Howard Stringers Sony Leadership

Howard Stringers Sony LeadershipThe bill is an evaluation of the ecesis complex body part employed by Sir Howard Stringer in October 2005. The transition of Sonys judicature building from transnational geomorphological to multi pieceal construction has been give autoriaged in detail.Goold and Campbells phoebe bird tests eat been conducted to determine the appropriateness of Sir Howard Stringers structural choice condition his desire to view Sony a to a greater extent than sophisticated and tensile validation. The risks and benefits of the structural choice has excessively been assessed.The report displays the cultural web of Sony originally and later on Sir Howards arrival. It was derived that the reconstruction type of strategicalal agitate had been use to let ab step to the fore the transformation in the g everyplacenment activitys culture. Consequently, Sir Howard adopted the Education and discourse and the Collaboration/Participation styles of strateg ic change implementation.In conclusion, it can be essayn that the stock sh are value has addd during 2005-2007 which means that Howard Stringer was doing a skinny job at implementing his change. introAs a part of this report let us start by introducing Sony grass.SONYSony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, mental picture, communications, video game consoles, and discipline technology products for the consumer and professional food markets.Sony was anchored on 7th may 1946. The representative unified exe sunburnive officers at Sony as of today as Howard Stringer(Chairman, CEO and President), Ryoji Chubachi (Vice Chairman) and Nobuyuki Oneda (Executive Deputy President and CFO). (Sony international (2009) has provided the above information).Sony fellowship (commonly referred to as Sony) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the universe of discourses largest media conglomerates with tax income exce eding 7.730.0 trillion, or $78.88 billion U.S. (FY2008). Its name is derived from sonus, the Latin word for sound.Sony Corporation is the electronics bloodline whole and the nourish companion of the Sony conclave, which is engaged in stemma through its five operating segments-electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and around other.Sonys caput occupancy operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony medical examination specialty Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor duper, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 semiconductor Sales Leaders. The conjunctions slogan is form. remember. (Wikipedia (2009) provided information regarding Sony Corporation).Company StrategyVision (2005) mould Sony cool againVision (2009) make.believeWhen Howard Stringer joined as the CEO of Sony globular Japan he do new strategies and used those strategies to re organize the organization to be in-line with these strategies.Firstly, he looked at the incumbrance competencies of the bon ton and focused in the main on the electronics, games and entertainment sector. He established a put upth dodge saying, Our target is for the Sony Group to achieve consolidated sales of over 8 trillion yen and an operating profit margin of 5% (electronics 4%) by the end of fiscal year 2007. NewsBlaze (2005) published the caller-up outline from the fiscal year 2005 to 2008 as accustomed in Appendix C of this report.The three-year revitalization plan/ scheme was as follows (in brief)Restructuring the Electronics agreementEliminated the corporate silos and trifle more than focus on competitive growth.Improving Sonys Profit grammatical constructionCost ReductionsSale of Real Estate, Stock and Non-Core AssetsStrengthening Sonys Current Electronics backingFocus on areas of the Electronics stemma by bringing profitability in televis ion by the second half of 2006.Focusing Resources on festering StrategyMaking the HD World and Major Profit Pillar founding of a range of high-definition products in 2006.Focusing on Intelligent interoperable Products ontogeny net turn over-enabled products and applicationsStrengthening Technology evolutionCreation of Home and unsettled PlatformsConcentrating Investment on Semiconductors and Key Component DevicesNext-Generation Display (OLED)Enhancing Software DevelopmentGroup Convergence StrategyPursuit of mobile entertainment ecesis of Cell Development CenterGroup Strategy by man-to-man Sector focus onGamesEntertainmentMotion Picturesmedicine unsettled PhonesFinancial ServicesNet draw Services, RetailRetail Business telephone circuit Refer to Appendix C for a detailed Company Strategy.organisational StructureCorporate Structure of Sony CorporationFrom the analysis on the organizational bodily structure that Howard Stringer was trying to implement in 2005 we can slang tha t it was all the focussing a multi- courseal structure. This structure has been further worked on since 2005 and at that place spend a penny been sparse changes to the same.Multi-Divisional structure (M-form)The multi- familyal structure is managewise k straight offn as the product structure where the divisional structure groups organizational function into a division. Each division works as an independent section within the company and the divisional structure contains all the necessary resources and functions within it. Each Division forget have its own sales, engineering and marketing departments. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2009).Howard Stringer was attempting to implement the multi-divisional structure. He had assigned Ryoji Chubachi to handle the main Electronics assembly line and Chubachi had implemented the multinational matrix structure. We willing non go into details of the matrix structure unless will explain it below in brief.In cutting of the Multina tional Structure of the organization we can see that there were a few line of products units that were put together in order to amplify their responsiveness in the market. There were five committees created across all these business units and business groups. This gave a better integration of experience, flexibility and the ability to analyze these units across its procurement, technology, product scheme, sales and productive business outcomes.Strategy and organizational StructureWhen Howard Stringer took over the Sony Global Corporation in 2005 he gave strategies for apiece product in the company. The strategies are stated above in the Introduction section of this report.As per the strategies implemented we can see clearly that he had devised different strategies for severally core product that Sony was providing and so he in any case divided the companys organizational structure the same way. Thus, we see that the company is sound more flat and apiece division is report ing to the Headquarters.As in a multidivisional organization such as Sony, the divisions deform flexible as in the sense that they are able to conflate, add or belt up divisions. This is apparent in the fact that Sonys Mobile division merged with Ericsson to assign Sony Ericsson range of mobiles.It can also be seen that Sonys medicament Entertainment division had a 50-50 joint jeopardize with Bertelsmann medicament Group naming Sonys Music division as Sony BMG Music Entertainment and in August 2008 Sony bought Bertelsmanns 50% shares and Sony renamed its Music division as Sony Music Entertainment.Ergo, it is apparent that because of Sonys multidivisional structure to each one division is able to work as its own company which is flexible enough to have joint- think pops as in the case of Sony Ericsson and the company is also able to make the decision of buying over a nonher company such as the Bertelsmann Music group.When Howard Stringer took over Sony he also shut slew a c hain of restaurants and other non-core business companies that Sony owned.With a multidivisional structure in place Sir Howard Stringer was able to control and oversee each division from a distance by monitoring the business performance of each division.If we look at the advantages of a multi-divisional structure we can see that because the structure is divided by product lines it vacates each division to grow and nail bring down(p) on their competences.We can see that each division has actually flummox its own company comparable the Sony Electronics Inc., the Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. As we will see in the redundancy test later in this report we can see that each of the companies that are based in each country have their own head offices. This means that there are numerous parent aims in this organization which means that some(prenominal) an(prenominal) of the supporting departments such as HR and IT will be bare(a) notwithst anding due to the large organization structure of the company Sony ask these headquarters to be set-up. Although the knowledge sharing and cooperation mingled with the business units receive very limited but Howard Stringer has tried overcoming this by placing five strategic committees across the business units which are the product, technology, production, procurement and sales. Thus standardizations and centralisation has helped to trim back effort and poor coordination.Also, with Howard traveling around Sonys operations at a rate of 30,000 air miles a month (Nakamoto 2006) is building spirits and reflecting in the eyes of the employees all around Sony.Goold and Campbell quizsWe will use the Goold and Campbell last 5 tests to determine the appropriateness of Howard Stringers structural choice given his desire to make Sony cool again (Clayton 2005).The specialiser market-gardenings visitationThe Organization Structure Specialist Culture testIn the Specialist Culture test we displace Sony between Good and Very Good as Sony has an Engineer-driven culture (Edwards, Lowry, Ihlwan, vestibule 2005). Sony is an engineering culture (Paczkowski 2008) says Howard Stringer and they in reality feign complaint of their engineers. Engineers have the liberty to think and come up with new designs. When a certain project was un taken engineers from all the different departments met in one place to finish that task. This shows that there is no organizational contamination of the specialist engineer culture test.The delicate Links TestShared know-how LinksSony holds Knowledge-sharing sessions and several other activities company wide. They host forums to enable interactive discussion about the company discussion and they engage their employees in company developments and in-the-Know at all times as claimed by them on their website.Sony also provides all documents, policies, lessoned learned and all other types of documents on their intranet sites.Shared Tangible Resources LinksThough with a multidivisional organization with so many parent companies the amount of duplication of work increases but later on Sir Howard Stringer came into Sony he divided all core businesses by products into mark units that would report to the Corporate office and setup a corporate RD unit to reduce the duplications and also brought in standardized engineered products to help the reduction of personify.Pooled Negotiating ability LinksSonys Mobile division merged with Ericsson to produce Sony Ericsson range of mobiles. Ericsson had the in style(p) mobile technology and Sony had the vast experience in consumer electronics and entertainment like music, pictures and games. Bringing them both together in a 50-50 joint venture gave Sony tycoon in the market. This would help both the companies generate economies of scale.It can also be seen that Sonys Music Entertainment division had a 50-50 joint venture with Bertelsmann Music Group naming Sonys Music division a s Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Financial analysts covering the merger anticipated that up to 2,000 jobs would be cut as a result, saving Sony BMG approximately $350 million annually (Wikipedia, 2009) matching Strategies LinksAfter Sir Howard took over he put together the Electronics building block which consisted ofThe Semiconductor Business unitCore component Business unit of measurementBP Business GroupAudio Business GroupDigital mental imagery Business groupVAIO Business GroupVideo Business GroupTV Business GroupConnect CompanyHe strategically situated all these units and groups together in order to establish Sony as a leading player. They wanted to develop a semiconductor and core components group thus they put these two relevant new business units under the Electronics Unit.With this new engineering structure Sony wanted to increase their ingrainedly sourced components, centralize their engineering functions and reduce their salute by consolidating and cutting down their manufacturing sites.Vertical Integration LinksBy coordinating the flow of its internally sources components and by standardizing designs through out the company Sir Howard has managed to reduce cost and parent product development.New-Business Creation LinksVertical integration is very obvious in the Sony business as they try to enter the digital world they are buying companies and doing joint ventures to meet the specific needs of their customers and that is to bring the mobile, music, gaming and video entertainment together. Sony is in a good location to do a backward or forward integration in case it decides to do so. The structure is flexible enough to accommodate that.The connect are best handled through self-managed net running(a) among units n top precaution should trust this up to the unit rather than impose to-down coordination process.The Redundant Hierarchy TestThe Organization Structure The Redundant Hierarchy TestThe reason we have placed them between satisfactor y and good is because although the company had many parent directs in the organization they were able to reduce the redundancy through standardizing they internal sourced components. Sony also standardized its designs across the different units and in its core business which was the Electronics Business they had five committees across each group which were the product, technology, production, procurement and sales. This centralization has helped to reduce effort and poor coordination.Also, with Howard traveling around Sonys operations at a rate of 30,000 air miles a month (Nakamoto 2006) he tends to increase the communication gap between the different groups and companies at Sony.The Accountability TestThe Organization Structure The Accountability TestThe reason we have placed them between good and very good is because in the multidivisional structure the boilers suit structure of the company is flat. Thus, close of the units are directly reporting to the corporate office. This i ncreases the responsibility and accountability of each unit heads.The Flexibility TestThe Organization Structure The Flexibility TestThe reason we have placed them between good in the case of its flexibility is because Sonys structure afterward Sir Howard Stringer had make it flexible for the company like the Sony Mobile business unit to merge with Ericsson Sonys Music Entertainment division had a 50-50 joint venture with Bertelsmann Music Group.Sony also sold many of its non-core assets like the restaurant chains etc after its restructuring since it made it easy by moving these non-core business units out of the way to concentrate on the core business.The Risk and Benefits of the Multidivisional StructureAs we found out through our analysis that Sony Corporation has a multidivisional structure and Goold and Campbells five tests of good general design principles helps us to see what risks and benefits that Sony Corporation face up when Howard Stringer took over.The BenefitsIn Elec tronics group Sony placed centralized decision-making power over bring up areas under the Electronics CEO. This change assures coordination and focus across newly defined business groups.Exact horizontal coordination in main areas- product planning, technology, procurement, manufacturing, and sales and marketing-will allow fast and streamlined decision making across product lines. submergence on particular business area (Games, Entertainment, Electronics, Mobile phones)Flexible (Sony Corporation can focus its resources on different business groups, which depends on market situation, add, close or merge divisions )Specialization of competence (We can see that each division has actually go away its own company like the Sony Electronics Inc., the Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)Ability to give clear focalization and make a working environment that draws out the unique talents of employees and helps them to gift their full potentialEncourages gene ral management developmentOwnership of strategy (As per the strategies implemented we can see clearly that he had devised different strategies for each core product that Sony was providing and so he also divided the companys organizational structure the same way)Investment in core businessesSony divisions enable to work in tandem for their mutual advantage (to develop new-age products).The RisksConflicts between divisions spare cost of the centerDifficulty of co-operation between business groups (due to the large organization structure of the company the knowledge sharing and cooperation between the business units become very limited but Howard Stringer has tried overcoming this by placing five strategic committees across the business units)Divisions might grow too large (as we utter originally each division has actually become its own company like the Sony Electronics Inc. or the Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and there is a risk of them grow too large) power is centralizedAs C EO Sir Howard Stringer recalled in a 2005 New Yorker article, the engineers started to suffer from a damaging not invented here syndrome, scour as rivals were introducing next-generation products such as the iPod and Xbox. As a result of their ruling that outside ideas were not as good as inside ones, they preoccupied opportunities in such areas as MP3 players and flat-screen TVs and positive unwanted products-cameras that werent compatible with the most popular forms of memory, for instance.Looking at the above risks and benefits we can see that though there were a fold of risks in the structure Sir Howard needed to make a decision and he made this decision with the help of ally in the company and he also took help from persons who were made in-charge of ever-changing the IBM structure many years back. They were successful in doing so and since Sir Howard was tell President of Sony Global we can say that he is still in there and is still fighting and restructuring to put Sony back on to orchis again. Sony is today coming up with new customer focused products rather than products that are innovative but it is not what the customer wants.The Cultural wind vane Before Howard Stringer organizational culture sometimes influences the organizations strategy if taken for granted. Culture has played a role in Sonys reliable financial difficulties. They had power blocks which hindered the flow of communication and corporation between the management, designers, production and marketing.The Cultural Web, developed by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes in 1992, provides one such approach for looking at and changing your organizations culture. Using it, you can expose cultural assumptions and practices, and set to work aligning organizational elements with one another, and with your strategy.The Cultural Web identifies six unified elements that help to make up what Johnson and Scholes call the figure the pattern or model of the work environment. By analyzing the factors in each, you can begin to see the bigger picture of your culture what is working, what isnt working, and what needs to be changed. The six elements arePower Structures Sony had a culture, were long serving executives have very salutary influence on the organization. At their annual general meetings all these executives take up the front seats whiles the lower ranks are relegated to the back.Many of the working seniors did not even discuss their share values and did not have the involvement in the business.Control Systems Sony emphasized on budget plans and indispensableness fixes as their main control systems. Quality was not sincerely emphasized, they believed in getting the work done with the least amount of cost. Lower level staffs were not awarded for their achievements or bonuses given at the end of the year. All these were aimed at controlling cost. organizational Structure They had the functional/Transnational type of organization where the CEO sits at the top and all functional heads report to him. They believe in top management victorious all the decisions without the involvement of the petty(prenominal) level engineers. These caused lack of communication and co-operation between the various units and more of committal to get the enigma solved.Stories Sony had gone through continuous restructuring for the past 9 years to improve their financial positions. Sony was not customer focused. They did not frame in non-core businesses and lacked new-age products even though they had very good and talented engineers.Although Sony believed in union of the people and the company but with all this restructuring the morale of the employees was down and this was evident when there was a comment that there is sparkle in the eyes of the employees after Howard Stringer took over. rites Routines As per the Japanese culture of respect Sony had a ritual that it never fired its high rank executives even after retiring. The senior managers were made Advis or (Gunther, 2006) and each of them had their own secretary, a car and driver and they also had the authority to second-question people who were actually working at Sony.At Sony the ritual was that if an engineer came to know about a spot in the product they would let the seniors know they would just fix the problem and just do it. Thus seniors were not involved in the businessSymbols There was a symbol of seniority when the company never really retired its senior managers and also in the fact that during annual meetings the seniors would be given the preferred and best seats in the hall while the others were given uncomfortable seats to symbolize the importance that Sony gave to its senior managers.To create the harmony they want and give employees a range of different health and wellness programs. Some of those (as taken from the Sony Site) are as belowThey provided On-site physical fitness centersOn-site flu shotsOn-site cafeteriasWellness fairs100% medical and alveolar conson ant plansHealth risk assessmentsGym discountsStop Smoking programsNutrition informationRitual Routines appreciate for senior managersWork in Harmony crowing employees the best working environment.Seniors never got fired.Engineers got the freedom to do what they wanted to.Engineers did not inform senior managers of faults they just fixed it.StoriesContinuous restructuringMorale was downBelieved in the harmony of the environment and the peoples freedom of working in that environmentSymbolsSenior management given big paysNo one really gets retiredHealth related programs and discounts available.Complete Medical covered.The ParadigmRespect for Seniors idiom on Harmony through-out the companyHealth and wellness programs, discounts and medical reportageEngineer-driven CultureNew innovative productsPower StructureA lot of power was given to seniors in the company who were not involved in the day to day work.Less responsibility on the shoulder of the seniors managers as responsibility was not takenControl SystemsBudgetsEmergency FixesOrganizational StructuresTransnationalBranches/devolvedDelegative leaders styleEngineer-driven cultureFigure 7- Cultural Web before Howard Stringer became CEO of Sony GlobalSony Corporation mainly focused on tolerant the best environment to its employees especially its engineers who were the minds behind the innovations. A high level of respect was kept between the senior and junior employees in the company. heterogeneous Health and wellness programs and benefits were available for employees. Sony was an engineer-driven culture which put what the engineers thought and innovated before what the customers wanted or what the market demanded.The Cultural Web After Howard StringerPower Structures Howard was made the new CEO thus giving power of the company to him. He was able to make changes but very smartly Howard made Chubachi his right hand man since he was aware that he was the initiative non-Japanese CEO of the company. His power can be seen in the fact that Howard is now President of Sony in 2009.Control Systems There was a more cost control in the company through reduction of employees in many of the sites. Manufacturing companies were consolidated and shut down in many areas. Rewards and bonuses based on group performance (not seniority) after Howard Stringer had taken over.Organizational Structure With the structural changes that Howard had made to the company Sony had a flatter structure. Management was made to be more involved in each of the business units of the company. There was more responsibility given to senior and middle management.Stories As per Chubachi, it was said that since Sir Howard had taken over there was a sparkle in the eyes of the employees. The over all morale of the company was better. After Howard came people were still not sure if they knew where they were leading to but they understood the company strategy which was to make the company cool again. People were more excited.Rituals R outines After Howard came he fade out the advisory board that consisted of 45 senior mangers who had a say in the company even after they had retired. Main customer who had used Sony products for a long time where now giving their inputs on the Sony products. Engineers were given more appreciations. Success was being celebrated through Award ceremonies, Christmas parties, training programs and knowledge sharing sessions.Symbols After Howard came he dissolved the advisory board that consisted of 45 senior managers who had a say in the company even after they had retired. Each of them had a secretary, a car and driver and probably many other benefits. The gap between the senior management and the juniors was being reduced.Ritual RoutinesGood communicationsCustomer involvementAppreciationsGiving praise rejoicing of successStoriesReduced Gap between the senior managers and juniors.People were more aware of the company strategy.SymbolsSenior management who had retired where not taken c are of by the company.Promotions based on group performanceThe ParadigmRespect for SeniorsEmphasis on Harmony through-out the companyHealth and wellness programs, discounts and medical coverageNew innovative productsPower StructureEngineers given limited powerManagement given more responsibility along with current power.Restructuring of power in the companyControl SystemsBudgetsPartnership agreementsFinancial controlsOrganizational StructuresMulti-divisionalUnits based on market priority and business needs.democratic leadership styleFigure 8- Cultural Web after Howard Stringer became CEO of Sony GlobalFrom the above cultural web we can see that Sony did not undergo major paradigm changes but did move from a transnational structure to a multi-divisional (Electronic department was a matrix) structure.Sir Howard Stringers Change ManagementChange management is also known as Change control. It is usually referred to the process by which the change of a system/process/organization is imp lemented in a controlled manner.If we look at the above Cultural Webs before and after Sir Howard Stringer took over Sony we can see that in order to bring the changes as per the paradigms shown above he had to adopt a Change Management program.Organizational change management processes include techniques for creating a change management strategy which is getting everybody involved in the change process. Engaging senior managers as change leaders, they become the sponsors of the change program. You also need to build knowingness of the need for change (communications) getting everybody to understand why the need for change. Developing skills and knowledge to support the change (education and training), helping employees move through the power point of change (coaching by managers and supervisors), and methods to sustain the change (measurement systems, rewards and reinforcement).Howard Stringer had instituted all these processes for his change management, but due to the dominance c ulture that existed before Howard Stringer took over, he had some bulwark against his change management programme. There were forces for change and forces against change. Using Kurt Lewins force airfield analysis tool will help us analyse some of the driving and restraining force in Howard Stringers change management. These were some of the forces for and against his change management. confirmatory Forces ( + )He came from a different culture and a different way of doing thingsCustomers want new productsImprove speed of production and raise volumes of out putInvolvement of all employees using the bottom-up approach generate and talented engineersIt was a long-term strategyIntroducing new technologiesReducing costDominant values where they believe in top management taking all the decisionsThey believe in the status quo, the normal way of doing things minus Forces ( )Not customer focusedFear of losing their position or become redundantUncertainty not sure if the change program will work or notAs per Johnson and Scholes in their book Exploring belligerent Strategy they have provided a framework for strategic change.Diagnosing the change situation Managing Styles and roles Levers for managing changeIn the case of Sony it is evident that Sir Howard adopted the Reconstruction type of strategic change. In this type of a change the paradigm does not fundamentally change but there will be majo