Sir Howard Stringer: Sony's Savior?

Lesley Stahl Profiles Head Of Japanese Electronics Giant

(CBS) 
One could get the feeling that Sony is no longer the coolest, but Stringer says, "You can take iPod and beat us over the head with it, but it’s only one product. And we have a thousand products. Apple has two or three."

But that “bigness” is Sony’s problem. Too many divisions full of managers and bureaucrats not talking to each other.

"So, all of a sudden, the entrepreneurial company over 60 years has become this big elephant," says Professor Hirotaka Takeuchi, the dean of one of Japan’s most prestigious business schools. "I don’t know if you heard Steven Jobs’ speech, the title of which was 'Stay hungry, Stay foolish.' ”

And Sony, Takeuchi says, wasn't "as hungry or as foolish."

The man Sony is counting on to fix that — and foster unity and cooperation — is an unlikely choice and not just because he’s a Sir rather than a samurai.

He doesn't have the typical CEO resume and doesn't hold an MBA. Does he view himself as a rare bird?

"Odd, I think, is probably the word," he says laughing. "And I don’t have a financial background. I mean, I never, I used to deliberately say that I never want to be in management. I still don’t know how I got into management in the first place."

Born in Wales 63 years ago, he lived in a house with no electricity, then won a scholarship to a fancy boys’ school in England, and went on to college at Oxford.

At age 22, Stringer came to New York, got a job, and was then drafted to fight for the United States in Vietnam.

"I would use the word ‘fought’ loosely," Stringer says. "I served."

He wasn't an American citizen at the time. Why did he do it?

"Because I’m too stubborn. I was too stubborn to go back," he explains. "It was my great adventure, coming over to America with $200 in my pocket and looking for work all on my own."

After Vietnam, the work he found was at CBS News in the 1970s producing documentaries. In the 1980s, he ran the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, which he still says was his favorite job ever.

But perhaps more defining is what happened when he was promoted to president of CBS News. In 1987, he oversaw the first layoffs in the company’s history; he had to fire 200 colleagues and friends.

"Yet, this is the amazing thing: I don’t know anybody who blamed you. Now how did you manage that?" Stahl asks.

"By communication. I did it myself. I mean I didn’t send a memo to somebody and say 'Your job is over.' " he says. "And it was emotionally very draining. And it affected me."

But he had to do it again, and on a much larger scale. Stringer has actually worked for Sony for the last eight years; first winning notice and praise for turning around its ailing North American movie and music divisions.

Stringer eliminated 9,000 jobs and has been dubbed by a newspaper “the affable axe-wielder.”

"I hope I wasn’t chosen because of my axe-wielding skills," says Stringer. "You usually get a job, you’re offered the job, because someone has not done a job well, or there’s a crisis. And boy is there a crisis now: how to restore Sony’s competitiveness in today’s cut-throat global market."