TOKYO It was fall 2009 and Toshiba's new executive team was briefing current and retired executives on its management policy. A speech by the newly installed president and CEO, Norio Sasaki, stunned the audience into silence.
"You will witness a way of management that is different from the one you've seen until now. We will get the company back into the black in the first year of operations [under the new team]." Sasaki had dismissed the management policy and strategy of his immediate predecessor, Atsutoshi Nishida, with the man himself in the audience.