Leaders We Deserve

Posted: September 3rd, 2013

Leaders We Deserve

Name:

Institution:

Lecturer:

Course:

Date:

Leaders We Deserve

Sony Company recently confirmed that they had decided to replace their current chief executive officer, Sir Howard Stringer, with Kazuo Hirai by April 1 the year 2013. Sir Howard will however retain a senior position in the company and will proceed on as the chairperson of the board of directors. Sir Howard’s position as the CEO was seemingly under threat, as his proceedings led to the company declaring a forecasted loss of an approximated 2.9 billion US dollars (Griffiths, 2012). The company could no longer bank on the services of Sir Howard. They felt that they needed change; but the question was who would replace him. It was imminent that Sir Howard was going to depart, and Hirai had been long mooted to succeed him, due to his previous succeeding Hiroshi Yoshioka, the ‘Four Musketeers’ senior leader. It is clear in Sony Company that any company or organization seeking to improve its business operations has to consider a change in its managerial staff (Bratton, 2005).

Turn around plans involving Sir Howard have been scheduled to run up to March 2013, even though the initial expectation was that he would see out this period, with Hirai’s transitional takeover planned to begin from 1 April 2013. However, pressure had been mounting on Sir Howard’s position as the company continually reported losses, and some were arguing that the managerial overhaul was long overdue (Griffiths, 2012). Sir Howard’s management of the company led to the company struggling in the organizations key products such as mobile phones and televisions, as well withdrawal threats from investors. On 1 April 2011, Hirai was promoted to a new role of an Executive Officer and the Deputy President, while at the same time playing the role of the company’s president in consumer services and products (Griffiths, 2012). This gave him charge of the electronic products from Sony ranging from, television sets, consoles, cameras and other products that constitute the company’s turn over. Hirai’s particular expertise in the company’s gaming output department was manifested in the successful stint at the senior seat of Sony Computer Entertainment. He therefore had adequate experience in managing a senior seat, showed that he could make crucial decisions, and that he could deal with the pressures that come with that sort of position.

Under his leadership, Sony’s business in video gaming gained world recognition and is still among the successful stories of the company up to date. After the company dominated with the playstation two video model, the subsequent launch of playstation three saw the video game’s popularity rise in a manner that none of the previous products of the company had ever manifested Griffiths, 2012). All this was under Hirai. Hirai’s successful path and valuable experienced certainly reveal him as the only person who can take up the chief executive officer position. Ultimately, the decision to bestow Hirai that kind of responsibility is an unrelenting one, aimed at recovering the mammoth sums of money lost in the company’s previous financial crisis, as well steering it to a successful path.

The company is optimistic that 2012 will manifest metamorphic success in the company as well as environment, as opposed to 2011 that saw numerous calamities and natural disasters plaguing the entire Thailand and Japan (Griffiths, 2012). These disasters are one of the main reasons that led to the company recording devastating losses. When the time comes for Hirai to take the seat of the company’s chief executive office, the acquisition of Sony Ericsson will have completed, and his first assignments may include taking an initiative of improving the company sales, as well as doubling on the organization’s strong performance. Hirai is no doubt a proven leader and has the capability of leading Sony Company to success. I believe that the new Sony chief executive officer can come to the rescue of the struggling tech giant

Reference

Bratton, John, Keith Grint, and Debra L. Nelson. Organizational Leadership. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western, 2005. Print.

Griffiths, Daniel N. The Hirai We Deserve? Stringer’s Replacement at Sony Faces a Tough Task. Manhattan, New York: Forbes, 2012. Print