Sony appoints Welsh-born American to be CEO

Everyone seems to be shaking up their CEO spots nowadays. First HP lets Carly go, now Sony's Chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei has resigned and handed the reigns to Howard Stringer (above article from the WSJ, also the Associated Press. This move has raised eyebrows all over the world because an American is now in charge of a Japanese company.

But Mr. Stringer will have his work cut out for him. Why? Because Sony continues to struggle with marketing. Take this test: when was the last time you saw a Sony ad or press release that made you say, "Wow, that was awesome!" I'll bet it wasn't recently. Compare that experience with today's CE powerhouse Apple, and you will realize how much ground Mr. Stringer will have to make up in the marketing department. And as an operations guy, Blackfriars isn't sure he's going to be up to the task. We only hope he has some great marketing execs in his rolodex.