Kaz Hirai, Former PlayStation Chief, Reportedly Ignored Sony Executives' Directives.

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, who served as PlayStation president from 2007 to 2012, reportedly paid little attention to instructions he received from Sony. Continue reading

If you click on a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

What the headquarters says is irrelevant.

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, who was the president of PlayStation from 2007 to 2012, apparently didn't pay much attention to the orders he received from Sony.

Hirai recently revealed this in an interview published in Japanese publication Nikkei XTrend and translated by Game Observer. Hirai revealed with a laugh, "When I was president of Sony Computer Entertainment, which ran the PlayStation home console business, whenever Howard [Stringer] and other executives told me this or that, I went my own way and said, 'What headquarters says is irrelevant.' We are PlayStation."

Hirai later succeeded Stringer as Sony's overall leader, though he recalls that it was a time of struggle for the company that necessitated a change of direction.

Hirai revealed, "The first things I focused on were 'getting people to know me' and 'getting them to move in the same direction.' "Without respect, no one is going to think, 'Let's work hard together!'

Ironically, as Sony's CEO, Hirai wanted to prevent the various divisions from doing what they were already doing on the PlayStation. The executive branch wanted everyone to work towards a single goal instead of each doing their own thing. He coined the famous slogan "Kando" based on the Japanese word for being emotionally affected by something. It was a corporate strategy to encourage employees to create products and experiences that touch people's emotions and not just perform well.

Hirai's tenure as president of PlayStation saw him lead the game during a key period in the history of the division. He took over shortly after the launch of the PlayStation 3, the rough launch of the PlayStation Vita, and the infamous 2011 PlayStation outage. Hirai stepped down as CEO of Sony in 2018. He is also known for his much-hyped E3 2006 PlayStation press conference.