As CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Howard Stringer offers an ambitious vision of sony's future in the digital world. The view from atop Sony's midtown headquarters is among the most spectacular in Manhattan. From one wall of windows you can take in the broad expanse of Central Park. From another vantage, it's possible to gaze straight down the length of Madison Avenue. But marching past the 35th-floor panorama without so much as a sideways glance, Howard Stringer acknowledges it's been a while since he paused to appreciate the view.
Stringer is constantly on the lookout for a new deal, a new partner, a new idea.
The drive behind all this activity is Stringer's determination to realize a vision unlike any offered by the wintry Manhattan skyline. It's an ambitious vision of Sony's role in the digital future, a vision he shares with his boss, Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei, which boldly places the company at the crossroads of digital content, distribution, and services in the United States and around the world. Though Sony is perhaps best known as the 800-lb. On both consumer and business fronts, Sony is rapidly reinventing its business model for a networked world. In simplified form, Stringer's mission is to find ways to use digital distribution to leverage Sony's content, to use its content to leverage distribution, and to create unique services to increase the value of them both.