Glasgow to Depart As Sony Electronics President For New Assignment

If Sony Electronics in the U.S. is to fulfill its goal of becoming the market leader in 3D TVs, it won’t come under the watchful eye of its long-term president, Stan Glasgow. Phil Molyneux, a 23-year veteran of Sony’s CE operations in Europe, on Sept. 1 will replace Glasgow, who'll shift to a new post at Sony America as senior adviser of entrepreneurship and innovation, Sony announced Thursday.

Molyneux will relocate to Sony Electronics headquarters in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., north of San Diego, the announcement said. Glasgow will remain based in the San Diego area, but will travel frequently to New York, where Sony America is headquartered, Sony Electronics spokesman John Dolak told us Thursday, but he declined further comment. Molyneux will report to Kiyoshi Shikano, Sony’s Tokyo-based global sales and marketing officer, the announcement said. Glasgow, Sony Electronics president since March 2006, will also assume the title of Sony Electronics chairman, and will report to Sony America CEO Howard Stringer, who doubles as CEO of the Tokyo parent company.

Glasgow’s reappointment to Sony America and the decision to tap Molyneux to replace him appeared to take many at Sony Electronics by surprise, including possibly Glasgow himself. Glasgow didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Only last week at a media briefing in San Francisco, with no hint of an impending change, Glasgow and other senior Sony Electronics executives spoke glowingly of their plans to take Sony Bravia LCD TVs to the top of the U.S. 3D TV market, beginning with marketing and promotional blitzes this summer and into the fourth quarter (CED July 8 p1).

In a statement Thursday, Stringer praised Glasgow as “a strong and inspired leader, especially during the past two years under nearly unprecedented global economic turbulence.” Glasgow “made difficult choices that, ultimately, made Sony Electronics in the U.S. more efficient and better positioned to regain momentum,” Stringer said. Stringer’s statement said little about Glasgow’s new responsibilities, other than expressing delight that “he will now apply his entrepreneurial skills to help drive new business opportunities for Sony."

Stringer’s inference that Sony Electronics as an operation was only positioned well to regain lost momentum seemed reminiscent of complaints he voiced in early 2009 that the company was often too slow to market with new products (CED Jan 23/09 p1), though he didn’t specifically point fingers at any one subsidiary. Sony as a company has been “revising the whole product development process in Tokyo and working on that seriously for about a year and a half,” Glasgow told us in February (CED Feb 18 p1), addressing Stringer’s earlier complaints. Sony has gotten a lot better since, Glasgow said then, citing home 3D as one product category “where we've got to be up front and quick with it,” Glasgow said. Last week, Glasgow defended Sony’s record of shipping its first 3D TVs 90 days after Panasonic or Samsung, saying speed to market wasn’t as important as tweaking the product until it was right.

Sony Electronics has had other highs and lows under Glasgow. The company has successfully courted big box retailers, but still lost LCD TV market share points to rivals like Samsung. Recently, it has fought to regain good graces with AV specialty retailers who allege the company had stopped championing limited-distribution, differentiated product lines (CED July 6 p1) and merchandising policies friendly to smaller dealers. PRO Buying Group Executive Director David Workman has been critical of Sony Electronics distribution policies, but recently has softened his attacks in wake of Sony’s move to MAP pricing that Workman thinks will be beneficial to his members. Workman didn’t respond right away to requests for comment on Glasgow’s departure.

But one AV specialist who requested anonymity said he won’t shed a tear about Glasgow’s leaving. “I'm going to make the assumption that this is good for specialty dealers,” the retailer said. “Stan had the approach of get the product out there no matter where you put it. Sony has been hurt by that especially on the specialty side. They lost direction. So it looks to me like he’s been shifted out. Maybe it’s for real and Stan has been moved up, but that’s not my impression."

As for Molyneux, he has served as managing director of Sony Central and South East Europe since 2007, the company said. In that role, Molyneux “has overseen all business management and development for both consumer and professional products across the 20 countries that make up that region,” it said. “Phil’s unique combination of technical knowledge and broad management experience will tremendously benefit Sony’s electronics business in the U.S.,” Stringer said. “He was educated as an electromechanical engineer, and has effectively and expertly managed an extraordinarily diverse electronics business for Sony in a key region of Europe. He has faced enormous challenges and, through a steadfast focus on the consumer, as well as innovative and inspirational leadership, has achieved growth in both profits and market share."

Molyneux joined Sony in 1987 as a sales engineer to develop the company’s semiconductor and components business in the U.K., Sony said. “Over the next 10 years, in both sales and marketing positions, he expanded that business across Europe, and led Sony to the No. 1 market share position in several related areas, including magnetic and optical drive technology.”