Brit takes the hot seat at Sony

WELSHMAN Sir Howard Stringer has been given the task of putting the 'cool' back into Sony's once iconic electronic gadgets. It is the first time the Japanese firm has turned to a foreigner for such help.

Stringer, a journalist and veteran president of US TV network CBS, joined Sony in 1997 and was today being named Sony's chairman and chief executive. He replaces Nobuyuki Idei, who was at the helm of the struggling giant for a decade.

Stringer has constantly preached that electronic gadgets are nothing without content, and Sony obviously believes that combining the two will help it recapture its past magic.

The appointment is a surprise, even though Stringer has proved he can cope in one of the most daunting business cultures foreigners can face. He speaks no Japanese and will continue to live in New York, travelling between the US and Japan.

As president of Sony's US operations, he gradually gained more and more influence over key groups such as Sony Music and Sony Pictures. 'It's fascinating as a symbolic change that Sony's leader will be a foreigner,' Koya Tabata, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston Securities in Tokyo said. 'Idei was good at drawing a picture for a strategy but he lacked the power to carry it out.'

The outgoing chairman welcomed the change, saying the time was ripe to hand over leadership to a new team. 'I am proud to have been a part of the changes at Sony for a decade, including shifting from the analogue to digital era, fusing electronics and the culture of entertainment and the advent of broadband,' Idei said.

{2} Sony's electronics goods sales have fallen because of cheaper rivals, and the company has increasingly relied on hit movies to support its bottom line. Stringer has always said the company must produce attractive hardware with cool content if it is to compete with the likes of Apple's iPod music player.

The iPod's success has been a wake-up call to Sony, echoing the must-have status of the Walkman in the 1980s and much of the 1990s. To many, Sir Howard's task appears daunting, but in a recent interview he was cavalier about putting Sony back on track.

'In the last year-and-a-half, building a relationship between content and devices has taken on a new urgency as a part of Sony's convergence strategy,' he said. 'Convergence [making one device do multiple tasks] seems to be something everyone is working on but no one is close to mastering. What's so tough about it?'