Posted by senninha
Sony Ericsson says Flint steps down as president
Tue Sep 4, 2007 2:22AM EDT
STOCKHOLM, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday its president, Miles Flint, would step down and that the chairman of Sony Electronics USA would succeed him as of Nov 1.
Flint said in a statement that after 17 years at Sony Ericsson he wanted to develop new personal and business opportunities.
Hideki Komiyama will succeed Flint. As well as being chairman of Sony Electronics USA, Komiyama is also executive vice president of electronics marketing and sales strategies for Sony Corp, the statement said.
http://www.reuters.com/articl[....]telco-SP/idUSSAT00448120070904
Posted by masseur
Press Release
Sony Ericsson announces change of leadership effective 1st November
04 September 2007
London, UK – 4th September 2007- Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications today announces that Miles Flint has decided to step down from his position as President of Sony Ericsson. Effective 1st November Hideki ‘Dick’ Komiyama, currently Chairman of the Board of Sony Electronics Inc., USA, and EVP Electronics Marketing and Sales Strategies of Sony Corporation, Japan, will succeed Miles Flint, who will remain as Executive Advisor to Dick Komiyama until the end of December 2007. Dick Komiyama will be based at Sony Ericsson’s offices in London.
Commenting on today’s announcement Miles Flint said, “After nearly 17 years in Sony and Sony Ericsson, I wish to develop new personal and business opportunities and intend to take a short career break before deciding on my next steps. Leading a major mobile handset company which is also a joint venture between two of the world’s great companies has been a wonderful and rewarding experience. The belief amongst shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers in the potential of Sony Ericsson has been a huge motivating factor in the company’s success to date. I believe that, together, we have in place very firm foundations for the next phase of Sony Ericsson’s growth, and I wish Dick Komiyama every success in his new role.”
Miles Flint joined Sony Ericsson from Sony Europe in June 2004. Under his leadership the company has enjoyed a period of outstanding growth and success, as well as the development of a richer and broader product portfolio, including the introduction of Walkman® music phones and Cyber-shot™ imaging phones worldwide. Sony Ericsson has grown to become No. 4 in the global mobile handset industry and is today one of the most innovative and attractive brands for mobile communications and entertainment.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman of the Board of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and President and CEO of Ericsson, said, “Miles Flint’s contribution to Sony Ericsson has been very impressive. He has led and managed the company to reach its current level of success, and we are very sorry to see him leave. However we fully understand and respect his reasons for wishing to step down and consider new personal and business opportunities.” He added, “Miles has been clear that his number one priority in the short term is to ensure a smooth handover to his successor and he will continue to be involved with Sony Ericsson’s business until the end of the year. He transfers the leadership of a business that is poised for significant further growth in the years to come.”
Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation, and a member of the Board of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, said, “We will miss Miles Flint enormously, but fully respect his wish to change direction. Under his leadership Sony Ericsson has doubled sales and volume, as well as more than doubling the company’s profitability, whilst also gaining global market share. Today Sony Ericsson’s position as a leading player in the global mobile handset industry is unquestioned.” He added, “I am delighted that Dick Komiyama, an esteemed colleague and international executive who has worked shoulder to shoulder with me at Sony Electronics in the USA and Sony in Japan will carry on the vision of Katsumi Ihara, Sony Ericsson’s first president, and of Miles Flint. With longstanding experience in the areas of consumer electronics marketing and business-to-business sales, Dick has accepted the challenge to lead Sony Ericsson in the next phase of its growth and development.”
Dick Komiyama said, “I am very pleased to be joining Sony Ericsson. The global mobile handset industry is facing some very interesting and exciting developments, especially with the convergence of audio and video technologies in the mobile communications space. New services and applications are becoming increasingly important to both operators and consumers, and I look forward to bringing to Sony Ericsson my experience in consumer marketing with a deep understanding of customer relationships.”
Posted by Supa_Fly
WOAH!
Is this an omen? will we see Mr. Flint going to some Linux OS phone manufacturer that some other president of Symbian did less than 30 days ago?
Hmm this is NOT good for SE. SE better start to have someone that can focus and bring in the rains. Will this mean a stronger partnership between Sony's computing, gaming, photo business' and SE's lineup in the near future or just reshuffling. ?
Hmm.
Posted by goldenface
Wow!
That was sudden but at least it is on good terms and the company is in a lot better shape than it was when he joined - if you remember it was bleeding millions of dollars early on and it has been transformed under Sir Miles Flint.
Dick Komiyama - come on down!
Posted by carkitter
Congratulations to Miles Flint for the outstanding progress
has achieved under his leadership. The new president has big shoes to fill...
Posted by goldenface
Bloomberg - Sony Ericsson Names Komiyama Chief as Flint Resigns
Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd., the mobile-phone venture of Sony Corp. and Ericsson AB, named Hideki Komiyama chief executive officer to succeed Miles Flint, picking a Sony veteran of four decades to spur growth.
Flint, 54, will remain executive adviser to the new CEO until the end of the year, the London-based company said in a statement today. Komiyama, 64, helped Sony win market share in the U.S. with color televisions and personal computers. He's now chairman of Sony Electronics Inc.
Sony Ericsson's sales, unit shipments and profit more than doubled under Flint, allowing it to leapfrog LG Electronics Inc. as the world's fourth-largest handset maker. The success was built on high-end phones, leading to the best margins in the industry. Flint's departure after more than three years comes after Sony Ericsson in July reported the slowest profit growth in almost two years after expanding into lower-priced models.
``Flint has done a good job so far, so the news is disappointing,'' said Stuart Jeffrey, an analyst at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in London.
Sony Ericsson now trails Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc. Among the company's best-selling phones in the last quarter was the W880i, which is as thin as a CD case and can store as many as 900 songs. Other popular devices include the K810i, which comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera.
`Good Job'
In the five years since Sony and Ericsson combined their handset units, the venture developed from an unprofitable company into one of the largest earnings contributors to the two parents.
``The news was a surprise, there had been no indications that Flint might be leaving,'' said Jan Dworsky, an analyst at Handelsbanken Capital Markets, who rates Ericsson ``reduce.'' ``Since he's staying on to advise the new CEO it doesn't sound like there's a business related reason behind his departure.''
Flint took over in 2004 from Katsumi Ihara, who had made the venture profitable and became its chairman. Under Flint, Sony Ericsson pushed higher-priced models with high-resolution cameras and music players, allowing the company to sell its models at a higher average selling price than rivals including Nokia.
Sony Ericsson reported a 54 percent increase in second- quarter net income to 220 million euros ($299 million), as it shipped 24.9 million phones.
Flint, who intends to take ``a short career break'' before deciding on his next moves, will ``develop new personal and business opportunities,'' he said in the release.
Vaio Turnaround
Two years after joining Sony in 1967, Komiyama moved to the company's U.S. subsidiary, where he worked in areas including Sony's consumer video marketing, computer systems and displays.
His recent accomplishments include establishing Sony's personal computer business in the U.S., reviving the Vaio PC brand ``at a time when Sony's presence in the highly competitive computer industry was barely noted,'' according to his biography on Sony's Web site.
Komiyama, who is nicknamed Dick and has worked alongside Sony CEO Howard Stringer in the U.S. and Japan, holds a master of business administration from the Wharton School of Business and Finance and completed a management program at Harvard Business School. He has a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Waseda University in Tokyo. He's married with two children.
``With longstanding experience in the areas of consumer electronics marketing and business-to-business sales, Dick has accepted the challenge to lead Sony Ericsson in the next phase of its growth and development,'' Stringer said in the release.
Posted by himlims_nl
On 2007-09-04 09:56:22, Prom1 wrote:
WOAH!
Is this an omen? will we see Mr. Flint going to some Linux OS phone manufacturer that some other president of Symbian did less than 30 days ago?
Hmm this is NOT good for SE. SE better start to have someone that can focus and bring in the rains. Will this mean a stronger partnership between Sony's computing, gaming, photo business' and SE's lineup in the near future or just reshuffling. ?
Hmm.
which project you aiming at?
openmoko? opie? gpe? greenpoint? xtoox?
Posted by goldenface
I think this is a good move. He is staying on as an advisor and it looks like he is leaving for personal reasons rather than because of a bust-up.
The new president has 40 years behind him and a good track record with Sony just like Miles Flint had.
Sorry Ericsson fans, but another Sony guy has taken the reins again
Posted by Ranjith
woof...fast....wonder wats up new in Dick Komiyama's sleeve's!
R
Posted by tai020381
NOOOOoooooooooooo.................. Goodbye Dear Mr Flint...... And hope the successor will carry on and make SE fluorish as usual ^^
Posted by goldenface
It'll be a tough act to follow, hopefully he'll bring some good innovation. Although I would have thought they'd let an
guy take the reins for a change.
Posted by gola
I got my fingers crossed for SE.
Posted by bart
shouldn't the captain be the last one to abandon ship?
Posted by soane28
im praying that the new CEO looks past marketing and sees innovation and quality, although his experience in marketing seems like SE may get even worse.
Posted by rockerZ
Seems as if SE is gonna go down
... Buybye Mr.Flint !
Posted by goldenface
He hasn't left yet, hes staying on for a few months.
Posted by rockerZ
Well he will have to go down ... now or later ... Without him i guess SE is doomed !
Posted by goldenface
Why do you think that?
Posted by Wuz
On 2007-09-04 13:54:58, rockerZ wrote:
Well he will have to go down ... now or later ... Without him i guess SE is doomed !
Under his stewardship SE has entered the mass phone arena, having previoulsy cocncentrated on higher end phones. As a result, they are now muich better placed to increase market share and profitability. Why should they now be doomed?
Posted by rockerZ
On 2007-09-04 13:58:49, goldenface wrote:
Why do you think that?
Cuz i think he was the only person who was making SE a popular brand.As soon as he leaves , SE might not stay the same.
Posted by korbindallis
if i were named new CEO i would focus on low range line of
and the high end line also getting UIQ faster n more stable. also introduce luxury line head set to compete with Nokia 8 series. and a new touch based phone like the iphone, n a non touch screen UIQ phone.
also get GPS n HSDPA in a UIQ phone
n introduce a higher capacity battary.
higher resolution screens. 800 * 600 resolution to start with
thats what u would do.
let hope for the best
Posted by tai020381
Hmmmm.... How about letting the incoming CEO prove himelf first before commencement begins?
Posted by gola
korbindallis for SE president!
Posted by SUPERezel
i go miss him...
Posted by mib1800
maybe Miles knows something we dont...i.e. trouble may be brewing for SE (and he doesnt want to CEO when SE do a ala Moto)...(ok, i know i'll get flamed for this)
Posted by himlims_nl
there no job opening at SE.com for CEO
guess i'm too late
Posted by mib1800
ok. so SE prefers to name the captain "president" rather than "CEO". (Very old school style/stone age
)
Posted by Residentevil
The king is dead. Long live the king.
Posted by goldenface
On 2007-09-04 15:09:02, Residentevil wrote:
The king is dead. Long live the king.
Nicely put.
Posted by darknoob
The new CEO is chinese? If yes we can expect cheap build quaitly
?
Posted by goldenface
He sounds Japanese. He joined Sony in 1967.
Posted by mib1800
On 2007-09-04 15:09:02, Residentevil wrote:
The king is dead. Long live the king.
most kings nowadays have ceremonial roles only.
Posted by mode
It would be quite an auspicious occasion if he takes SE's 'no consumer contact' policy with him
[ This Message was edited by: mode on 2007-09-04 14:34 ]
Posted by mario2004
Apparently he was seen with a N95 lately. He got it as a present from Nokia Europe
The S60 is a ways more attractive platform then the Uiq. I hope they will offer him a 'decent' position, on the other hand I guess, a Store manager job will do it - to begin with
Posted by michael the mage
Lets cross fingers that SE phones now get an improvement
Posted by PeterKay
All the best Mr Flint
can only get better.
Posted by JuanPablo
After 17 years working for Sony and
... can u blame him?
Posted by mobse
Thanks Mr. Flint!
Welcome Komiyama-sama!
If Hideki Komiyama is the man behind the VAIO revival strategy, that is hopefully reason enough to believe that SE will continue going strong. His track record sounds impressive and he's no beginner.
However, this might be slightly subjective coming from a happy VAIO user...
As for the laments about Mr. Flint successor not being an Ericsson man (or woman), cheer up, we are talking about Sony Ericsson here, not the other way round. Maybe next time, though.
Posted by JuanPablo
Here a little biography:
Hideki Komiyama , Chairman of the Board - Sony Electronics Inc.
Executive Vice President - Electronics Marketing and Sales Strategies, Sony Corporation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hideki “Dick” Komiyama became Sony Electronics’ chairman of the board and Sony’s corporate executive vice president and senior general manager for Sony Corporation in April 2006. In this role, he will take what he has accomplished at Sony Electronics and apply it worldwide.
Prior to this position, he was president and chief operating officer of SEL since spring 2003. In this role he oversaw the company’s evolution from the digital marketplace into the broadband future by advocating the advancement of groundbreaking electronics devices and services to enhance consumer lifestyles and develop new business-to-business solutions.
Before that role, he was president of Sony’s Electronic Devices Marketing Group in Tokyo where he was responsible for the global sales and marketing of semiconductors, devices and components.
Komiyama joined Sony in 1967. Throughout his prestigious career, he has held a number of strategic management positions in both the United States and Tokyo.
Komiyama’s first major contribution to Sony has been recognized as his development of the powerful consumer marketing and sales operation in the United States. He was directly responsible for launching Sony’s Trinitron® color televisions and influencing the development and growth of Sony’s consumer business in the United States.
More recently, Komiyama accomplished the establishment of Sony’s PC business in the U.S. market. He was responsible for re-strategizing and re-launching the VAIO® brand at a time when Sony’s presence in the highly competitive computer industry was barely noted.
Komiyama holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business and Finance and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1988. He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Waseda University in Tokyo. He serves as executive vice president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in N.Y.
Source: http://news.sel.sony.com/en/c[....]s/release/Hideki_Komiyama.html
He seems very capable in my opinion
Posted by bart
why always a sony guy? why don't sony just buy the remaining 50% from Ericsson?
almost everything about an SE phone is sony.
and thats why sales will start to stabelize, fans will be lost, profit will go down
Posted by *Jojo*
Neva heard that Nokia changes people at the helm this FAST . . .
Motorola already did then . . .
Posted by nikos_se
sorry for bumping this thread...but i was just looking at Gartner Q2 2011 shipments and sony ericsson was almost out of the top 10 manufacturers with a 1.7% market share.It's a shame Sony Ericsson has lacked a president that can lead them through this times....Do u think if miles flint stayed,sony ericsson would have been in a better position??Or was sony ericsson doomed whoever the CEO was?
Posted by mode
It was during Miles Flint's time that
decided to dilute all of their Walkman and Cybershot premium products into cheap, dodgy copies and replicate them by the millions leaving a vacuum of cutting edge stuff in the smartphone front that was only filled by the extremely buggy P990. That marked 's downward spiral. Now people don't trust those imaging and audio brand names anymore and SE has been playing catch up in the hardware front ever since, never introducing cutting edge technology anymore, just 'claims' of cutting edge technology like Exmor-R and Bravia engine, a legacy left behind by Miles Flint. If they stop assuming people are stupid and would just buy their false advertising and instead start to really lead in the technological front then maybe there's hope. Or at least give real emphasis again on imaging and audio, not the stunt they pulled with the last Xperia lineup that once again has diluted the Exmor branding. Or support claims of 'multimedia powerhouse' by simply supporting .avi, .mkv etc., popular video formats natively instead of forcing people to encode with their lame Media Go which produces below par video encoding which doesn't do justice to the playback on their devices. Pure stupidity if you ask me since it is just software optimization/enhancement which they have full expertise on. Depending on 3rd party apps is unacceptable. They are still playing Miles Flint's game that has seen them slip from #3 to #10. The need to wake up from this vicious cycle before it's too late
Posted by Bonovox
Sad but true. I need to decide what i wanna stick with phone wise. And manufacturer. I have mostly for years stuck by or always ended up returning to Sony Ericsson. But in the end i just end up let down
Shame really. Its too late i think for them to catch up. Were they ever number one at any point?