Leak: Sony seen cutting 10,000 jobs
updated 01:20 am EDT, Mon April 9, 2012
Sony may slash 6pc of all staff to go profitable
Sony's April 12 strategy meeting might see it make its largest job cut to date. Leaks to the historically accurate Nikkei have had it slashing 10,000 jobs, or about six percent of its worldwide employee base. The Japanese trade paper added that seven executive leaders, including chairman and former CEO Sir Howard Stringer, would likely be asked to forfeit their bonuses.
Sony had yet to comment on the claim and likely won't until Thursday. The company may report losses of $2.7 billion for its fiscal year ended this past March, however, and may need to make cuts to return to profit.
The cuts would be part of new CEO Kaz Hirai's One Sony strategy. The one-time PlayStation head has publicly called for Sony to end its preference for corporate 'silos' that either keep divisions' work isolated from each other or, in the worst cases, have them compete against each other. Hirai was instrumental in cutting redundant tablet projects that might have further hurt Sony's chances at taking on the iPad.
It's the silo philosophy that many have blamed for Apple usurping Sony's lead in portable music within a matter of a few years during the last decade. Sony's Walkman division had trouble getting the music group to support a digital music store to rival iTunes, and the company clung first to its aging MiniDisc format as well as the rarely used ATRAC file format. Apple, known for its cohesiveness and refusal to cling to legacy technology, had both a more advanced MP3 player in the iPod and a full ecosystem for it years in advance.
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iPod, sony, walkman, computers, industry, gadgets, PlayStation, audio, Apple, MiniDisc, Kaz Hirai
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Joined: Jan 2010
De-silo-ing is just the start
Re: "It's the silo philosophy that many have blamed for Apple usurping Sony's lead in portable music within a matter of a few years during the last decade."
Some big corporations are composed of divisions that compete against each other instead of against external competitors. That's wasteful and confuses consumers. But it's the easiest thing to fix, really.
Siloing, ineffective product strategies, and inability to evolve beyond legacy technologies are signs of weak top management (e.g. RIM). So you change your top management. Easy. Enjoy the golden parachute.
But changing the whole corporate culture below the bosses could take many years. Bosses, good and bad alike, make the company over in their own image. Sony's culture has been baked in for decades, and you can't un-bake a bad cake.