It's Time!

“Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer, after grappling with Sony Corp.'s unwieldy corporate culture for the past three years, has told managers that it is time to be more aggressive.

“At a closed-door management conference Wednesday, Mr. Stringer said the company should act more quickly in order to take back its leadership position in the electronics industry, say people who attended the meeting.

“‘I'm asking you to get mad,’ Mr. Stringer said in one of his most strongly worded speeches, according to those people. He also asked them to be more ‘energetic,’ ‘bold’ and ‘imaginative’ in running their businesses...

“The meeting is an annual event in Tokyo attended by more than 1,000 Sony managers from around the world, and is meant to set the direction for the coming year. This year was particularly important because it came after the company had completed a turnaround plan, and before it sets a growth strategy for the next three years. Sony says it will unveil this plan in June.

“When Mr. Stringer took over the helm of the Japanese electronics maker in June 2005, Sony's core electronics unit was losing money, there was infighting among executives, and different product groups were reluctant to work together…

“To fix this, Mr. Stringer over the past several years has used the slogan ‘Sony United’ to encourage employees to work more closely together. He has also made the company leaner, by closing factories, shedding jobs and getting rid of unprofitable businesses...

“At the management meeting, Mr. Stringer implored the audience to ‘not be complacent,’ said the people who attended the meeting. At times, he employed his trademark humor, showing a slide of a big fork sticking in the middle of a road. He told them that Sony was ‘at a fork in the road,’ in which its various units needed to step up their combined efforts further to come up with new products.

“He also encouraged employees to be more innovative, and suggested energy, medicine and the environment as examples of areas where Sony might play a bigger role.”

(“Sony CEO Urges Managers 'to Get Mad'; Conference Told That Company Needs to Be More Innovative, Bold.” Yukari Iwatani Kane. Wall Street Journal: May 23, 2008. pg. B.8)

VISION, HUMOR, SLOGANS, anger, metaphors, catch phrases, meetings, and cutbacks (but fortunately no paintball, ropes courses, or trust walks)...

All that remains is execution.