Howard Stringer steps down as Sony's CEO in April

Sony Corporation today announced that the current CEO Sir Howard Stringer will step down from the position as the CEO of Sony. He will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai on April 1st 2012. Mr. Hirai is currently the Executive Deputy President of Sony. Mr. Stringer will continue working for Sony as the Chairman of the Board when the current Chairman Yotaro Kobayashi retires.

Howard Stringer started to work for Sony in 1997 as the chief of Sony Corp. of America and he has been CEO of Sony since 2005. In 2009 Mr. Stringer became the president of Sony Corporation. 

Stringer says that the Board started to point out a new generation of leaders to be in his management team as early as February 2009. Kaz Hirai was one of them. Mr. Hirai has worked with the PlayStation and networked entertainment businesses and he is currently holding the position as the President of Consumer Product & Services Group.

Sir Howard Stringer has this to say about Kazuo Hirai: 

Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature.  I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead

Kazuo Hirai plans for ahead is to

build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees. The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains.

Do you think this change in management will help Sony gain more market share in the consumer electronic business?

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