SONY PLANS NO ‘FUNDAMENTAL’ STRATEGY CHANGES IN CAL. MOVE, WEISSBURG SAYS
The move of Sony’s top CE management to Cal. may produce some shuffling of product category responsibilities within the national sales group, but those won’t mean “big fundamental changes” in brand strategy, Sony Consumer Sales Group Pres. Bob Weissburg told us.
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About a dozen Sony sales executives -- including sales directors and a national sales manager based in Park Ridge, N.J. -- will be affected by the move, including Weissburg, who said he would maintain offices on both coasts. Sony has about 1,600 employees in Northern N.J. and 1,000 will remain in Park Ridge. Sony has declined comment on the exact number of employees who will move to Cal. “A number” of sales executives have committed to making the move and all those affected were given a “predecision” trip to Cal. in recent weeks “to get an idea of the lay of the land and the location,” Weissburg said. Sony employees tapped for Cal. are required to make a final decision by late Jan., Weissburg said.
“We're going to maintain a great amount of stability and certainly we'll keep those strong relationships with customers from a headquarters level through myself and others on my management team,” Weissburg said. “It will be a smooth transition because we have people on both coasts already and we may change some product category responsibilities, but all that has yet to be determined. I think we will have people take on different roles in the organization and make the transition.”
Sony has a strong presence in San Diego through a TV plant that has operated in the area for years and other groups, including the PC products organization. The move to Cal. will result in the closing of Sony’s CE eastern zone sales office in Oradell, N.J., within 2 years and shifting 50-60 employees to Park Ridge, Weissburg said.
Sony will continue to maintain central and western sales offices in Chicago and Dallas, respectively, and its regional sales structure won’t change, Weissburg said. While many retailers have expressed concern about resulting changes in Sony’s sales organization (CED Dec 23 p1), he said the company would maintain consistency. “Any time there is change people are leery of the future,” Weissburg said. “But if you look back over the years, we've been very consistent no matter who was running the [sales] organization. We've always had good relationships with dealers and a channel strategy, and that won’t change.”