Behind the smiles at Sony (original) (raw)
Mar 10th 2005|LOS ANGELES AND TOKYO
“I HAVE said before that without content, most gadgets are just junk,” says Sir Howard Stringer, the Welsh-born American who was named as Sony's new chief executive on March 7th. In prouder times, Sony's Japanese engineers would have taken those as fighting words, especially coming from a new boss who is not Japanese and has no engineering background. Those engineers, after all, are fiercely proud of the gadgetry that Sony has given the world over the past few decades, from cheap and well-made transistor radios to Walkmans, camcorders, DVD players and PlayStation games consoles. In the minds of Sony's Japanese employees, electronic devices, which account for nearly 70% of global sales, remain the heart and soul of the company's business.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Behind the smiles at Sony”
From the March 12th 2005 edition
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