Key information
Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, who served as president of PlayStation between 2007 and 2012, recently disclosed that he frequently disregarded instructions from Sony's senior leadership during his tenure.
According to a conversation published in Nikkei XTrend, Hirai explained that he often dismissed mandates from Howard Stringer and other executives by asserting that headquarters' opinions were irrelevant to the PlayStation business unit.
Hirai later ascended to the role of Sony CEO, a period he described as challenging. He subsequently prioritized fostering internal unity and mutual respect among staff to ensure the company moved in a singular, cohesive direction.
As CEO, Hirai implemented the 'kando' strategy to encourage emotional resonance in products. His earlier PlayStation leadership included navigating the PlayStation 3 era, the PlayStation Vita launch, and the 2011 network outage before he stepped down in 2018.
