I'm sure CEOs with a strong engineering background, talented economics mindset, and a carefree playful extravagance (while cutting waste) are lining up ready to go when Yoshida is done. In the meantime I don't think any of us can really grapple with the sheer size that Sony Group is to determine what is a mistake or not. I know Sony CSL, Sony Pro Audio, Sony Music Studios Tokyo/Hong Kong, Sony PCL, Sony Design, Sony Classical well enough (publicly available info that is). But scarcely little about the big earner Gaming, Music and Film divisions. Meanwhile we see Sony expand through a different named company (non-Sony) in the field of flash memory. Perhaps they've decided also to move away from hardware for the time being. Regarding investing, it doesn't seem fitting for a huge guy like Sony to invest in fledglings whose stocks are cheap. They have to do it late and they'll all mutually benefit anyway.
I can't imagine what it's like to be managing a multinational. Just being an employer of 2-3 people is already very challenging to do well. Too many employees aren't skilled. The ability to do research even in your own non-paid time (within the work life balance), to be professional at all times, to know the boss's intentions/thoughts without them saying a word (as opposed to laying it out so bare it couldn't get barer), to do every act using your brain rather than passively, lacking awareness and purpose (and thus being inefficient - redoing mistakes), to allow the boss to not have to complain even once, to not require coffee (meaning fast, active and alert at all times), to be an indispensable asset etc. Whether it's desk work or physical labour. Being the manager of not so experienced and competent employees is terrible. Makes managing a multinational impossible. The amount of pay has no bearing on quality of work if the employee doesn't know what to do and has to be continuously drilled by the boss. I mean, it's long been the case that whatever has been studied in uni or elsewhere doesn't count for that much. Jobs are changing and the key thing is to sharpen the transferrable abilities. If the jobs market is filled with people whose transferrable abilities just aren't top-knotch, companies are going to be mediocre. Governments too. Having this in mind, Sony CSL is a good example of a David and Sony Group is a Goliath. Any one of the Sony CSL researchers would be worth 10 passive employees. They're not just remaining at a PhD level but go far beyond it. They can see everything from high above and it is all simple; nothing is impossible. Technologies they develop will not allow even one complaint. It's just that so far, they haven't done that many projects. It is a similar situation for Microsoft Research and everywhere else.
My involvement with Sony CSL goes fairly deep. I wrote to the CEOs and in response they gave Sony CSL even greater public exposure. I asked Sony CSL to create a third branch office in Adelaide, saying that this third decade must have a goal of sustainability, of a greater reflection on the harms rather than benefits brought by technology. Clearly there's just no way a thirty person group can outweigh the large scale damage that hardware in the dump, manufacturing processes, sedentary habits and all the other negative aspects have brought. Actually I do not see the point of consumer electronics for entertainment. Other consumer electronics that is indispensable, yes, but entertainment electronics had better be absolutely worth more than the harm it brings. CSL has made holistic open science possible perhaps, and furthered the way tech can augment us. Instead of Adelaide, they opened a nature-inspired office in Kyoto. And when I read their goal (not the decade long official CSL goal but just the Kyoto branch goal) I realised that my thoughts/suggestions had been adopted.
Anyway, although CEOs are paid highly to reflect the importance of the leader and not how much work they do, if the employees are all mediocre what is to be done? Surely there must be outstanding employees out there. The future of companies, of governments, ultimately rests on each individual having the outstanding abilities, but the stakes are different at that level compared to the individual level. There are self-imposed constraints and extraneous considerations. If one begins considering how this planet might try to create a better future it is endless. Rather, each person can only strive to achieve the best they can for themselves and then for those around them. Even here you are constrained by the environment, by the historical context. War, pandemic, and climate are just some examples. Self-protection and preservation takes up all your energy. How can anyone think about the planet's future, except through working at companies and governments?
Music and Walkmans will help us along as we create and contribute to the planet's future.
