Peter Jackson column

Mar 17 2005 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

It's good to see Japanese electronics giant Sony has turned to a Briton in its hour of need. The 150,000-employee company, which has just appointed Welshman Sir Howard Stringer as chairman, is in some need.

Once a standard bearer of the mighty Japanese economy, Sony has, like the rest of that economy, been through some troubled times

It was late in entering the DVD recorder and plasma screen TV markets and, much worse, the company that once dominated the portable music market with the Walkman, has been left standing by Apple's iPod.

It reputation has yet to recover from the blow it suffered in April 2003 when it unveiled a £520m quarterly loss and matters were not improved at the start of this year when it cut its operating profit forecast by 31pc.

Hence the revolutionary move in appointing a foreigner to be chief.

This would have been unthinkable 20 years ago when I worked for a Japanese merchant bank. Then, even in a UK branch office, it was practically unheard of to appoint a non-Japanese to a significant decision-making position.

But a lot has changed since then. In the mid 1980s the Japanese were riding high economically, while Britain was, if not the sick man of Europe, at least still convalescing. Now Japan is still struggling with stagnation and even negative growth.

Even 20 years ago, however, the seeds of Japanese decline were there to be seen. I observed at first hand their chaotic decision-making processes and their love of bureaucracy. And, while their obsessive attention to detail led to great strides in quality control, it added fatally to the ponderous rate of movement.

In my own bank, it became the duty of no less a figure than the deputy managing director to go to the kitchen last thing at night to ensure every smoking employee issued with a numbered ashtray had emptied its contents into a fine porcelain bin and has signed off this fact on the ashtray register.

Yes, he did have better things to do with his time, and no, he didn't do them. Still, there's every chance the appointment of Sir Howard will mark a turn around in Japan's and Sony's fortunes. As a nation they have a history of learning from the West and then surpassing it.