Leadership Q&A: The View From Treasury

Mary Jo Green, senior vice president and treasurer of Sony Corp. of America, helps shape corporate strategy for the New York City-based entertainment giant. She discussed treasury leaders' changing role with Business Finance editor John Cummings.

John Cummings: You've been with Sony Corp. of America for about five years now?

Mary Jo Green: Five years exactly.

JC: I guess you've seen some major movie releases in that time?

MJG: Absolutely! Spiderman 1 and 2 were the big ones since I've been here.

JC: It must be a very exciting business to be in.

MJG: It is extremely exciting. We are in so many diverse but related businesses. We have electronics, which is the hardware, and we have the content, which is the pictures business. And we have music, through the Sony/BMG joint venture. And then of course we have PlayStation. So it's a lot of fun.

JC: Leading a finance team in a company as diverse and decentralized as Sony Corp. of America must present some unusual opportunities and challenges.

MJG: I don't think we're as decentralized as most people would think from the outside. We have content and hardware. What we've tried to do over the years is to have the business units work with each other to see how they can offer more to the customer. From a treasury perspective, it's definitely not decentralized. As the treasurer of Sony Corp. of America, I deal with all the business units, so I'm constantly visiting them to see how I can assist them and how I can facilitate cross-company collaboration across geographies as well as the different business lines. So quite often we're looking across all the business units to see if what works in one will work in the others.