Naveen Madan / P.S. Suby Praveen Kumar / K.V.

Rangarajan Partha Pratim Pal

Sony- Japan based leading manufacturer of consumer electronics, IT products. Core competency- Miniaturization Innovator of popular products- Walkman, Discman, Play Station, Blu-ray In Fiscal 2009, Sony suffered losses in most of product lines. Total loss 99 bn. Yen. Setback to Chairman & CEO Howard Stringers efforts at restoring the Co. to profitability. (first non- Japanese CEO in a six decade history)

Clear performance drop since 2000. Post Stringer- stock moved up, Nosedived from last qtr. 08/09 partly recession/ poor performance, Investor confidence still high as reflected in volumes. Possibly people see it as a value stock.

Focus since inception on product innovation and High quality products. Did innovation and believed consumer will need itdid not give importance to market research.

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Silo culture Slowness in accessing a product Appreciating value of yen against US dollar also compounded to problems. Highly decentralised and intra-competing. Initially worked well later back fired. Lack of Coordination & Communication across divisions cost them dear.

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Failure to launch products as per need of the hour e.g., launch of online music store- Ipod / digital portable music player / online music store. Overshooting both budget & time in developing Play Station 3. Blame game also propped up. Efforts to rebrand Sony united was failed due to cultural conflict within. Till early 1990s Sony ruled with quality @ premium cost; but after a dig in quality depicted their dethroning .

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Pioneers till 1990s. Playing a style of Not to loose made them unable to perceive the market change to flat screen and LCDs. Samsung and LG dethroned Sony with innovativeness and quality. Launch of Bravia also did not click as customers got the same quality at cheaper price. Failure to keep up with technology and inability to cut the cost in manufacturing and operating out of Japan when cheaper propositions were there marked their downfall.