April 05, 2005
Father of Playstation Demoted
Pretend the division you headed was the only one to significantly outperform in the past decade. Pretend you were responsible for the majority of the profits and growth for you company. How would it feel if you got demoted?Well that is what hpapend to Ken Kutaragi at Sony, the father of the Playstation and PSP. Supposedly people didn't like his outspoken manner in criticizing his company's decisions. The reward he got was a demotion and a passing over for the top job. To make matters worse, he lost his board seat and was put under a foreigner. It seems in response all he is doing is putting his head down and focusing on the success of the PSP.
But instead of ascending in the dramatic management reshuffle last month that put Howard Stringer in the chief executive's chair, Kutaragi was demoted. Not only was Kutaragi passed over for the Welshman who had overseen Sony's music and movie businesses. He also lost his seat on Sony's board, though he still runs Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., the company's game subsidiary.
