Judgment on strategy bears down on Sony and its chief

Iria · May 29, 2006, 07:56 PM

Source: IHT
__________
It is a May evening, and Howard Stringer, Sony's avuncular chief executive, is working the room at a party that the media scion James Murdoch holds for him at Aspinall's Club, a casino in the Mayfair district of London.

Murdoch, chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, salutes a new partnership in which Sony is packaging high-definition broadcasting gear and televisions with BSkyB's latest digital HDTV service.

He boasts that HDTV will allow viewers to see every blade of grass in the World Cup soccer tournament. Stringer thanks his host and, observing his surroundings, pokes fun at their alliance: "I thought you were trying to imply that the whole relationship with us is a crapshoot." He nods toward a new Sony Bravia television and tells partygoers that the set's crystalline display means that even "watching grass grow is fundamentally exciting."

Not that he would know. It is nearly a year since Stringer, 64, began his tenure as chief executive of Sony, declaring himself a "Sony warrior" committed to selling "champion products."

May 29, 2006, 07:56 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Judgment on strategy bears down on Sony and its chief Source: IHT __________ It is a May evening, and Howard Stringer, Sony's avuncular chief executive, is working the room at a party that the media scion James Murdoch holds for him at Aspinall's Club, a casino in the Mayfair district of London. Murdoch, chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, salutes a new partnership in which Sony is packaging high-definition broadcasting gear and televisions with BSkyB's latest digital HDTV service. He boasts that HDTV will allow viewers to see every blade of grass in the World Cup soccer tournament. Stringer thanks his host and, observing his surroundings, pokes fun at their alliance: "I thought you were trying to imply that the whole relationship with us is a crapshoot." He nods toward a new Sony Bravia television and tells partygoers that the set's crystalline display means that even "watching grass grow is fundamentally exciting." Not that he would know. It is nearly a year since Stringer, 64, began his tenure as chief executive of Sony, declaring himself a "Sony warrior" committed to selling "champion products."