Incoming chief executive Kazuo Hirai aims to re-shape Sony by linking hardware and software through online networks - a model he used at its PlayStation unit - dismissing any suggestion the battered brand would revert to a gadget-centred strategy under his management.
In the meantime, he said, he would focus on paring costs at its TV unit and look to squeeze expenses elsewhere to return Sony to profit.
The Sony Computer Entertainment model "is a bigger concept we can grow into a bigger space", Mr Hirai (51) said in an interview . "Hardware drives software and software drives hardware," he added, referring to online sales of games and other content PlayStation owners.
Mr Hirai oversaw the phenomenal rise of the PlayStation gaming system in the United States and since last March headed Sony's consumer products and services business.
A more immediate task for Mr Hirai is to stem losses with cost savings that will add to cuts made by outgoing boss Sir Howard Stringer.
Mr Hirai formally takes over as chief on April 1st, with the once-stellar consumer electronics brand heading for what it warned last week would be a much bigger-than-expected $2.9 billion annual loss, its fourth in a row.
Mr Hirai is under intense pressure from investors and ratings agencies to quickly staunch losses at the sprawling electronics group. Mr Hirai pledged not to flinch from tough decisions to trim costs and renewed a promise to return the TV business to profit in two years.
"We have to make some hard decisions on where there are some redundancies and reduce the fixed costs in a variety of different areas," he said, pointing to sales units in Japan, Europe and the United States, supply chains and Tokyo headquarters functions as areas where cuts could be made.
Credit rating agency Standard and Poor's on Wednesday cut its long-term debt rating on Sony and warned it may drop it another notch within a year if Hirai fails to stem TV losses and deliver a significant boost to profitability. Sony was also downgraded by Moody's last month.
The TV division has lost more than $11 billion over eight fiscal years.
Better products would, Mr Hirai said, add as much as 40 billion yen ($520 million) in profit, with cost improvements adding another 50 billion yen, as part of a strategy he described as "defence and offence".
As well as weak global TV demand, Sony has been hammered by last year's flooding in Thailand that ruptured supply chains, a big one-off charge for exiting a flat-panel joint venture with Samsung, and smart competition from Apple and Samsung that has squeezed market share in TVs, smartphones and other gadgets.
Mr Hirai predicted that LCD technology would remain the main battlefield in TVs for at least three years, before next generation technology takes hold.
Mr Hirai has yet to reveal his management line-up, naming only Tadashi Saito, a former Sony chief financial officer at Sony Electronics in the United States, as the company's first chief strategy officer since 2005.
Mr Saito will work with senior managers "to formulate strategies for group companies overall, as well as giving us a lot of input and advice on M&A activity", Mr Hirai said.
Hiroshi Yoshioka, previously identified by Sir Howard as one of "Four Musketeers" who could succeed him, along with Mr Hirai, will take Sony into the medical imaging business and head up the group's innovation centre.
A Sony veteran of 28 years, Mr Hirai was credited with reviving the PlayStation gaming operations through aggressive cost-cutting, in competition with Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox.
Reuters
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/sandbox.irishtimes/GW3FWAURWFGM7FF4RMYJLBG7ZI.png)