Purpose of the Interview
We, the Japanese students at IESE, aspire not only to advance our own careers but also to contribute to the future of Japan as business leaders. We hope to inspire Japanese audiences to consider what they can do for the nation’s future.
This time, we had the privilege to interview Mr. Kazushi Ambe, Senior Executive Vice President of Sony Group Corporation, who oversees Human Resources and serves as the President of Sony University, Sony’s corporate university. We discussed the significance of corporate partnerships with business schools for leadership development and how HR can transform organizations and corporate culture. Mr. Ambe and his team traveled to Barcelona for a leadership development program developed in collaboration with IESE, and we were fortunate to have an opportunity for an interview and exchange of views with him.
Contents
About Mr. Ambe
Kazushi Ambe
Mr. Ambe has been with Sony for nearly 40 years, holding key HR positions in Japan, the US, the UK, and Sweden. He began his HR career in Japan and moved to the UK in 1987 to oversee HR at a television manufacturing plant. In 2001, he became VP of HR for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications in London, overseeing organizational performance, governance, and executive compensation. He later served as Senior Vice President of Sony Corporation of America, directing HR initiatives for Sony’s US operations mainly in entertainment business. Currently, Mr. Ambe is a Senior Executive Vice President at Sony Group Corporation, overseeing HR, General Affairs, and the company’s operations in China.
Sony’s corporate university and the role of HR and Business Schools
Q. What challenges and vision led to the creation of Sony University, Sony’s corporate university?
Sony University was established about 25 years ago at the initiative of then-CEO Nobuyuki Idei. The core belief behind it was that “Complacency is the biggest risk to a company’s long-term growth. To stay competitive, a company must not only keep up with change but evolve at an even faster pace.” This ethos is embedded in Sony’s DNA. The key to driving this continuous evolution lies in the future leaders, those who are currently playing critical roles across different parts of the organization. Sony University gained even greater importance following the 2008 financial crisis, when the company faced severe challenges. Despite generating over 10 trillion yen in revenue, Sony’s market value dropped below 1 trillion yen, highlighting the need for strong leadership and strategic transformation.
Today, as Sony’s traditional electronics business faces increasing commoditization, Sony’s strategic growth is now driven by intellectual property (IP) content businesses such as gaming, music, and film. At the same time, there is great potential for synergy across Sony Group’s diverse businesses. This presents a unique growth opportunity for Sony, but also comes with a challenge. If we fail to demonstrate the value of these synergies, there is always a risk of being criticized for the “conglomerate discount”, where capital markets value diversified company lower than the sum of its individual businesses. To truly drive business synergies, we need leaders who understand the realities on the ground. That is why Sony University welcomes participants from across all business divisions.
Q. What expectations did you have for your collaboration with IESE, and how do you feel about the results
At Sony University, we initially used case method-style programs with in-house case studies. However, we realized that designing such programs would be more effective with the expertise of external institutions. That is when we began partnering with business schools. Around that time, business schools themselves were criticized that MBA programs were too theoretical and disconnected from real-world business challenges. Over the past 10 years, they began evolving to include more practical elements. I believed it was essential to incorporate this evolution into our approach.
One of the biggest challenges I see in Japan’s business environment is the inefficient use of “time” as a management resource. This is evident in Japan’s lower productivity compared to other countries. It is not just about day-to-day operations, but even talent development takes too long. The average age of Japanese CEOs is around 60 years old, compared to Western CEOs, it is in their late 40s. This gap reflects differences in the speed of leadership development. According to Lominger’s 70-20-10 rule, 70% of growth comes from experience, 20% from coaching and mentorship, and only 10% from training programs. This doesn’t mean experience alone is enough, but because experience plays such a crucial role, we must maximize its impact and make it as efficient as possible. Well-designed talent development programs have great potential to systematically and effectively combine experience and insights from others and MBA programs, which have evolved significantly, are a great example of this. Today’s business school students use these advanced programs to build on their past business experience and develop their skills further. Seeing this, I felt we should apply the same approach to our internal talent development.
Choosing the right business school was an important decision. We reached out to major business schools, shared our expectations, and asked them to present their unique strengths and proposals. A group of experts from within the Sony Group (mainly Learning & Development specialists from different global business units) reviewed these proposals and ultimately voted for IESE. Now that I have visited the campus, experienced the program, and seen its educational methods in action, I am more confident than ever that we made the right choice.
Corporate Culture and Transformation
Q. How do you gain the understanding and cooperation of business leaders and middle managers for corporate transformation, and how do you translate abstract strategies into concrete actions?
This connects to what I mentioned earlier, but I believe that employee behavior is shaped mainly by company culture and values (70%), role models such as mangers and colleagues (20%), and policies and initiatives (10%). While HR often focuses on designing programs and policies, what truly makes a difference is communicating the purpose behind these initiatives, sharing real-life examples, and telling stories to gain understanding and engagement.
To encourage employees to take concrete actions, it’s essential to provide clear examples. To inspire employees to take on challenges, we need to show real cases where people tried, failed, learned, and improved. By sharing these experiences and insights, we can create awareness and shape new ways of working.
Q. Corporate culture significantly influences employee behavior, yet employees’ actions also shape culture. How do you engage business leaders and middle managers as role models?
Changing the mindset and behavior of management is crucial, but there is no universal formula for achieving this. When considering how to address intrinsic motivation, a key reference for me has been Satya Nadella at Microsoft. When he became CEO, he appointed an HR leader outside the HR function, sought insights from external experts, and used behavioral psychology to break down the factors influencing employee actions. I visited Microsoft multiple times and learned the importance of systematically identifying these factors and continuously addressing them through targeted initiatives.
Encouraging managers to reflect on their behavior is also important. About ten years ago, Sony introduced a company-wide engagement survey across the organization and emphasized its importance within the company. Eventually, executive bonuses were linked to their department’s survey results. Some people raised concerns, saying it might lead to “being too focused on internal reactions and hesitating to make tough management decisions” or “encouraging managers to overly cater their employees.”
However, despite these concerns, the approach was not changed and continued across the company. I even heard a funny rumor that “as the engagement survey approached, managers returning from business trips started buying souvenirs for their teams.” While this may have seemed superficial, it showed that managers were becoming more aware of and engaged with their employees’ feelings, which I saw not as a bad thing.
Q. As Sony’s business shifts from manufacturing to content, what are the challenges in managing creative talent?
As the business model shifts from manufacturing to content, the speed and scale of change in the world are accelerating, and this means that creating a world where traditional expertise may no longer be relevant. To keep up with these changes, one of the biggest challenges for management is how to control the time gap between the current situation and the desired future state.
Many Japanese business leaders often say that adapting to change requires replacing employees, but they point to strict labor laws around layoffs as an obstacle to change. However, I don’t necessarily believe that is the core issue. If companies are genuinely committed to change in response to shifts in the business environment, there are many ways to achieve it and shorten the time needed, such as through M&A or partnerships that bring in external expertise and drive broader change within the company.
Japan has many companies with high-potential employees. Instead of rushing to replace these employees just because their skills have become outdated due to changes in the external environment, it is crucial to focus on long-term strategies like efficient employee redeployment, reskilling, and shifting mindsets. This is the true role of HR.
Q. How do you motivate current employees to acquire new skills, especially when facing resistance or a lack of passion?
I believe “urgency” and “curiosity” are key factors. For example, at Sony, the rapid shift from CRT to LCD TVs, created a strong sense of urgency among engineers due to the speed of technological change. At the same time, hardware like TVs and radios were merely “tools” to deliver and enjoy content. The real focus is the content business itself, which we have within our group. The “curiosity” sparked by this has been a powerful force driving transformation. With these elements as key drivers, I believe it is essential to keep employees informed about the business environment and company situation as openly as possible while continuously encouraging change.
Q. Based on your experience in the US, American companies often lay off entire departments when skills become outdated and hire external experts. What do you think of this approach?
In Japan, there is a tendency to be cautious about hiring external specialists because it is difficult to easily lay off employees when their skills become outdated. Instead, many companies value the depth of their internal talent pool and believe it is more beneficial in the long term to leverage their potential. Highly talented employees are not only evaluated based on their skills and performance, but also on how deeply they resonate with the company’s values and mission. At Sony, for example, the value of employees who align with our recently defined “purpose” is high. When the company sincerely and appropriately communicates the need for transformation, employees are committed to the change, and there is great potential for them to flourish. I truly believe that people are capable of such transformation.
Transformative Leaders
Q. What kind of people do you think will drive change at Sony, and how do you support them?
In the past, during times of simpler business models and steady growth, the typical image of a leader was someone with strong charisma and passion, who could inspire others and drive the business forward using their high communication skills, including language proficiency. As HR, it was easy to identify such individuals as ideal leaders. However, after 40 years in HR, I have come to question whether this traditional leader image is still the most important for driving transformation and growth under the current complexity and uncertainty. True transformation often involves bringing in new ideas and directions that differ from past business models, and in this context, traditional leaders might have only been advancing the business as it was, rather than truly driving change.
Reflecting on key people at Sony who have made significant achievements, I notice that many of them don’t fit the typical image of a leader. This aligns with the idea that many successful startup founders are introverted. A common trait among these successful individuals is①the ability to think openly and absorb new ideas. Particularly in content creation, many of them are ②flexible and capable of thinking deeply. In addition to these qualities, they are driven by a ③strong desire to grow and achieve goals, and they can ④effectively translate their ideas into action. These are the qualities that bring true transformation.
Such individuals may not always stand out as leaders in their workplace, and they may be quiet in meetings, making them hard to identify. HR’s role is to discover and support these hidden talents.
Q. Lastly, how do you convince the company to invest in engagement and retention if results aren’t immediately clear?
Investors have increasingly been asking for disclosures related to human capital. However, it is a challenging topic because there are no clear metrics directly tied to business performance. While there are various KPIs, such as turnover rates and the percentage of female executives, these are just numbers that represent one aspect. Among the current indicators, I believe that the most comprehensive measure of all HR initiatives’ effectiveness is the engagement survey. The results of this survey can be analyzed from different angles, and ideally, we should be able to explain how specific actions or initiatives can lead to particular outcomes.
However, proving a clear cause-and-effect relationship is not easy. That is why we decided to work with specialized organizations that have deep expertise in this field. They provide a broad range of support, including managing the survey itself, analyzing results, and helping us create and implement follow-up actions. It is like using a health check-up where, if a certain metric is low, management can see exactly which actions to take for improvement. However, it’s important to understand that results won’t be immediately clear. Tackling these challenges takes time and requires consistent effort.
Q. As HR, how do you identify these “disruptors” (those who can drive or encourage change)?
Identifying and developing such individuals is not easy. Ultimately, I believe it comes down to “actions.” For example, when selecting participants for Sony University, we look at qualities like openness to diversity, open-mindedness, and interest in transformation. More importantly, we assess whether these are being translated into action in their day-to-day work. It is often not easy for anyone other than their direct manager to see this, so we rely on recommendations from supervisors.
Currently, there are about 30 employees being sent from Sony University to IESE. Some of them ask me, “Why was I selected?” I see this kind of self-reflection as valuable, and I am happy that they ask such questions.
Q. What kind of environments or experiences do you think most promote employee growth?
I believe “out-of-the-box thinking” is the key to growth. To achieve this, it is important to first place yourself in an unfamiliar environment and recognize that the environment you were in before was a “box.” Overseas assignments, for example, are one way to achieve this. Changing departments completely is another way to provide a learning opportunity. In this regard, experiences at international business schools can also offer significant learning opportunities. I encourage everyone to take on these challenges and continue growing.
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Co25: Ojima, Mayumi, Yokoyama, Kajiwara, Nagumo, Shiji, Tsuboya and Ushigami
Co26: Tsujii, Nakako, Kuriyama and Okabe