rposes. So I decic i Japanese comp ent styles.
I chos
"It's a Sony!" When looki-g arounc I" your houi:"o :l you "i I pin:;, ably •
that this once used advertisement slogan in Fact is true. No matter
television, radio, video recorder or Walkman - the name Sony is one of I
most recognized brands on electronic entertainment devices.
Mo surprise that the Sony corporation is one global player in electroi
of;
information technology for consumer and professional markets world-
wide. The company, headquartered in Tokyo, in March 2002 employed
16S,00C people all over the world. In 1946, when the two founders of
Sony, the Japanese electrical engineers Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita,
decided to creato rhiji- own t om-.,iny in "n.yo. fey sUrfec ■■•.■it- ? 0
em:;.loyoes.
In the there were a lot of companies who conjured their
subsidiaries out of nothing, and this is where often they very soon
returned to. In contrast, the Sony corporation gave an impression on
what is possible with the proper stra:egy. Thi; mpressive story ot global
success was only possible through a unigue vision that was influenced a
lot by Japanese habits and culture, by the way of operating and doing
things "the Japanese way"
What is so special about the Japanese way? How did the Sony
corporation and especially Akio Morita, who could undoubtedly be seen
a? the uncrowned head of the company, successfully manage to transfer
it to 1.LIU; didri^i '.Yjrkl wiJs"1
I" my i.'L'ini...ri. ■■\.-y cii j=Ub J' ll L Sony 5.i =-u y a" J plnli.'jj|j-y
be transferred to many Western companies today.
To investigate the topic I will focus on certain sublets: .M".--" , L
shcrl look into the Sony iroipoidTion'j iroscnt and past in section 1, I deal
with a little Japanese history and with Japanese culture, traditions and
especially individualism aspects of social life in section 2. Some of them
developec some thousand years ago and still nowadays make a big part
in Japanese everyday and business life, so part 3 will examine
Japanese management jiyle^, w lb a ifj=tid view o" CJ leuivism and
hierarchy. I will compare them with European and U.S. habits and will try
to draw parallels to the Sony phenomenon. In Section 4 I investigate the
strategies Japanese companies use to integrate their Japanese culture,
tradition and management styles into Western markets, with a special
look at the Sony corporation. Were there difficulties or even problems
when transferring Japanese management Structures tO US. Or
European countries? How did they manage to compensate and mix the
different cultures7 To what extend did they have to
peculiarities ol Sony's tk-Lvi i?ri:ion piocoT.i anc draw a lino to how :he r
management styles could be used in Western companies today. The
goal of this paper is not to conclude globalization strategies out of the
Sony experience, because I think that globalization processes today
could not be compared to those that were current more than forty years
ago.
I chose this topic because though we as future managers learn a lot
about how LO d?d\ With loieirjn rnd.rkti the University of
Applied Sciences,
lanagement styles at Jo not get properly
instructed on how we could use them for own purposes. So I decided to
look
LJUIC d\:-j
■.hi' y
at it the other way round and to investigate hoy
d>v. I" ro_e rj ■■ iK-. ..•■.s. r... ,-nc na-aqc
corporation because first of all it definitely is a very successful company.
Besides I always liked the way Sony presented new ideas and
revolutionary products. I wanted to learn more about the internal
structures and innovation processes within the Sony corporation. Also, in
general I am fascinated by the Japanese culture. I loved reading Michael
Crichton's novel "Rising Sun" and watching Ridley Scott's picture "Black
Rain", both dealing being exciting crime thrillers, which also dr.-1 '/.it -
fulfil-.-.I m-flirt: hf rwrrn Americans and
the philosophy of the Sony corporation it is necessan
listorical process of the company which is very mud rs
Akio Morita, born January 20 in 1921, and Masari
the success
probably through
the annual
I he -1 story of the icny c n poi a: 11 stalls n May J A
Japane 50 clectr oil criciii-ieers Masaru Ibuka and Akio
Mor their own company in Tokyo. The company started
a electronic devices named "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo
Company". The
Kabushi translated into "Tokyo Telecommunications
on. Totsuko then
Engineerin name in short was "Totsuko", which will be
used from noi consisted of only 20 workers, which
uring the Second
Ibuka brought From I where they tested and produced
new military equipment World War. In the beginning
the only tasks they acquirec jobs of radios. In the post
war era, the Japanese people w, was no demand For
expensive technology. some music schools and universities. And finally, they managed to sell a so they had to make it bigger again. Uapan) Inc. (SMFJ) take care of the music business.
Subsequently, Ibuka'5 factory V.T-- on an electric large number lo the Japan Supreme Court, which was a turning point In August 1955 the transistor radio TR 5S went on s.ale. It had the
and b-ouch: a lot of Von into fo cash dosi. fo' fk-o yoars thoy neld a honour of being Japan's first transistor radio and sold like hot cakes. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE)
i ■ . i no I ■ |: ii- rod h'M'i'. les re to iroduce items monopoly on magnetic tape recorders, since they owned the AC Bias Totsuko also usee the reputation it achieved with transistors by selling - Insurance business is handled mostly by Sony Life Insurance Co.,
■ v/:!- ,L ::i in .iv;: p- i c i : I d and the weight of Recording patent, until the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. entered the them to other companies. Totsuko grew and grew - in 1956 they already Ltd. and Sony Mjuranee Inc
■ Iv ■: market. But this competitor even more increased sales of the Totsuko
the kind of rice the water. Tasty produced counted 4S3 employees. To realize a corporate international identity,
rice was a rarity, as Ql"ti IJU :• ri-si. iri'.lud:: I-,.:. ■ rj ar il Lied I Laid L'u JI-::L.CI. i.,.t- I L
us i the rice tape recorder, since markets are in fact stimulated by the presence of
mostly undercooked or . Uilui C Totsuka changed its whole company name to Sony Corporation in 1
uvecjL'kcd nee. It wa-. distribution ro aloe JU sines 50 5 n Japan, do.olopnont and
many competing companies. Soon, the tape recorder also penetrated
cooker is a IJI lUuk,. anc hi j i.ull. but a and in I 960 the founding of the first international subsidiary could be
first showed the desi operation c
into the consumer's market
memorable fir tools that the consumers first did announced: The Sony Corporation of America. Sony, being :ho ti'it
fdl ir \dC. recognize as useful b
not were. This still is one of the A much bigger success came when m August 1953, Morita, who Japanese company to do so,
The 1.080 subsidiaries in 70 countries made $57 billion of sales anr.
Sony corporation folio
ideals the ta (p. 87, 1 describes it in his owr was to start out for a three month tour of American and European
DDEralinc revenue, which is the largest in the Sony history.
businesses, was asked to sign an agreement with the US company subsidiaries in Europe, Australia, t nally al over tho world. Their keen
The public dot:, -J". • ■J'.Y at :. JU:L. J c. but .•■■d cu So nj-.-^c '.'I Since the founders of Sony sadly already passed away - Akio Morita
Western Electric. It contained the right to use a license 0" the trans stor. efforts
doing a lot of market research, we refine our thinking on a product and its oi October 3, 1999 and Masaru Ibuka on December 19, 1997 - the
which was invented by Western Electric
company i run by a board consisting of twelve directors, of which the
With this fruit from America they decided lo develop a radio with the world, such as in 1962 first portable mini TV-set, in 1965 the first home
T-ij makes it deai "I ■.n.. rim-.,n ■,• soon ■ i-- I ist most importan
transistor technology. It was a risky process, because they had to afford video system, in 1979 the Walkman, in 1982 the first CD player, in 1983
succ:5Slu
■ hi- a lot of money to built the factory plant that was necessary to produce the first 1W Floppy disk, in 1 985 the first Smm-camera, and so on.
- Norio Qhga, Chairman of the Board
To expand its sales channels, Ibuko and Morita decided to start
the
2.2 Sony - Today
- Nobuyuki Idei, Chief Executive Officer {CEO} Kunitake Ando. Chief
Operating Officer (COO;
-
work on something more striking. The result was the first magnetic tape After they successfully produced the first transistor radio they made
Teruhisa Tokunaka, Chief Financial Officer <CFO'
l-e decision ?-le' Dclh the Japanese a-d LhE 111^ market. But to do the Today the Sony corporation according to the annual report employs
recorder m 1950, in fact a revolutionary invention. Unfortunately, things
latter, they needed to think of a more significant label than Totsuku was. about 1 68,000 people world-wide in more than five lines of business.
went different. As Morita points out:
I -ey 'rV;re i "?.:>i ■■c :iy : -= e'Di;SS 11 so-ny . which cl ihcl Lime purlieu The electronics business consists of audio, video, televisions.
We were in for a rude awakening. The tape recorder was so new to
Japar that almost no one knew what a tape recorder was, and most of la - y in the US stood for happiness and joy, but unluckily for Japanese
meant "to lose money". So they mixed it with "sonus", the Latin word for other.
the people who did know could not see why they should buy one. It was
not something people felt they needed. We could not sell it. 1 (Morita. "sound-, and out came "Sony". Totsuko wanted to a^oid that its products
were "convicted' as "Made in Japan" by US customers, so they printed software business.
1968, p. 64;
the obligatory line as small as possible once too small for US customs, - Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SMEI) and Sony Music Entertainment