Sony revenues swoop down, Hirai sees salvation in the user experience, not hardware
Sony posted disappointing results for its fiscal Q3 2011 today with revenues swooping down by nearly $2 billion (159 billion yen), pushing the company’s results to worse than expected. Sony blamed it on the Thai floods, the competition, and the strong yen with the company’s LCD TVs and PlayStation 3 game console performing poorly.
“If we don’t turn this around, we could be sitting in some serious trouble,” Sony’s new CEO Kaz Hirai warned.
Hirai detailed us on its plan to save the company and one thing seems to stick out - the company is planning to focus on the user experience, not the hardware.
Here are the rest of the highlights of his plan:
1. Re-enforcing Sony's core businesses,
2. Pulling together Sony's TV business,
3. Transforming Sony's business portfolio,
4. Accelerating Innovation.
“We really need to buckle down and be realistic,” Hirai said for the WSJ. “I don’t think everybody is on board, but I think people are coming around to the idea.”
The new chief executive faces some serious challenges in not just one, but many divisions. At the same time, the company is trying to persuade customers to buy not one, but four screens. Will it succeed? At least, Hirai is realistic and straightforward about the state of the company. Here’s how he summarizes it:
“I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not. It’s one issue after another. I feel like ‘Holy s—, now what?”
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