Sony has come back from the edge of obscurity to make the most profit in a year than any other the company has lived through. One of the people driving this success is CEO Kaz Hirai, who was promoted to the position five-and-a-half years ago.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Hirai talked about all the elements of the conglomerate that have made successes of themselves from gaming to cinema to the cameras consumers use and the cameras that Apple and Samsung use.

On the less stable ground of the smartphone, the executive defended the Xperia brand’s existence from naysayers, placing mobile as a chip toward “the next paradigm shift” in the industry of connectivity.

“The reason we’re doing that is not because we think smartphones are the future,” Hirai said, “but because we have to have some devices connected to a network in order to communicate.”

He later said, “I want to make sure we stay, not in the smartphone business, per se, but in the communications business.”

Mobile division results have come as close to near zero as they have after years of red ink. Combine that with the long-haul approach this successful CEO is pulling and we could be seeing Xperia phones as long as he’s around.

To the lament of Sony Mobile watchers, here’s a good pull quote on his philosophy on product design:

I sat down with the managers of each major product category and said to them, ‘if you think it’s a great design, don’t change it. Be proud of what you did, and be proud enough to stick with it.’

It’s a cultural change that we brought about. It shows Sony’s respect for the products we make. If it’s good enough for the customers, it should be good enough for us not to change designs every year. That is how we create emotional value.

Find more of this interview at the source link below.