BOOK REVIEW

PRESENTATION
 INTRODUCTION
 Autobiography of Mr. Akio Morita
 It was written with the assistance of “Edwin R.
Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura
 The book not only narrates the story of Mr.
Morita but the Sony corporation’s formation after
Japan’s defeat in world war-II
 Book also provides insights into Japanese Culture
and the Japanese way of thinking, particularly their
business Management Philosophies and styles.
 Morita introduces the origins of his family, and
how Sony was founded.
 Introduction
 Chapters picture the War, early tape recorders, and
various conclusions on International Markets.
 The Transistor was invented in North America in the
1950’s and Sony took advantage of it.
 The biography gives authentic details about the
patent issues, business conferences in various
countries, and the invention of the Walkman.
 About the Author
 Name : Akio Morita
 Birth Date : January 26, (1921-1999)
 Nationality : Japanese
 Occupation : Entrepreneur , Co-founder and former
chairman of the board of the SONY Corporation
 He was a frequent speaker on International affairs.
The book is divided into following nine
sections :
1. War
2. Peace
3. Selling To The World ( My learning curve)
4. On Management ( It’s all in the family)
5. American and Japanese Styles ( The difference)
6. Competition ( The fuel of Japanese Enterprise)
7. Technology ( Survival Exercise )
8. Japan and the World
9. World Trade (Adverting Crisis)
 History
In 1945 after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a
radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo.
 The next year, he was joined by his colleague Akio
Morita and they founded a company called Tokyo
Tsushin Kogyo K.K. which translates in English to
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation.
 In 1955 – Sony release the first transistor radio.
 In 1957 – First small pocket transistor radio
 In 1958 – Company’s name changed to Sony
corporation
& in Dec.2008,the company was listed
on the
 Selected Quotes
 "The investor and the employee are in the same
position, but sometimes the employee is more
important, because he will be there a long time whereas
an investor will often get in and out on a whim in order
to make a profit."
 “ The primary function of management is decision
making and that means professional knowledge of
technology and the ability to foresee the future direction
or trends of technology. I believe a manager must have a
wide range of general knowledge covering his own
business field. It also helps to have a special sense,
generated by knowledge and experience”
 "...the key factor in industry is creativity. I said there
are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product
planning, and in marketing. To have any one of these
without the others is self defeating in business."
For Achieving Goal Sony uses following
techniques
 A monthly R & D meeting
 A technology symposium once a month
 An R & D Planning and Co-ordination Division
 Invests Venture Capital
 Technology fair once a year.

The idea of these initiatives are to avoid duplication

and to keep control over R&D expenditure.
Differences between Japanese
and American mentality
 Japanese do not think
that managers are special
people and are elected to
lead stupid people to do
incredible things.
 Americans posses
mentality of proritizing
their employees on the
basis of designations.

 Japanese corporate  Americans rely too much

executives make decisions on outsiders for making
on their own. business decisions.

 One of the distinctive  Many U.S. technology

features of Japanese breakthroughs are spin-
creativity is that it is driven offs from defense work
by changes in the funded by the government
consumer marketplace
rather than by defense
industry expenditure.
 In Japan special care is  In the U.S., workers are
taken for the workers and not job secured,
their enthusiasm is managers leave the
maintained. organization as and when
they require but so isn’t
possible for a worker.
 Many Japanese
companies work on the  Whereas in the U.S.,
principle of ‘Proposal’ one-man or small-team
system. management is a
common practice and top
level people only can
propose their ideas.
 Why this book ???
• Good lesson for Entrepreneurs
• An IDEA can change your life
• Success story of Japanese style
 Key learnings
• Team Work
• Innovation
• Keep high Motivation in crisis situation
• Build relationship with employee
Thank You…