斯金格漫长尴尬的索尼掌门人岁月

    霍华德•斯金格在索尼(Sony Corp.)失误连连的首席执行官生涯正是曾经伟大的索尼集团而今艰难处境的缩影，他的下台能换来这个传媒及电子巨头重振雄风的一天吗？

    当然，这一切现在还不得而知。斯金格的继任者平井一夫名声很不错。（斯金格将继续担任董事长。）毫无疑问的是，索尼在斯金格过去七年的任期中走得并不顺利。凭借PlayStation游戏主机和随身听（Walkman），该公司曾经一度走在游戏和音乐行业的前沿，可现在往往被认为是毫无头绪，甚至傲慢自大。索尼犯过多次错误，需要对此作出解释的时候，新的错误却又接踵而至。除了公关失误之外，企业本身的运营状况也不如人意。相比斯金格2005年接掌大权时的情况，索尼美国存托凭证（ADR）交易价已下跌了一半。

    最严重的事件发生于去年——PlayStation网络遭黑客攻破，这被各界称为史上最大规模的数据泄漏事件。过了整整一周，索尼才告知顾客，他们的信用卡信息可能已经被盗。事件发生后的次月，斯金格本人才公开就此事发表讲话，表达歉意，但批评者认为这番迟来的表态远远不够。

    斯金格很早就遇上了麻烦。2005年，也就是他担任掌门人刚满几个月之际，有人发现索尼的合资音乐企业索尼博德曼（Sony BMG）偷偷在其光盘中加入了可能有恶意的软件代码，也就是所谓的rootkit。这家公司试图以此保护版权，但显然考虑欠妥。索尼先是撒谎，然后又回避问题，最后才道歉。而此事发生之前几周，索尼博德曼刚刚因行贿丑闻暴露而被迫缴纳了1,000万美元的罚款。

    2006年，索尼召回了960万块笔记本电池，因为其中部分电池容易爆炸起火。这次召回行动耗资数以百万美元计。2008年，索尼博德曼又因为泄露了访问其网站的未成年人的个人信息，被处以100万美元罚金。

    不过，这些只是索尼的低潮，是些令人尴尬的失误。谈及真正的商业战略，斯金格的成绩喜忧参半。他确实成功削减了成本，扭转了游戏和电影部门的颓势。

    Will the departure of CEO Howard Stringer, whose stumbles have come to epitomize the struggles of the once-great Sony Corp., turn things around for the media-and-electronics conglomerate?

    It's impossible to know, of course. Stringer's replacement, Kazuo Hirai, has a good reputation. (Stringer will remain as chairman.) What can be said unequivocally is that things have not gone well at Sony (SNE) over the seven years of Stringer's tenure. The company that was once on the cutting edge in gaming with the PlayStation and in music with the Walkman, is now widely regarded as prone to cluelessness or, worse, arrogance. It stumbles, and then when it comes time to explain itself, it stumbles again. Besides the public relations missteps, there's the business itself. Sony's ADR receipts are trading at about half what they were worth when Stringer took the helm in 2005.

    The nadir came last year, when the PlayStation network got hacked in what has been called the largest data security breach in history. Sony waited a week before telling customers that their credit-card information might have been stolen. It wasn't until the next month that Stringer himself spoke up on the issue, issuing an apology that was criticized as too little, too late.

    Stringer's troubles started early. In 2005, a few months into his tenure, it was discovered that Sony's joint-venture music division, Sony BMG, had secretly planted potentially malicious software code, called a rootkit, into its CDs in an ill-advised attempt at copy protection. The company lied, then hedged, and then, finally, apologized. This occurred just weeks after Sony BMG had paid a $10 million fine for being caught up in a payola scandal.

    In 2006, Sony had to recall 9.6 million laptop batteries because some of them tended to burst into flames. That cost the company millions. In 2008, Sony BMG paid a $1 million fine for exposing the personal data of minors who used its Web sites.

    Those are just the lowlights, though -- the embarrassing stumbles. When it comes to actual business strategy, Stringer's record is mixed. He's cut costs and turned around the gaming and movie divisions.