It’s not news that Sony, while showing positive signs with PlayStation and their digital imaging, has continued to struggle against its competitors. While the 2000’s were drowned in headlines about Sony’s inability to compete in televisions and the transition to LCD, the last 5 years has been about Sony Mobile and its inability to pull consumers’ end. As part of a new strategy to help the struggling division, Hiroki Totoki was named as CEO and President of Sony Mobile.

Since he took the job 9 months ago, Totoki has been on a mission to reduce costs and overheard with aims of turning the division profitable in 2016. With time under his belt, Totoki is ready to reflect on where the company is and where they’ll be going.

 I’ve had to work very hard and I have been busy, but people are very cooperative and have shown a lot of energy to turn around the position, which is a good thing. I’m confident that things will continue to get better. We are trying to decrease our costs by 30 percent to the end of 2016, and reduce our headcount by 20 percent. We are trying to streamline the organisation as well as our product portfolio to maximise our profitability and improve our ROI.

We have set out our plan already and are just starting to execute it. This year, 2015, is a year of big transformation, and we will try to complete this transformation by the end of the year, and hopefully see an improvement in financial performance in 2016. 

Much of what Totoki has to say isn’t new. We’ve known for some time that Sony has been aggressively slashing jobs much like they’ve been slashing divisions of the company. Just in March, Sony slashed 1,000 jobs from their Swedish operations with another 2,100 positions set to be cut by year’s end. Previously Totoki led Sony Internet and Sony Bank in Japan where he had a reputation for reforming business.

Now as the head of Sony Mobile, he faces the greatest challenge of his career – to turn a struggling division into a force that can compete with Apple and Samsung. Hopefully part of his strategy includes a new marketing vision and product portfolio as you can’t simply cut your way to profitability. While excessive costs can weigh down a company, in the end, it’s up to Sony to make compelling devices and market them in a way that consumers will want to buy.

Till now, Sony has failed to do that, especially the latter part.

Discuss:

Do you think Sony will be able to turn things around under Totoki?