Former Sony CFO attacks Kazuo Hirai over strategy

Sony faces the risk of "sinking" if Kazuo Hirai, the Japanese group's chief executive, continues to steer the company in its current direction, according to Tamotsu Iba, a former chief financial officer and vice-chairman who joined the company in 1959.

The attack on Mr Hirai in a letter dated April 15 follows damage sustained by the group after a brutal hacking incident five months ago at its movie studio business.

Mr Iba called on Sony to install more engineers on its board, saying "the Sony spirit" and innovation are being lost as Mr Hirai focuses on aggressive cost-cutting. He added that the letter reflected the voices of numerous former executives.

"Sony is like a ship that is navigating through the stormy waters of the electronics business with a captain that is using the wrong sea chart," Mr Iba said in the 19-page letter.

"If it continues to navigate the stormy ocean without the correct map, Sony will face the danger of sinking."

The clash with the old guard is not new at Sony.

Mr Hirai's appointment in 2012 came close to being derailed when a group of retired Sony electronics managers attempted to block his accession, suggesting alternative CEO candidates with electronics background, including Ken Kutaragi, creator of the PlayStation gaming console.

Sir Howard Stringer, Mr Hirai's predecessor, also struggled with strong internal resistance to change.

The frustration of the retired executives - who ran Sony when it wowed the world with the Walkman portable music player and the Trinitron television - comes after Sony sold off its personal computer business and scaled back its struggling smartphone arm. It plans to spin off its audio division, housing the Walkman product, into a separate unit, mirroring the step it took with the TV division.

"I don't see any vision for what Mr Hirai wants to do with the electronics business," Mr Iba told the Financial Times.

The former executive said he had received an email response from Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony's current CFO, reassuring him that management is capable of running the company. Mr Iba said he was not convinced and added that Mr Hirai should step down if he does not heed his advice to promote more engineers to executive positions. His latest letter follows a 50-page letter he sent in January.

Sony declined to comment.

Mr Hirai, who began his career selling music for Sony's record label, has long grappled with the image that he was not the "hardware guy" of the proper Sony mould. "I'm not an engineer. I get that," he often says.

Still, investors have credited him with for making tough decisions to fix the group's lossmaking electronics businesses and welcomed the shift away from the traditional consumer electronics businesses.

Last week, the company trimmed its net loss forecast to Y126bn ($1.1bn) for the fiscal year ended in March from an earlier loss projection of Y170bn. On Thursday the company releases its outlook for the current financial year when it is expected to say that it will return to the black.

Mr Hirai has pinned Sony's turnround on image sensors used in smartphones, PlayStation games and the entertainment businesses.

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