony Pictures also were going through a 'bad' time with many films not recouping their costs. In the last year though, they have had more success.
Point I was making though, is that a lot of circumstances since the 'restructure' have really worked in Sony's favour. If those circumstances had repeated with no 'restructuring', Sony could well have been in the same position now. If MS hadn't screwed up, maybe Sony would have struggled even with Harai but then the TV/AV market would still have picked up and maybe Sony could have been a bit 'wiser' on their 'films' and that may of offset the PS in that scenario.
I am not saying Hirai hasn't done well but I do think his appointment and timing of it has really helped because of the external factors. If not Hirai, would 'Joe Bloggs' have had the same effect, would no restructuring still of seen Sony in the position they are now? I think the external factors have had more of an impact on Sony's turnaround than the restructuring and appointment of Hirai - just he was in the right place at the right time.
Kaz is definitely, and infinitely, better than that Welshman who led Sony to near financial ruin.
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