Last Friday night, I and one of my best colleagues I feel affinity with went out drinking. We talked about the issue I previously posted.That was the article excerpt from Wall Street Journal 050629 -- "At Sony, Rivaliries Were Encouraged; Then Came iPod".He expressed his interesting perspective as following:Ex-CEO, Mr. Idei had STRONG opinions and was good at appealing his STRONG mindset. A lot of people recognized it easily.From business point of view, he might not be able to bear fruits. But he accepted tons of criticises inside/outside Sony and didn't excuse himself.However, his successors were not so clear about their own ideas. This is one of the reason made Sony into plunge.After chatting, I found analogy in the Prime minister Koizumi. A lot of people criticize him that his idea is too unrealistic or too aggressive to accomplish.But I recognize his appealing point apart from bad/good. It's crystal clear to me. There are no politicians other than Mr. Koizumi. Other politicians and political parties might emphasize their own opinions. But those are too weak to me. I don't know why.It's better than nothing.

What do you think about Sony? What kind of image do you have?I can guess a lot of people have positive images in a sense.But the reality is that it runs into a problem that is all too common at the electronics giant.There are many levels of hierarchy for making decision. Employees are overly cautious and conservative.Their transactions are redtape. For example, I've played a role as a coordinator between Japan and affiliated company abroad.Two sides encountered some conflicts over even trivial issue. I sometimes had a hard time between the two. Japanese engineers want to keep their traditional ways which have been accepted among them for a long time.They don't like breaking their existing rules. On the other hand, American/British engineers tend to question Japanese way and urged me to change their rules.I tried to be in neutral as much as possible. But American/British engineers ideas were logical to me at that time.I thought Japanese engineers should have plenty of courage to change the status quo, guts to break down an old custom.This is what people in the world expect for Sony. I know it's easier said than done.

A couple of days ago, news conference of Mr. Nakata, who is one of the most renowned football player was on the air.A lot of medias praised his English. He speaks English fluently and describes his mindset in detail.He is also good at Italian. Apparently he is polyglot. He might have a sense of mastering foreign language. He made a big effort to improve his faculty. But I take it for granted.He's spent much time among multinational players. He might need foreign languages including Italian, Spanish, English and so on to handle communication problem.Environment is a key factor. How I can make an enviroment by myself is also another issue.