Sir Howard Stringer: Why Sony Is About to Snap Back

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Iger's support for Blu-ray in the battle over a DVD standard was crucial to Stringer Danny Moloshok/Reuters

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Is having content and hardware a competitive advantage?
When people write the history books, they will say the victory of Blu-ray was won because we own a studio. Toshiba (TOSBF) offered a cheaper version, but we offered a more expensive version with greater capacity, which we said at the time would open the door to 3D, and it did. If we didn't own a content company, we wouldn't have been able to [prevail].

People who know the story of how Blu-ray prevailed will argue that it had, in part, to do with your personal relationships.
All businesses depend on relationships at some point. And, yes, I had enormous support from Bob Iger [at Walt Disney (DIS)] and Peter Chernin [at News Corp. (NWS)]. I remember having a conversation with Bob and saying: "It's going to cost us a lot of money to deliver Blu-ray." And Bob said: "I believe in it because I believe in superior technology, and I'm behind you 100%. You don't not have to worry about me." I almost choked up on that one.

Is it fair to say Sony was behind in the digital revolution when you arrived?
I thought Sony had been brilliant in vision and short on execution because the digital world is very different from the analog world. A digital future requires horizontal interrelationships. So we effectively had to rebuild the infrastructure.

You have said: "I want to turn around Sony. And when I accomplish that, I'll retire."
It's quite well put, but it's not how I put it. I think it's my role to set [Sony] on a road that everybody agrees is the right strategic direction for the company. Then I won't be needed.

Someone once wrote: "They expect a lot of Stringer, but he's not God."
I have never been someone who operated as a lonely leader. I'm a collaborator. And that means communication, a dash of inspiration from time to time, and a lot of motivation. And those, in combination, will carry the day if, indeed, the day is carried. I've never been put on a pedestal at Sony, and I've never attempted to climb on one.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Charlie Rose is the host of Charlie Rose, the nightly PBS program.

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