Kaz Hirai Becomes King of Sony

Sony has announced that, effective April 1, 2012, Sir Howard Stringer will step down as CEO of Sony and will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai. Hirai is a veteran employee of Sony, starting with the company in the mid-80s and working his way up the ranks. See kids? Hard work will eventually make you numero uno in any mega corporation.

Here is Hirai’s official comment on the position shuffle:

“As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position. I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees. The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains. The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in
new and exciting ways.”

What does this bode for the arm of Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, that we care about most? Hopefully only good things as the PS Vita and PS3 fight an uphill battle against obsolescence.