对日本电子巨头们来说，有舍才能有得

从最近有关日本的报导看来，日本消费电子大厂──索尼(Sony)和松下(Panasonic)的新任CEO──应该会让你同时感到充满希望，但却也夹杂着稍许疲倦的感觉。 好吧，至少这是我的感受。 索尼的Kazuo Hirai和松下的Kazuhiro Tsuga年龄都在50岁左右──与日本传统企业对照，二位新任CEO都算年轻。 他们都接受美国教育；和日本传统企业领袖相比，他们令人耳目一新，但他们面临着的棘手问题，可能会让他们倒抽一口气，做出像传统日本企业主管一样的反应：“嗯……根据研究……” 在被提拔到当前地位以前，他们都各自在自己的公司负责电视业务，恰好，这也是两家消费巨擘的传统“核心”业务。

松下新任CEO Kazuhiro Tsuga
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如果这确实是一个去比谁能更快放弃电视业务的竞赛，那么，从公共舆论来看，松下Tsuga在似乎已经是赢家了。 上周，有报导引述了Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities (东京)公司分析师Masahiro Ono的话，指出“松下的Tsuga已经在维持该公司视听产品部门正常运作的同时，展开了杰出的改革。” 松下承认在电视面板方面的大举投资策略有误，而索尼的Hirai则不曾批评该公司过去的错误策略。相较之下，“Hirai从未说过索尼曾犯过哪些错误，”该报导引述Ono 的分析表示。 事实上，一些业界传闻也显示，与索尼的Hirai相比，松下的新任CEO或许更加直接，但有时却也显得不合时宜。 举例来说，上周五日经报导：“松下的Tsuga在接掌亏损连连的电视部门后，赢得了大胆决策者的名声。去年四月接掌电视部门后，他在家中安装了松下和竞争对手的电视，并从消费者的角度来对二者进行评比。 他在上任后迅速调整各部门的业务，关闭其先进的电浆显示器工厂，进而扭转了松下的电视业务亏损情况。 随后，Tsuga举行了接任CEO之后的首次记者会，他谈到了松下面临的问题，该公司在截至三月底的上一个会计年度创下了7,721亿日圆的净亏损记录， 必须采取一些措施来解决此一问题。日经引述了Tsuga的发言：“电视已经是一种白色家电了，”他的意思是，电视已经是一种通用型家电产品。“我们必须设法降低公司内部的繁忙工作，并专注在客户的需求上。” 我还蛮欣赏Tsuga的发言。 相较于电视这个一度被视为神圣不可侵犯的商品，新任CEO将更加关注在冰箱和洗衣机等产品上，而不再仅专注于日本的电视业务。目前，松下的冰箱和洗衣机大部份都在东南亚生产。 重点来了！ 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：谁会是第一家站起来的日企？

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• 2012电视市场：LCD增长放缓，整体出货量下跌
• 三星及LGD引领技术升级，AMOLED电视后劲十足Xp6esmc

{pagination} 我并不在乎日本消费电子大厂是否弃守电视市场。我在意的，是这些消费电子巨擘能否定义出清晰的发展蓝图，一个能让他们恢复获利的中长期策略。 松下现在有一个新的“后电视时代”(post-TV) 口号：由新任CEO喊出的“生态与智能”(Eco and Smart)，旨在全面推广智能能源管理政策，这将结合能源、储能和节能等相关技术。 没错，你或许会得到这些印象：松下对太阳能技术相当感兴趣，该公司开发和销售的智能能源管理系统可以深入每一个家庭，而且能获得较高利润。 但你不得不承认，若以商业计划的角度来看，这听来仍过于含糊。 在此同时，索尼的Hirai则表示，索尼将把重点转移到“三大核心”──数字影像、游戏、移动市场。然而，在有关电视业务部份，Hirai却一直保持沉默。

索尼新任CEO Kazu Hirai
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顺道一提，在所有有关日本的电视业务讨论中，我认为最有远见的日本公司既不是Tsuga带领的松下，也不是Hirai领导的索尼。 在我看来，夏普才是。 或许有人会说，夏普出售其股份(和灵魂)给鸿海(通常也称为富士康)创办人郭台铭是别无选择的做法，因为夏普必须为生存而战。有些人甚至对夏普最终将成为一家台湾公司的这一举动展开批评。 然而，这些看法都太短视了。 当市场经济全球化之际，其中的规模和成本问题，一家单一日本公司──无论规模多大──都无法再依靠一己之力了。在所有的日本电子制造商之中，夏普迈出了第一步，他们首先接受了这个残酷的事实。 当然，许多业界人士认为，郭台铭之所以能与夏普进行交易，是因为这家台湾电子业巨擘和夏普之间缔结伙伴关系是唯一能对抗三星(Samsnug)的途径。事实上，我自本月初来到中国以后，就经常听到类似的言论──“日本必需与中国合作，才能对抗败韩国”。 但，无论动机为何，日本消费电子制造商的领导人都必须采取更灵活的策略才能生存下去。寻求日本企业之间的合作或合资的做法(如索尼和松下合作开发下一代 OLED电视面板)，并不是生存下去的好方法。保护本土IP是一回事。但日本企业现在必须延伸他们的触角，越过边境，寻求更广大的合作，或是有能力购买其 IP的买家。 编译： Joy Teng 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：参考英文原文：Who recovers first? Panasonic, Sony or Sharp?，by Junko Yoshida

相关阅读：
• 因自有终端品牌，三星及LGD面板渐被中国电视厂商弃用
• 2012电视市场：LCD增长放缓，整体出货量下跌
• 三星及LGD引领技术升级，AMOLED电视后劲十足Xp6esmc

{pagination} Who recovers first? Panasonic, Sony or Sharp? Junko Yoshida PARIS -- Recent reports from Japan on new CEOs at Japan’s two consumer electronics behemoths – Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. – should make you feel both hopeful and weary at the same time. Well, at least that’s how I feel. Sony’s Kazuo Hirai and Panasonic’s Kazuhiro Tsuga are both in their 50’s -- relatively young according to the Japanese corporate norm. They’re both U.S.-educated; and they are refreshingly outspoken compared to traditional Japanese executives who, faced with a tough question, tend to suck their teeth and mutter something like: “Well… that’s under study.” Before ascending to the head of their companies earlier this year, both executives most recently led their respective TV business units, both of which are historically considered as the “core” business of the CE giants. Now, Japan’s media and the financial community appear hell bent on the new theory that whichever company can say sayonara to its TV unit faster will win their trust and more swiftly recover from a plague of record losses. Kazuhiro Tsuga, new Panasonic CEO If this were indeed a race about who abandons the TV business faster, Panasonic’s Tsuga appears to be already a winner in the court of public opinions. Bloomberg, earlier this week, reported that “Panasonic’s Tsuga built an ‘outstanding’ reputation for making reforms while running the audiovisual unit.’ It was quoting Masahiro Ono, a Tokyo-based analyst at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. The Bloomberg story went on, “Panasonic also conceded making mistakes by investing too heavily in TV panels, unlike Hirai, who hasn’t criticized Sony’s past errors.” In contrast, “Hirai has never come out and said what’s wrong at Sony,” said the report, quoting Ono. Indeed, there is some anecdotal evidence that Panasonic’s new CEO may be a lot more direct and less politically correct than Sony’s Hirai. Nikkei, for example, Friday reported: “[Panasonic’s] Tsuga earned a reputation as bold decision maker as head of the company's money-losing TV unit. Soon after he took over the unit in April of last year, he had Panasonic sets and rival brands installed in his home to compare them from the consumer's viewpoint. “He moved quickly to restructure the unit's operations, shuttering a state-of-the-art plasma display plant, for example, untroubled by the symbolic value of the TV business. That helped Tsuga restore the unit's profitability.” In his first press conference as CEO on Thursday, Tsuga spoke about problems at the company, which reported a record net loss of 772.1 billion yen for the year through March, and the steps needed to fix them. Nikkei quoted Tsuga: "TVs are already a type of white good," referring to commoditized home appliances. "We need to reduce internal busywork and focus on customer needs." Now, I did like this comment by Tsuga. Comparing the TV unit – once a sacred cow – with refrigerators and washing machines is a clear admission on the part of the new CEO that Panasonic will no longer make their own TVs in Japan. Most of their refrigerators and washing machines have long been made in Southeast Asia. But here’s the thing. I don’t care if Japanese CE companies unload their TV units. I care even less who ditches TV faster. However, I do care about the absence of a clear path defined by these CE giants to restore their profitability in the medium to long term. Panasonic now has a new “post-TV” slogan: "Eco and Smart" coined by the new CEO to promote a comprehensive smart energy management policy that “incorporates created energy, stored energy and saved energy.” Well, you may get the drift that Panasonic is interested in pursuing solar technology; developing and selling smart energy management systems (that can go into every home at a higher margin, for example). But you’ve got to admit that this is still too vague to call it a winning business plan at this point. Meanwhile, Sony’s Hirai is on record saying that Sony will shift its focus to "three core pillars" -- digital imaging, gaming, and the mobile market. Hirai, however, has been silent on the key question as to where Sony’s TV business fits into the whole picture. Kazu Hirai, new CEO at Sony Amidst of all this non-TV, post-TV discussion in Japan, incidentally, I believe the Japanese company with the most foresight is neither Panasonic led by Tsuga nor Sony led by Hirai. In my opinion, it’s Sharp. One may argue that Sharp had no choice but sell its shares (and soul) to Terry Gou, the founder of Hon Hai (also commonly known as Foxconn), in order to fight for survival. Some even criticize this action as paving the way to Sharp eventually becoming a Taiwanese company. That, however, is truly a short-sighted view. When the market and the economy are truly becoming global, where the scale and the cost do matter, a single Japanese company – no matter how big -- can’t go it alone. Sharp – among all the Japanese electronics manufacturers – took the first step to embrace that hard reality. Of course, many say Gou was able to talk Sharp into the deal because the partnership between Taiwan’s EMS giant and Sharp is the only way to go head-to-head against Samsung and eventually win the battle in the global flat-panel screen market. In fact, I heard similar talk – “Japan needs to partner with China in order to beat Korean” – often while traveling in China earlier this month. Whatever the motive, though, it’s clear that the survival of Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers hinges on the flexibility of Japanese executives. The practice of seeking partnerships or joint ventures only among Japanese companies (i.e. Sony and Panasonic to develop the next generation OLED panels for TVs) is not the recipe for survival. Protecting home-grown IPs is one thing. But Japan must spread its wings to look beyond the border to seek partners or buyers of IPs.