Sony takes the heat: problems on the inside?

A few weeks ago, we remember the news of Sony-made battery packs exploding in laptops, double for the unfortunate ones that went bang in airplanes. Sony was quick to explain this incident as the result of metal particles touching the battery components, leading to a short-circuit.

Uh-huh, looks like they saw the Mythbusters episode on exploding mobiles too.

Before that, we’ll remember their announcement of delays for the PS3’s Europe release, originally slated for November, pushing the date to March next year, at an initial 500,000 units.

And while the news holds about its November 11 release in Japan, and November 17 in America, there’s again disputes of the numbers being released: 4 million was the original release quota. It hasn’t been too promising, with 100,000 units in Japan, and a further 400,000 units in America.

We’re not trying to diss Sony, so please put those pitchforks and torches down. What’s being said is that with all the uglies (Their Bravia line’s healthy,so it ain’t THAT ugly) we’ve seen so far, could it be indicators of bigger problems this electronics giant is facing internally?

More on Sony’s internal strife after this jump!

A few weeks ago, we remember the news of Sony-made batteries exploding in laptops, double for the unfortunate ones that went bang in airplanes. Sony was quick to explain this incident as the result of metal particles touching the battery components, leading to a short-circuit.

Uh-huh, looks like they saw the Mythbusters episode on exploding mobiles too.

Before that, we’ll remember their announcement of delays for the PS3’s Europe release, originally slated for November, pushing the date to March next year, at an initial 500,000 units.

And while the news holds about its November 11 release in Japan, and November 17 in America, there’s again disputes of the numbers being released: 4 million was the original release quota. It hasn’t been too promising, with 100,000 units in Japan, and a further 400,000 units in America.

We’re not trying to diss Sony, so please put those pitchforks and torches down. What’s being said is that with all the ugly news (Their Bravia line’s healthy,so it ain’t that ugly) we’ve seen so far, could it be indicators of bigger problems this electronics giant is facing internally?

Corporate Management

“Stringer living in the United States instead of in Tokyo, where the company headquarters is located, is not helping him take the initiative,” journalist Yasunori Tateishi said about Howard Stringer, Sony’s current CEO who took the helm in June last year. Tateishi, author of “Song Inside Story”, further explained that it was due to this communication problem that added fuel to the fire in Sony’s battery incident.

Lack of communication in the higher-ups doesn’t stay there, unfortunately, and this problem also found itself visible in the lack of coordination apparent in Sony’s divisions. Liberal thinking and independence are premiums in Sony workforce, but thanks in part to the lack of communication, this free-thinker atmosphere may have interfered with Sony’s capability to keep it its image as a forerunner in electronics, and its divisions to work as a single, coherent organism.

Layoffs

For the last three years, there’s been news of layoffs in Sony, amounting to nearly 30,000 workers being told to pack up and leave, cutting down its original workforce from 182,000 in 2001 to 158,500 last year. Officially, Sony reports this was part of a program to transfer important personnel to more profitable projects, and putting less energy into less promising projects. Tateishi points out this may not be the case, saying that even people from promising divisions such as their flat-screen TV (Brevia’s part of this divison) were being laid off.

“The restructuring plan has sliced off both muscle and fat, depriving Sony of its ‘stamina’ as a company,” Tateishi said.

With their PS3 launching this November 17, it remains to be seen just what could happen in the following months after the release. Indeed, a lot rests on Sony’s little Blu-Raywunderkind, and we wait in excitement (and plain nervousness) over what this will spell in the console wars.

Via japantimes