Leadership Case Study

Howard Stringer's Strategies: Can they Prevent Sony from Turning into a Corporate Dinosaur?

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Abstract:
In the past, Sony enjoyed a munificent share of the entertainment market. As new technologies developed and made their way into the markets, Sony's share moderated and led to a very fast downturn for Sony. Advances in technology were producing new kinds of opponents in the market. The decline of Sony's market share was prominent in Japan; Sony required a leader with a direction and momentum. In March 2005, Howard Stringer became the first non-Japanese CEO to lead Sony. Sony made an unorthodox choice and handed one of the business world's biggest fix-it jobs to Stringer. In 2007 and 2008, Sony had $10.8 billion of cash on its balance sheet and a slew of new products on the shelves, including PlayStation 3, a high-end digital camera and a super thin TV that would star in the next James Bond film. The case highlights how Stringer helped Sony from turning into a corporate dinosaur and also the new challenges faced by him.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• The role of leadership in turnarounds
• To analysing the reasons for the downfall of Sony
• To strategies to galvanise success through crises
• To strategies for maintaining growt

Keywords :  Sony, Howard Stringer, Electronics, Strategies, Entertainment, Challenges, Leadership skills, Leadership techniques, Games, Motion pictures, Financial services, Playstation, Economic slowdown, Corporate dinosaur