Business Tech Africa Interview with Jobin Joejoe, Managing Director, Sony Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Business Tech Africa recently had the chance to interview the incredible Jobin Joejoe, the Managing Director at Sony, Middle East and Africa (MEA). We got to know more about him as well as Sony.

See how the interview went below:

1. Tell us about yourself – please include details around who you are as a person beyond work.

Beyond work, I use my free time to travel with my family and play pool or snooker with friends. Apart from that, I have a keen interest in watching sports, especially Formula One and cricket. As a cricket fan myself, I appreciate the thrill of rooting for your favourite team and the flowing excitement that comes anticipating for the win.

1. Tell us about your journey in the tech industry? Where did it all begin?

I’m a big believer in destiny and I think this is a classic example. As a child, I was extremely fascinated by Sony, further supported by my interest in sales. Fast forward to 2007, the opportunity arose to be a part of the team at Sony and the rest is history.

1. Can you describe your leadership style and how you plan to motivate and inspire your team?

I strive to create a form of a visionary leadership style focused on fostering creativity and diversity. Our People philosophy ‘Special You, Diverse Sony’ bridges the intersection between innovation and creativity by nurturing open-mindedness and collaboration to mutually deliver and pave the way forward.

1. How do you plan to foster a culture of innovation and creativity within the company?

Here at Sony, we embrace the ideas of each and every individual and foster a space where innovation and creativity flourish. Our objectives as a team are derived around carrying forward Sony’s purpose to ‘Fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology’. It is this shared mission, that we are able to create a space where individuals can ideate, experiment, and collaborate for a better future.

1. What does your role as the newly appointed Managing Director for Sony Middle East and Africa entail, and what are your key focus areas/plans for the region?

Two years ago, in my role as Deputy Managing Director, I oversaw key operations, enhanced our expansion of business operations across the Middle East and African regions and stabilised our sales and marketing efforts towards 3R’s which is Reality, Realtime and Remote. Today, in my role as the newly appointed Managing Director for Sony Middle East and Africa, we will continue to go in the same direction to achieve exceptional results and bring us closer to our customers. All our activities and plans for the region are targeted towards increasing customer’s lifetime value through retention marketing and tapping into new business opportunities to maximise our areas of expansion.

1. What are some of Sony’s top performing consumer products in this region and what are your expectations in terms of demand and growth?

Our customers have always been a benchmark to define our strategy and expectations in terms of demand and growth especially in the audio and content creation segment.  We will continue to bring cutting edge technology to support the emerging needs of this region with the industry leading full frame mirrorless camera Alpha 9 III in the digital imaging segment, the newly launched battery-operated wireless speakers as part of the ULT series and the award winning 1000x noise cancelling headphones in the audio segment.

1. How is Sony investing in South Africa/Africa? Tell us about some of your projects and partnerships in this region.

We operate in the African market through a hub and spoke model covering the entire region. All our initiatives and activities are planned to cater to the needs of our customer preferences. To reinforce our purpose, we strive to contribute to the local economy through core events such as the Sony Creators Convention, Alpha Festival, Sony Cine Tours, workshops, and other demand creation activities. Recently we also established the Sony Innovation Fund: Africa as an initiative to support the growth of the entertainment businesses in Africa through key collaborations in the gaming, music, movie, and content distribution sector.

1. As a brand that prioritises sustainable development, tell us about Sony’s Road to Zero plan and commitments in addressing the environmental footprint of your products and business activities.

Delivering innovation for an accessible future, stands at the forefront of all our business activities. We promote a 2-step model that involves ‘Responsibility and Contribution’. The long-term environmental plan “Road to Zero” announced in 2010, symbolizes responsibility and further drives our initiatives across four perspectives being climate change, resources, chemical substances, and biodiversity to achieve a zero-environment footprint by 2050. We back cast from the target year for achievement and set medium term goals every five years to work on reducing our environmental impact. Given that responding to climate change has become a particularly urgent issue amongst the four perspectives, and a little over a year ago, we had announced that we would bring forward our goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 10 years to 2040.

1. What are some of the global trends you’ve picked up in the industry when it comes to AI and other technology developments and how do you plan on adopting these for the Middle East and Africa region?

As a creative entertainment company, embracing new ideas and technologies has always been at the forefront of our initiatives. We continue to bring the latest products to support these advancements in the technology sector with a wide range of digital imaging products such as the Alpha 9 III – the world’s first full-frame image sensor camera with a global shutter system, capturing the moment in real-time. Last year we also introduced various firmware updates to ensure the authenticity of images and protect creators with Sony’s in-camera digital signature technology that signs images in real time. Through these updates, we are able to solidify our commitment to technology developments and preserve the authenticity of local content creators through an added layer of protection.

1. Lastly, how do you view the role of technology in driving business growth and innovation?

Every once in a while, a new piece of technology comes along that really changes the way we   operate and innovate whether it is taking photographs or entering into an immersive space with the noise cancelling headphones. At Sony, we empower creators to express themselves in new ways by adopting new technology and ideas empowering all genres of content creation to get closer to our customers and drive overall growth and innovation. To support this growth, we introduced Mirrorless Technology through our Alpha digital imaging lineup, cognitive processing with the Sony BRAVIA, 360 spatial sound mapping and the award winning 1000x series in the noise cancellation headphones category.