Akio Morita (盛田昭夫) was the co-founder of Sony Corporation with his friend Masaru Ibuka. As a leader of Sony, He changed the accepted marketing concepts and focussed on brand-name identification and brand responsibility - a concept widely used today but virtually unheard of then. By insisting on producing high quality products with cutting edge technology, Morita transformed the reputation of the Japanese technology industry so that it became associated with superior quality rather than inexpensive copies. As he himself said, "[They] made Sony the Cadillac of electronics."
Background.
Morita Akio,was born in January 26, 1921 in Tokoname, Aichi, Japan. in 1944 he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He later joined the IJN (navy) during World War II. During his service, Morita met his future partner and the most important friend in all his life, Masaru Ibuka, in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.
On May 7, 1946, Morita and Ibuka founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner to Sony Corporation) with about 20 employees.
In 1949, the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950. In 1957, it produced a pocket-sized radio and in 1958 Morita and Ibuka made the decision to rename their company Sony (sonus is Latin for sound, and Sonny-boys is Japanese slang for "whiz kids"). Morita was an advocate for all the products made by the Sony Corporation. In 1960 it produced the first transistor television in the world. In 1979 the Walkman was introduced, making it the world's first portable music player. In 1984 Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products.
In 1960, the Sony Corporation of America was established in the United States. In 1961, the Sony Corporation of America was the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Sony bought Columbia Records and other CBS labels in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989.
On November 25, 1994, Morita announced his resignation as Sony chairman, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while playing tennis.
Arts of leadership
Akio could be called Spiritual leader of Sony, while in charge in the areas of marketing, globalization, finance and human resources, Akio shows great leadership. Unlike other businessmen who change hostile to former partner, like John D Rockefeller, It’s Morita Akio and Masaru Ibuka’s friendship paved the way for Sony. —Ibuka the engineering fiddler, taking gadgets apart on the floor of his office to see how they worked; Morita the sleek manager, scion of an old sake-brewing family, friend of the great and good on three continents.
RCA, the Radio Corporation of America was formed during World War I because the Assistant Navy Secretary, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was convinced that radio patents should be under American patent when he learned that the British Marconi Company was about to buy-out part of General Electric. So when Roosevelt intervened General Electric not only purchased American Marconi, but also took control of the organization of the American radio control in October of 1919. They were later also merged with Westinghouse out of convenience and thus RCA was created. (MZTV Online 1)
BPS was known its high quality to distributors and end users. Based on its strategy of being ranked in top 3 in the designated market segment high-end projectors, BPS had achieved the no. 1 in graphic projector and managed to be top 3 in data and video projector sectors. BPS had intentionally set the bar by making its product "unnecessarily complex" to prevent the entrance of other competitors. Dealers and end-users complained about it but BPS held this strategy since it was regarded as a necessary differentiating way among competitors: Sony, Electrohome, and NEC. Sony was the strongest competitor and had a unique relationship with Barco. Competing in the market of industry projector with Barco, it provided the core component of the projector to Barco - tubes.
Clearly Polycom’s success does not just stem from quality products and services, but also from the employees who are in the trenches every day; creating new products, increasing productivity, maintaining and increasing customer satisfaction, excellent customer service, etc. Foresight, innovation, and strategic planning are a daily routine to keep the company a successful competitor in the market. It is without a doubt that Polycom needs qualified leadership. High caliber leadership/management is vital to successfully run a global enterprise of this statute. Constant re-organization and product structure changes are necessary to adapt to current and future consumer demands. I interviewed one of the leading managers at Polycom to find out what it takes to keep the machine rolling and what the typical duties of a manager entail.
Philips versus Matsushita Case Synopsis Two major competitors in the global consumer electronics industry, Philips of the Netherlands and Matsushita of Japan, both have extensive histories that can be traced back more than a century. They have each followed different strategies and have had significant capabilities and downfalls along the way. In general, Philips built its tenured success on a portfolio of responsive national organizations. On the other hand, Matsushita based its global strategy on a centralized and efficient operation through Japan. As they developed and reorganized their international strategies, each company was forced to undertake its strategic posture and restructuring as its competition position fell.
Thus began a long period of imitation, manufacturing products that were invented elsewhere. Sharp operated in industries in which products were easy to imitate and followed a dominant design. In addition to making refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners, Sharp also manufactured televisions licensed from RCA and microwaves licensed from Litton. Though Hayakawa promoted innovation, “the company remained primarily an assembler” of consumer goods (Noda 2). Sharp’s relatively small size and limited capital prevented it from developing a vertically integrated business and forced it to contract with other companies for significant portions of the value chain. This meant that it could not maintain control over its intelle...
Motorola was first founded in 1928, making battery eliminators for household radios. In 1929 the company designed and manufactured and car radios, then a new concept, and subsequent sales kept the company afloat during the Great Depression of the 30s.
In his high school years, Bill Gates proclaimed that one day he would be a millionaire. He greatly underestimated himself. He became interested in computers while in the 8th grade. His school received a hookup to a high powered computer. Bill and his good friend Paul Allen used to skip gym class to use the computer. Sometimes they would even break into the school at night to spend time on the computer. Eventually Bill made his first program. A virtual tic-tac-toe game.
Sony’s problems continued and were ‘most obvious in its core electronics business, which accounts for two-thirds of its revenues’ as the consumer devices such as TV’s, DVD players and music players came under fierce price pressure and Sony failed to come up with any more trend-setting new gadgets to boost profits (The Economist, 2005). Idei resigned after a series of stumbles and handed the reins to Welsh-born American Howard Stringer, a former television executive (Dvorak, 2005, p.1). Prior to joining Sony, Mr. Stringer had a distinguished 30-year career as a journalist, producer and executive at CBS Inc (www.sony.net).
On November 24, Sony released the PlayStation 3, kicking off the latest round in the video game console wars. But this is not like the battles of the past for Sony, whose annual revenue now hinges on outselling rivals Nintendo and Microsoft. Sony doesn't seem to realize the situation it's created for itself, gambling its gaming business on a strategy that will alienate the very public that made earlier PlayStations undisputed leaders for the last decade.
Philips’ major rival, Matsushita, started as a small electrical house-ware manufacturer in 1918. The company expanded rapidly and soon introduced a flood of new products. By the end of the century, Matsushita grew into a global player with powerful brand names such as Panasonic, Quasar Technics, and JVC.
The Osborne Computer Corporation was founded in 1980 by Adam Osborne. This company was founded upon the idea of developing one product, the portable computer system. The first Osborne 1 was shown at the National Computer Conference in May of 1981 and was an instant hit. It brought brand new concepts to the table, such as a built-in screen and an optional battery back. (2) This computer, though a success, had lots of room for technological advances. A small 5" screen and a weight of 24.5 lbs left users wanting more. Surprisingly, it wasn't the mobility of the computer that was the selling point, but it was the $1500 worth of software that was included in the $1795 price tag. To the business consumer, this was an incredible deal. Within the first 8 months of sales, 11,000 units were shipped and 50,000 were on backorder. The success of the world's first portable computer was apparent, but the business smarts of the Osborne Computer Corporation were not. After massive success with the Osborne 1, the company began to develop a new portable computer system to sell. Despite the rampant success of the Osborne 1, several other computer companies offered a large amount of competition. Not only did the competition make improvements upon the Osborne 1, but they also introduced a new a new IBM operating system that was faster and had more software titles available. Although the competition was heavy, the Osborne 1 continued to sell until early in 1983 when Adam Osborne announced the future arrival of a new product from the Osborne Computer Corporation. This announcement killed the demand for the Osborne 1 in anticipation for its replacement. As inventory increased, sales decreased until Sept. 13th, 1983 when Osborne Computer Corporation filed for bankruptcy. (3)
How you ever thought about the people who are the face of the company? Why are they the face of the company? What did they do to get this kind of image? Most of the time, a person who founded the company is the face of the company. What if there is more than one cofounder of the company? Then who is the face of the company? There cannot be multiple faces of the company. For example, Microsoft is one these companies that has more than one cofounder of the company. Nevertheless, Bill Gates is the face of the company, not Paul Allen. More of the people don’t even know him. This research paper will evaluate about why Bill Gates is the face of the Microsoft. What did he do to become the face of the Microsoft? Why is Paul
William Henry Gates, also known as “Bill”, has established himself as the richest man in the world. He is the youngest self made billionaire, and perhaps the best businessman in the world. As you read along, you will learn what Bill Gates’ accomplishments were, what his beliefs were, and why this topic is so important. Bill Gates is important because not only did he change the computer technology in America, he also became the biggest, strongest, richest and the most powerful company in the world.
Success started at a young age for Michael Dell, he was only 12 years old when his first product catalog called “Dell’s Stamps” advertised in the local trade journal. He learned early in life to develop a direct relationship with the customer which later would provide the key to his success (Krames, p. 58). Andy Grove had teamed up with Bob Noyce, and Gordon Moore in 1968 after discovering they could create chips with massive memory. Grove used a metaphor to describe his foundation of success – a three-legged stool; execution and strategy (Krames, p. 137). When one leg is off, it throws off the whole system. Dell’s major accomplishment came when he planned and sold personal computers out of his dormitory room which lead to the creation of Dell Computers Corporation. At the age of 27, Dell was the Top CEO of a Fortune 500 company. He had clear ideas about how-to-do business.
great skill in the area of math. In fact he scored a perfect on the math