Sony Chairman and Former CEO Howard Stringer to Retire

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It’s been just over a year since Kaz Hirai took over the helm of Sony as the new President and CEO. Previously, Wales-native Sir Howard Stringer held that position for nearly a decade. Upon the transition of power, Sir Howard stepped into an advisory position for the company and became one of the company’s chairmen. Now, according to the Financial Times, Sir Howard will be stepping down from that position as well, ending all of his direct ties with Sony come this June. He is reported to want to pursue

 “new opportunities I’ve been presented with lately.” 

During his time as CEO, Sony saw a huge decline in market share and value while competitors like Apple swooped in. In the one year under the new CEO, Sony has already made huge gains by shedding off old assets, simplifying product lines, and creating great buzz around the Xperia ZXperia Tablet Z, and PlayStation 4. However, it is difficult to attribute these changes directly to Kaz as they may have been in the works under Stringer’s watch.

Discuss:

Do you believe that Kaz Hirai is the architect of the changes we’ve seen in Sony or were many of them started by Stringer’s regime, and he simply never had the time to see them come to fruition?