Toshiba's PC Chief Will Take Top Spots
Toshiba Corp. chose the head of its personal-computer division to be its next president, as the Japanese electronics giant struggles to stay profitable in an industry that is increasingly becoming as cutthroat as the personal-computer business.
Toshiba said Atsutoshi Nishida, 61 years old, will become president and chief executive in June, succeeding Tadashi Okamura , who will move to the post of chairman. The current chairman, Taizo Nishimuro, will become an adviser.
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The move marks a new phase in Toshiba's quest to rebuild its businesses after years of low profits and sluggish growth. Mr. Okamura, like other Japanese electronics executives, worked to restructure his company, shedding an important but unprofitable memory-chip business and cutting personnel as well as procurement costs.
His successor will have to increase profitability as competition in electronics heats up from a raft of new rivals -- from low-cost Asian makers to U.S. PC companies.
Mr. Nishida has already turned around Toshiba's PC business twice: once in the early 1990s, when the American operations were being pummeled by producers with lower costs such as Compaq Computer, and the second time last year, after the PC division posted a 47.4 billion yen ($449 million) operating loss in the year ended March 31, 2004.
Mr. Nishida was put in charge of the PC division a year ago, and moved quickly to cut costs by reducing the number of basic models and increasing the use of less-expensive subcontracted manufacturers outside Japan. This fiscal year, Toshiba expects the division to post an operating profit of six billion yen. Toshiba is the world's third-largest maker of notebook PCs, by units, after Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Now, Toshiba hopes Mr. Nishida will apply those turnaround skills to other parts of the company, particularly because consumer electronics -- another big part of Toshiba's operations -- are increasingly being made from standardized digital components, the way PCs are built.
Toshiba hopes that PCs and consumer electronics eventually can be a strong profit engine, along with its semiconductor operations and heavy-industry businesses like power generators. During the current fiscal year, however, the company expects its television business will incur losses, and its electronics-goods division will account for only about 6% of operating profit.
Mr. Nishida said one lesson he has learned from running a successful PC business is the importance of speed. "From now on, as more and more businesses become digital, speed will be increasingly important," he Nishida told a news conference in Tokyo yesterday.
东芝任命公司下任总裁
日本电子巨擘东芝公司(Toshiba Corp)任命旗下个人电脑业务负责人为公司下任总裁。该公司竭力在竞争越来越像个人电脑业务那样激烈的电子行业中保持盈利。
东芝表示，现年61岁的Atsutoshi Nishida将从6月份起接替Tadashi Okamura的职务，担任公司总裁兼首席执行长。Okamura将担任公司董事长。现任董事长Taizo Nishimuro将担任公司顾问。
此举标志东芝在经历数年的低利润率和疲软增长后寻求重整其业务的努力进入新的阶段。和其他日本电子行业管理人士一样，Okamura致力于重组东芝，放弃了重要但无利可图的存储晶片业务，并降低人力资源和采购成本。
Nishida曾两度扭转东芝个人电脑业务的命运：一次在20世纪90年代，当时东芝的美国业务受到像康柏电脑公司(Compaq Computer)等低成本电脑制造商的打击；第二次是在去年，在东芝个人电脑业务截至2004年3月31日财政年度出现474亿日圆（4.49亿美元）的经营亏损之后。
