Sony's Kutaragi Is Hanging by a Thread

It mainly started to go downhill for Kutaragi when Sony's PSP was to be launched. Celebrating the U.S. launch of the PSP at the electronics conference in Las Vegas back in 2005, Kutaraki was so full of himself and so proud of "his" creation, that he even forgot to mention some of the most important members of the staff working on the handheld gaming system. Then, Information Arbitrage made it clear to everyone that Sony's CEO and Chairman is not exactly into team work:

"Mr. Kutaragi was notorious within the company for his reluctance to communicate with his bosses or other units. In 2005, Mr. Kutaragi hosted an event at a big electronics conference in Las Vegas to celebrate the U.S. launch of the PlayStation Portable handheld game machine-one of the company's biggest products that year. He didn't invite executives from Sony's electronics division, which provided the parts."

It almost sounds like Kutaragi didn't want to give anyone any credit for the development of the PSP but himself. OK, given that the PSP wasn't the last everyone has heard from Sony (the big PS3-on-its-way announcement) folks thought Kutaragi settled on his credits issue and moved on. But that wasn't exactly so, because "in September, Mr. Kutaragi announced Sony was halving shipments of the new PlayStation to the U.S. and Japan and was pushing back its European launch. At a news conference, Mr. Kutaragi blamed Sony's electronics group for failing to produce enough of a critical component, exposing his tense relationship with the division."

So, again, not only didn't Kutaragi get along that well with his staff, but also let everyone know, which wasn't a very smart move coming from a person who is both CEO and Chairman of the biggest electronics company in the world. This wouldn't happen to be one of the reasons why the PS3 is sitting on store shelves, is it...?