In another broadsheet interview, this time with the Wall Street Journal, Sir Howard Stringer, the new CEO of Sony, has commented further on the controversy over Ken Kutaragi’s new role and the future prospects for the company.
Stringer has moved to quash rumors that Kutaragi might be tempted to leave the company, after apparently being snubbed for the CEO position and retreating from a board member position, while continuing to run PlayStation creator Sony Computer Entertainment. "I have no indication that he doesn't intend to stay", said Stringer.
He continued: "Every company needs the sort of brilliance in residence that he represents ... people whose mind leaps in imaginative vaults, to arrive at different conclusions. So I've gone out of my way to say he's very important. We've both discussed coming back to PlayStation and helping to bring Sony Entertainment into different parts of the electronics company."
Regarding the wider management changes within the company Stringer has, somewhat conveniently, claimed little knowledge of the details. "I wasn't in Japan when much of it was going on", he says. "I know that Idei had been toying with new structures for a while and thinking about succession for a long time and we had discussions about it, though never involving me, over the last couple of months. The timing of it surprised me except that so much often gets done in the March/April time frame."
Stringer also commented briefly on the PlayStation 3’s Cell Chip, suggesting: "There is no slowing that down because of all these management changes. We have a company that also needs to demonstrate to the world that we are committed to innovation."
