Sony 2007 Annual Report Download - page 14

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today’s challenges. My job is to implement management
strategies that are designed to ensure we continue to
prevail in the future. With the aim of reinforcing R&D—the
underpinning of such forward-looking strategies—in
October 2006 we revamped our R&D organization. In
addition to the Consumer Products Group and the
Semiconductor & Component Group, in April 2007 we
established the B2B Solutions Business Group, in charge
of broadcast equipment and other professional-use
products and services. This new business group will enable
us to take a twofold approach, emphasizing the
development of differentiating technologies to facilitate the
creation of appealing products, and the cultivation of new
businesses to support growth of the electronics business
going forward.
Making advances toward achieving the
“HD World”—a world of high definition,
high-resolution product networks
Chubachi One of the tasks you are addressing is to
develop a single, coherent “HD World” concept by
reinforcing product links. How is this effort progressing?
Ihara We are promoting the “HD World” concept across
the globe. Better product links means you can shoot
footage using your camera, save it, edit it on a PC and
view it on your television—in other words, there is horizontal
linkage across our product line. In the fiscal year ending
March 31, 2008, we expect 75% of Sony electronics
products to be HD-compatible. This is what I mean by
“networks” of products, and it is an idea that has really
begun to take shape. Products that have the capacity to
function as a network carry greater value and, as a result,
will be more accessible to consumers.
Chubachi So, by strengthening individual products and
businesses and combining these with the added value of
product networks, you will further enhance product linkage.
From that perspective, how do you evaluate the period
under review?
Ihara I really feel that we were successful in creating a
foundation for future growth in fiscal year 2006. BRAVIA
LCD televisions achieved market penetration worldwide,
From revitalization to growth: Sony’s
electronics business is advancing from
a structural reform phase to a growth
phase. In these pages, Electronics CEO
Ryoji Chubachi and Executive Deputy
Presidents Katsumi Ihara and Yutaka
Nakagawa discuss their vision for the
electronics business going forward,
addressing issues ranging from business
strategies to organizational changes,
cooperation within the Sony Group, R&D
and development of human resources.
A sharp improvement in sales and profit
as revitalization gives way to a new
growth trajectory
Chubachi Looking back at the electronics business in
fiscal year 2006 (the year ended March 31, 2007), on the
product front we brought together a powerful lineup
centered on BRAVIA LCD televisions and made significant
advances toward realizing the “HD World”—a world of high
definition, high-resolution product networks, created by
Sony. The electronics business also registered significant
improvement in profitability, achieving—a year ahead of
schedule—the target set under our mid-term corporate
strategy of an operating margin of 4% (before restructuring
and one-time charges) for the fiscal year ending March 31,
2008, underscoring my view that revitalization has given
way to a new growth trajectory.
On the organizational front, in October 2006 we created
the Consumer Products Group, under the leadership of
Katsumi Ihara, and the Semiconductor & Component
Group, under the management of Yutaka Nakagawa, within
the electronics business. The Consumer Products Group
reflects our belief in the need to centralize management of
products including televisions, digital cameras, video
cameras and PCs, to strengthen product appeal and
promote better linking of products. In contrast, the
Semiconductor & Component Group is tasked with
developing and supplying devices that enable the creation
of distinctive finished products and, as a profit center, with
contributing to the electronics business’s performance
through sales of Sony devices to third parties.
You two are charged with implementing management
strategies that focus on achieving success as we confront
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