Who is the founder of Japan's "Sony"?

Akio Morita was born in 1921 into a wealthy family that had been engaged in brewing rice wine for generations.

Akio Morita is the founder of Japan's "Sony". He made "Sony" a household name in the world.

Sony tape recorders have won the trust and favor of customers with their high quality. Sony, led by Akio Morita, became the fourth largest electrical appliance supplier in the world.

Today, Sony has nearly 50,000 employees, 10 subsidiaries and dozens of subsidiary companies, has built factories in dozens of countries, and sells its products to more than 180 countries and regions. Sony has become the Sony of Japan and the Sony of the world.

More than 30 years ago, Japan's Sony Corporation was still an unknown small company in the world's corporate world and even in Japan. At the time, the company only produced a small transistor radio.

President Akio Morita took a small radio worth US$29.95 to New York, USA, to sell it. Since people didn't know about Sony and the radios at that time were very large, it was taken for granted that small radios were of poor quality and of no use. Akio Morita received a lot of cold treatment and ridicule.

Akio Morita made up his mind at that time and said to the president of a large company in Hillelwa, USA:

“50 years ago, your company was unknown. I can guarantee that 50 years ago, your company was unknown. Years from now, our company will be as resounding as yours!"

Because Akio Morita identified the market demand for small electronic products, after 30 years of hard work, Sony finally made it ahead of others in all types of electrical appliances! Conquer the market in one step and join the ranks of the world's largest companies.

Akio Morita, President of Sony Corporation of Japan, emphasized that one of the two most important factors in Sony's success is an in-depth understanding of the market. Akio Morita used his own actions to illustrate the importance of running a business and conducting frequent business trips for market inspections in developing the business. He is a living example of this.

Akio Morita’s first visit to Western Europe was in 1953, when he purchased three West German cameras in Europe. Since then, he has never stopped traveling for business abroad, collecting information, deepening his understanding of foreign markets, including understanding of current situations and potential situations, and maximizing his understanding of changes in foreign market conditions. By 1974, he had flown across the Pacific 120 times in order to understand the situation of Sony's products in foreign markets. In the second half of 1974, he traveled to Western Europe, Boston and New York City in the United States, Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, and Brazil, a Latin American country.

Akio Morita worked hard and grasped the international market conditions to the greatest extent, allowing the Sony company he ran to move from the narrow domestic market to the international market. Sony embarked on the road of international enterprise and finally became A world-famous large enterprise.

In 1961, some Sony employees wanted to take advantage of the company's 15th anniversary to go on strike.

The union knew that the company was holding a celebration on May 7, so it announced that it would go on strike on that day and demanded that only their members be hired. They considered the celebration to be of such extraordinary significance that the company would back down with just a little threat. But Morita has his own opinion. He has talked with most employees and is convinced that many of them are informed and reasonable and will not support the practice of hiring only members of a certain union. He firmly believes that the relationship between the company and its employees is good and these employees cannot be allowed to be taken advantage of by a small group of extremists.

Morita's attitude was very tough and he had many negotiations with the union, but no progress was made. Since the company has planned to hold a celebration meeting at the headquarters building and has invited some social celebrities including Prime Minister Ikeda, the company will lose face if the streets are filled with striking workers. Therefore, the union concluded that Morita was just trying to scare people and would eventually compromise and agree to their demands.

As the celebration day gets closer, the leaders of the trade unions become more and more arrogant and have no intention of seeking peace. In fact, Morita had already made other plans, but there was no trace of them. He continued to lead the negotiating team to deal with the union, and until the night before the celebration, the two sides still did not reach any agreement. So the union leader left angrily.

On the morning of Sony’s 15th anniversary celebration, strikers surrounded the company’s office building. The streets were filled with members of this union. They also borrowed a group of people from elsewhere to strengthen their momentum. Some people also held placards criticizing Sony and Prime Minister Ikeda.

At the same time, some engineers decided to organize their own unions to support the company. Hundreds of workers loyal to the company followed into the street and surrounded the strikers. After Morita was ready to participate in the celebration, he walked to the window and saw that the building had also hung celebratory banners. However, Prime Minister Ikeda and other distinguished guests never came to the building to express their congratulations. The strikers initially thought the company had been forced to cancel the event, but they soon realized they had made a mistake.

During the entire negotiation process, all the company's managers were waiting in this building day and night. It wasn't until the night before that they called the 300 guests one by one to inform them that the venue of the celebration had been changed to the Prince Hotel one mile away. As a result, Prime Minister Ikeda and others attended the celebration safely, and the entire celebration was very successful. By the time the strikers discovered they had been cheated, they had made too much of a fool of themselves to save face.

Morita came out of the back door of the company's office building and arrived at the hotel before the celebration ended. When he walked into the venue, everyone applauded him.

Akio Morita pointed out that sometimes the demands made by subordinates are not necessarily reasonable, and some are only for the benefit of a small group of people. If the interests of this small group of people are done at the expense of the majority of people, Concessions will have disastrous consequences. This will develop the habit of "big troubles and big solutions, small troubles and small solutions, and no troubles and no solutions" among subordinates, causing entrepreneurs to lose their due principles, and the situation will become increasingly difficult to control.

Morita once said to a young worker who complained about the foreman: "If you don't like your current job, why don't you use your rights to find a satisfactory job? If a person can choose If you are satisfied with your career, you will go all out to do it and give full play to your enthusiasm and creativity. There are many positions and types of work in large companies, and it is completely unreasonable not to let everyone find their own place.”

However, there are too few entrepreneurs who can really think and act like Shengtian. In fact, this is also a loss for these enterprises and entrepreneurs. Failure to make full use of talents is a waste of huge human resources. This waste has a huge impact on enterprises. The losses caused are difficult to measure in terms of money.

Sony has a motto: "Sony, research makes the difference!" This motto has become one of the secrets of Sony's success. Since the opening of Sony in the 1940s, Akio Morita has put forward the slogan of "doing what others have not done and developing products that can be accepted by the whole world." His competitive philosophy is: If you win a few teams today, you will be satisfied, and your skills will probably end there. If you want to withstand the challenges of world-class opponents, you must continue to innovate. Sony has developed into a leader in the electronics industry today. It is this innovative spirit that has brought them to the company.

For decades, Sony has been constantly researching new situations and new technologies, opening up new fields, and occupying new markets, always one step ahead and one step ahead.

Under the leadership of Akio Morita, Sony Corporation has continuously launched "distinctive" new products to the market with an enterprising spirit. It is unique and pioneering. It is always at the forefront of its peers and leads the world's electronics industry. trend.