Monday, December 8, 2014
SONY CORPORATION,
commonly referred to as Sony,
is a Japanese multinational conglomeratecorporation headquartered
in Kōnan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified business is primarily
focused on the electronics, game, entertainment and financial services sectors. The company is one of the leading
manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and
professional markets. Sony
is ranked 87th on the 2012 list of Fortune
Global 500.
Sony
Corporation is the electronics business
unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in
business through its four operating segments – Electronics (including video games, network services and
medical business), Motion
pictures, Music and Financial Services. These make Sony one of the most
comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business
operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), and Sony Financial. Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales
Leaders and third-largest television manufacturer in the world, after Samsung Electronics and LG
Electronics.
The Sony Group (ソニー・グループ Sonī Gurūpu?) is a Japan-based corporate group primarily focused on the Electronics
(such as AV/IT products and components), Game (such as PlayStation),
Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such
as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding
and electronics), Sony Computer
Entertainment (games),Sony
Pictures Entertainment (motion
pictures), Sony Music
Entertainment (music), Sony/ATV Music Publishing (music publishing), Sony Financial Holdings (financial services) and others.
Its
founders Akio Morita and Masaru
Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the
English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be
"sonny boys", a loan
word into Japanese which in the
early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men. The company's current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogan
was make.believe and like.no.other.
When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was
looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly
considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that
the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK. The company occasionally used the
acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States,
Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another
early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American
company already using Teletech as a brand name.
The name
"Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word "Sonus", which
is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "Sonny", a
familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but
the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.
At the
time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing
it in kanji. The move was not
without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the
name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony
Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name
tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's
chairman gave their approval.
According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio "cracked open the
U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics."
By the mid-1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in
huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated
100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million units by the end of 1968.
Sony co-founder Akio Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in
1960. In the process, he was struck by the
mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan
at that time. When he returned to Japan, he encouraged
experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their
careers and consider joining Sony. The company filled
many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the
same. Moreover, Sony played a major role in the
development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It also helped to significantly improve American perceptions
of "made in Japan" products. Known for its
production quality, Sony was able to charge above-market prices for its
consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices.
In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the position of president over to his
co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life insurance company in 1979, one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a
global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company
was forced to cut prices.Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for
Sony," one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind
it." Around that time, Norio Ohgatook up the role of president. He encouraged the development of
the Compact Disc in the 1970s and 80s, and of the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, greatly expanding Sony's media presence. Ohga would
succeed Morita as chief executive
officer in 1989.
Under the vision of co-founder Akio Morita and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded
into new businesses. Part of its motivation for doing so was
the pursuit of "convergence," linking film, music, and digital
electronics via the Internet.This expansion
proved unrewarding and unprofitable, threatening Sony's
ability to charge a premium on its products as well as its
brand name. In 2005, Howard Stringer replaced Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer, marking the first time that a foreigner has
run a major Japanese electronics firm. Stringer helped to reinvigorate the
company's struggling media businesses, encouraging blockbusters such as Spider-Man while cutting 9,000 jobs. He hoped to sell
off peripheral business and focus the company again on electronics. Furthermore, he aimed to increase cooperation between
business units,which he described as "silos"
operating in isolation from one another. In a bid to
provide a unified brand for its global operations, Sony introduced a slogan
known as "make.believe" in 2009.
Despite some successes, the company faced continued struggles in
the mid- to late-2000s. It became known for its stagnancy, with a
fading brand name. In 2012, Kazuo Hirai was promoted to president and CEO, replacing Sir Howard
Stringer. Shortly thereafter, Hirai outlined his company-wide initiative, named
"One Sony" to revive Sony from years of financial losses and
bureaucratic management structure, which proved difficult for former CEO
Stringer to accomplish, partly due to differences in business culture and
native languages between Stringer and some of Sony's Japanese divisions and
subsidiaries. Hirai outlined 3 major areas of focus for Sony's electronics
business, which include imaging technology, gaming and mobile technology, as
well as a focus on reducing the major losses from the television business.
In February 2014, Sony announced the sale of its Vaio PC division
to a new corporation owned by investment fund Japan Industrial Partners and
spinning its TV division into its own corporation as to make it more nimble to
turn the unit around from past losses totaling $7.8 billion over a decade.
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