MBA Recruitment in Sony Europe: Interview

Sony Europe takes their MBA recruitment and the calibre of the graduates they recruit very seriously. Here, TopMBA.com interviews Tom Verbeke, HR Manager of People and Organizational Development - Sony Europe

TopMBA: Please tell us about your background.

Tom Verbeke: I graduated with a Masters in Organisational Psychology in Belgium in the year 2000, and started working as a consultant for SHL (Saville & Holdsworth Ltd.) where I performed account management, and all consultant related HR work (training and development, competency modelling, psychometric test development, assessment and development centre management). After a couple of years, I went to work as HR Officer at Telindus, then was promoted to HR Manager for Belgium in 2004. I moved to the European People and Organisational Development team within HR Europe at Sony (living in the UK) as an HR Manager, responsible for the European Graduate Program in Europe in July 2006.

TopMBA: How does Corporate Social Responsibility play a part in your company?

Tom Verbeke: CSR is part of a global strategy within Sony, where a lot of investment is happening in all areas related to CSR. We aim to act in the interest of the company's employees, shareholders, business partners, and local communities. Green management and the responsibility of Sony as a Green Consumer Electronics Company is also a very big aspect of this domain, where Sony has set market leading objectives (Green Management 2010) in order to reduce the pollution when developing, manufacturing, transporting, selling and disposing of consumer electronics components and products.

TopMBA: What types of characteristics do you look for in a candidate?

Tom Verbeke: Obviously, candidates within Sony and in particular for the European Graduate Program, which attracts a lot of MBAs, are screened on a number of variables ranging from objective criteria such as business degree and languages, to qualitative criteria like cultural fit, initiative, proactivity, flexibility, and autonomy, to name a few.

TopMBA: What are some of the exciting roles that may interest the MBA applicant?

Tom Verbeke: Sales and Marketing related roles where a general business background is most useful in tackling all aspects of the challenges we face within the CE business. Examples of roles are within the sales departments, brand marketing, trade marketing or communications areas, or within the product marketing related sector of the business. Next to that, we also hire people for supply chain and operations focused roles where project management and improvement projects are the main challenges of these jobs. Looking more at candidate profiles, not only the technically educated people find their way to applying to Sony. As we are constantly expanding our business to others sectors and client bases, Sony does need a healthy input of talented, broadly educated talent and this is where I believe the MBA comes into play.

TopMBA: Does diversity matter?

Tom Verbeke: Employing a diverse group of people is crucial to Sony. Diversity is a key aspect of the European Graduate Program at Sony. The population of graduates that are sent to the assessment centres within Sony is 50% male, 50% female. Diversity in terms of nationality and educational background is also guaranteed through the global recruitment process where the European Graduate Program places international graduates from all over the world in its European organization ranging from assignments within Finance & Controlling to Sales and Marketing, as well as Logistics and Supply Chain.

TopMBA: How has your company changed within the past few years?

Tom Verbeke: The consumer electronics business has globally changed throughout the past few years, due to increasing competition and higher technological capabilities all over the world. Electronics brands have had to change their business models in order to cope with the ever-changing business world, and therefore the organization has had to change in order to enable this business to flourish again. Creating added value in order to avoid commoditization has demanded a radical change in the way Sony approaches the consumer, institutional and professional markets in Europe. Through the attraction of young talent and initiatives such as the European Graduate Program, Sony has found ways to attract potential within the company that will ensure the organization is able to continue this evolution, both in the present and in the future.