New Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer said Thursday that his company will winnow out some unprofitable operations as it tries to turn around its lackluster consumer electronics business.
"A company as big as this one, with such a wide variety of products, has to organize its priorities," he said during his first news conference as head of the company. "We cannot do everything."
He cited "the law of raspberry jam," which implies that the wider something is spread, the thinner it gets.
But when asked whether the electronics giant may pursue cost-cutting measures and job cuts, he responded cautiously, stating merely that these steps are not solutions to all the problems Sony faces.
He declined to give further details, saying management will hammer out a plan by late September, when Sony announces its first business strategy under Stringer's team.
President Ryoji Chubachi, who will oversee the consumer electronic business, said the firm will focus on television sets, videos, DVDs and next-generation DVDs, and Walkman portable music players.
As the first non-Japanese individual to head the company, Stringer's stint is likely to be compared with that of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Co. But Stringer stressed the difference between the situation the two faced when assuming their posts.
Unlike Nissan, which was on the edge of bankruptcy when Ghosn took the helm, Sony faces more difficulty in convincing its employees of the urgency of the situation, Stringer observed.
Sony saw group revenue fall 5 percent to 7.16 trillion yen in the business year that ended in March.