Chivers said: "Personally, I like speed of change, so I want to hit the bottom fast and bounce back up.
"Sony is the future of our business and I hope we can manage the Sony relationship because I know it is right for us. From a consumer position, this could be so good and Ericcson is very positive about the company
"I don't know yet if we will be 'Sonified', but we have worked hard to build up HR at Sony Ericcson, so we want to represent this good people strategy to the people at Sony. I hope we can be strong at managing upwards, keeping what we do best and taking what's best from Sony.
"It is an interesting time to be an HRD."
Chivers talked about the "massive change" the company had gone through since the recession of 2009, reducing his own HR spend from £27 million to £17 million and headcount in the HR department from 205 to 105 people.
But he added: "I wanted to re-invest in HR and needed the right quality of people and I had the support of the CEO."
The company's HR team moved away from managing benefits and pay administration and low-level recruitment and, as Chivers stated, went "from operations to recruitment."
It launched a global leadership survey, embedded a global leadership programme and a mentoring scheme with particular focus on potential female leaders. It also adopted the HR business partner model of placing HR leaders in every territory it operates in globally.
He added: "HR needs to focus on the top people [in business] because they drag the rest with them... By taking out layers of management, it gives our leaders a greater span of control. I had to work to change people's attitude to HR and I know it can actually add to the bottom line."
