Sony - a Japanese company going global

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0 (A), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, course: Int. Management/Culture- and Social Studies, language: English, abstract: ¿It¿s a Sony!¿ ¿ When looking around in your household you will probably see that this once used advertisement slogan in fact is true. No matter if television, radio, video recorder or Walkman ¿ the name Sony is one of the most recognized brands on electronic entertainment devices.

No surprise that the Sony corporation is one global player in electronic business. It is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology for consumer and professional markets world-wide.

The company, headquartered in Tokyo, in March 2002 employed 168,000 people all over the world. In 1946, when the two founders of Sony, the Japanese electrical engineers Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, decided to create their own company in Tokyo, they started with 20 employees.

In the past 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 strategy. This impressive story of global success was only possible through a unique 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 as the uncrowned head of the company, successfully manage to transfer it to subsidiaries world-wide?

In my opinion, many aspects of the Sony strategy and philosophy could also be transferred to many Western companies today.

To investigate all these aspects was the goal of this work.