DOCSLIB.ORG

Sony Stumbles

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sony Stumbles SPECIAL REPORT REUTERS/TOSHIYUKI AIZAWA SONY STUMBLES: DID STRINGER'S MAKEOVER FAIL? Slow response to a huge hacking attack exposed frailties and raise questions about whether its culture remains too bureaucratic and complacent BY TIM KELLY AND KENNETH LI and dumplings at a Chinese restaurant in politics and a series of disruptive divisional TOKYO/NEW YORK, MAY 23 downtown Tokyo. reorganizations ensured the product never He was referring to a flat panel device that got the management focus it needed to AD SONY stUCK WITH the Airboard predated the iPad by a decade yet boasted succeed, Maeda says. portable computer it launched in video, touch screen typing and Internet Morphing it into Location Free TV -- a 2000,H Satoru Maeda rather than Apple's access. device through which you can watch local Steve Jobs might have been feted as the A hefty price tag and patchy picture TV channels anywhere -- wasn't enough creator of tablet PCs. quality were among the reasons the product, to convince Sony or the marketplace that "I was the inventor of the Airboard," says which in hindsight looks like it was ahead it was going to work. The project that was Maeda between mouthfuls of fried prawn of its time, didn't initially take off. Internal once touted as being as revolutionary as the MAY 2011 SONY MAY 2011 Sony's Walkman audio player is seen at its showroom in Tokyo May 4, 2011. REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON Walkman was dropped entirely in 2008. Maeda said he knew a year earlier that Diverging fortunes: Sony vs Apple Sony under Howard Stringer, who became CEO in 2005, was going to kill his invention. Share price performance - $ Sony Apple His boss sent him an e-mail saying he was 400 taking it over. MARKET CAP Soon after, he quit the company he Sony: $27 bln / Apple: $310 bln 300 had joined in 1979 when Sony launched the Walkman and was one of the coolest companies around. It was a heyday Stringer 200 pledged to restore, but Maeda, who is now at audio visual equipment maker JVC Kenwood, no longer sees returning. 100 "Sony old boys liked Airboard and Location Free TV because it was doing something new, which is what they did at Sony," said Maeda. 0 "The current Sony people have no experience 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 with such things because they haven't 1994: Sony launches the PlayStation 1997: Jobs returns afrer being ousted in 1985. He became 1995: Sony debuts its first consumer-use digital Apple's permanent CEO in 2000. introduced any new products for about 10 video camcorder. 2001: Apple opens its first retail store and debuts the iPod years." 1997: Sony unveils the home-use PC "VAIO" digital music player. 2003: Apple launches the iTunes music store. Still beset by turf wars, secrecy, 1999: Nobuyuki ldei succeeds Norio Ohga as CEO 2000: Sony launches PlayStation 2. 2007: Apple debuts the iPhone and opens the App store in complacency and a bloated innovation- the following year. 2003: Sony introduces the Blu-ray disc. killing corporate bureaucracy, Maeda and 2009: Jobs takes a six-month leave of absence and 2005: Howard Stringer replaced ldei as CEO undergoes a liver transplant. He was diagnosed with other Sony refugees insist their former 2006: Sony releases PlayStation 3. pancreeatic cancer in 2004. employer is in dire straits and Stringer, who 2011: Sony unveils the Android tablet PC; the PlayStation 2010: Apple unveils the iPad, its touch-screen tablet. Network was compromised in April - 77 mln user accounts 2011: Jobs takes second leave of absence but appeared at is 69, is running out of time to deliver on his the March launch of the iPad 2. were hacked. promise of reinventing the company. Certainly Stringer can boast of his role in Sources: Companies, Thomson Reuters. Reuters graphic/Christine Chan 05/20/11 developing 3-D film-making and the victory of the Sony-backed Blu-ray technology in problem and Sony's subsequent inability to magnitude of the problems. the next generation format wars. But Sony, quickly close other weak spots vulnerable to A procession of top executives at U.S. despite its iconic brand, remains out of step hackers that has left a stain. technology companies who spoke at Reuters with the rest of the global technology world "Too big to succeed comes to mind," a Global Technology Summit last week didn't and its talent for crowd-pleasing innovation former senior manager involved until recently mince their words when asked about Sony. has largely evaporated. with Sony's PlayStation game console told Robert Glaser, chairman of Internet media A hacking scandal that in April exposed Reuters, declining to be identified because software company RealNetworks Inc, likened more than 100 million accounts of users of of the sensitivity of the comments. "I was at Stringer's task of rehabilitating Sony to its online gaming network to possible data PlayStation, considered the most flexible "introducing capitalism to a Soviet-bloc theft not only hurt its image but threatens of the Sony units, but ironically that was country after 50 years of communism." an online strategy meant to unite a disparate crippled by over-secretive IT security, a lack corporation and could upset a carefully of a coherent management structure and CAUTIONARY TALE crafted succession plan for when Stringer a lot of dead wood at the top. It was harder THE erosION OF SONY'S standing is steps down. to work across Sony units than to work with a cautionary tale of what can happen to It wasn't so much the security breach itself outside partners," he said. technology companies when innovators move but the delays in informing customers of the It isn't only former insiders who see the on. Back when Sony, led by co-founder Akio 2 SONY MAY 2011 Morita, launched the Walkman, it proved an inspiration to the founders of the then little- known startup company: Apple Computers. "Sony had the most incredibly well-thought out products in the world. We wanted to be like that from day one," Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, told Reuters recently. At the time, "no other company in the world was the model for consumer electronics." As Japan's seemingly unstoppable economy expanded through the 1980s, Sony remained the consumer electronics benchmark as Morita handed over the creative mantle to maverick Norio Ohga, a trained opera singer who caught the founder's attention by writing to complain about the quality of Sony's audio tapes. Ohga, who died in April aged 81, is best remembered for convincing the world to give up vinyl in favor of CDs and for green-lighting one young executive's ploy to beat Nintendo at its own game with the PlayStation. The serial successes, though, bred complacency. "If you had the Sony name on the back of your shirt you were fine, so they Sony shows off the new CD Walkman at the 20th anniversary celebration marking the first Walkman headphone stereo in Tokyo on July 1, 1999. REUTERS/TOSHIYUKI AIZAWA stopped thinking," Maeda says. In 1989, the Japanese economic juggernaut stalled and the benchmark Nikkei index "IF YOU HAD THE SONY NAME ON topped out just shy of 39,000, marking the THE BACK OF YOUR SHIRT YOU WERE FINE, start of an asset value slump that continues to sap Japan's economic vitality 22 years later. SO THEY STOPPED THINKING." That same year, amid a frenetic Japanese TOO ORDINARY saying, 'We're so screwed.' No one in that pursuit of landmark overseas assets, Sony WHEN STRINGER WAS appointed Sony's group was going to say 'Why the fuck do we made its first big mistake. Chairman and CEO in 2005 he was keen to need a (computer) mouse.'" The company bought Hollywood studio show that he could revitalize the company's Sony's problem, offers Hironobu Yokota, a Columbia Pictures for $3.9 billion from the reputation for creativity. As a Welshman procurement manager who left Sony in 1995 Coca Cola Company. It was a business and running a Japanese company, but who because "all the misfits had left" is that it culture that Sony didn't fully understand and understood its corporate culture, he was has become ordinary, a condition he says is became a big distraction for management. seen as having a better chance of shaking it worsening. Five years later as Ohga handed Sony over up than most. "I have consulted for Sony several times to Nobuyuki Idei it was forced to write off $2.7 After a bruising first year of heavy losses, since I left. Looking at it from the outside, it is billion from the purchase after a string of he was anxious to kick off the annual basically getting worse and worse," explains costly box-office flops. management meeting at Tokyo's Grand Yokota. Seven years later, Apple's Steve Jobs, Prince Hotel New Takanawa on an optimistic Even the engineer Sony eventually picked inspired by Sony's Walkman, launched the note. Stringer trotted out a group of what he to do battle with Apple is now among the iPod digital player. It was a seminal event for claimed were the 50 brightest engineers that Sony refugees, and has become one of its Apple and a huge warning for Sony. Sony had to show the 1,200-strong crowd of fiercest critics to boot. In one move, Apple ended Sony's managers gathered in the ballroom. Koichiro Tsujino, who spearheaded the dominance of the music player market and "These are our future," Stringer boasted development of Sony's Vaio laptop, left left little doubt that Sony was heading for a of the group of the cleanest, most well- the company in 2006 and later headed full-blown crisis.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Robotic Pets in the Lives of Preschool Children
    Robotic pets in the lives of preschool children Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Batya Friedman, Deanne R. Pérez-Granados and Nathan G. Freier University of Washington / Stanford University / University of Washington This study examined preschool children’s reasoning about and behavioral interactions with one of the most advanced robotic pets currently on the retail market, Sony’s robotic dog AIBO. Eighty children, equally divided between two age groups, 34–50 months and 58–74 months, participated in individual sessions with two artifacts: AIBO and a stuffed dog. Evaluation and justification results showed similarities in children’s reasoning across artifacts. In contrast, children engaged more often in apprehensive behavior and attempts at reciprocity with AIBO, and more often mistreated the stuffed dog and endowed it with animation. Discussion focuses on how robotic pets, as representative of an emerging technological genre, may be (a) blurring foundational ontological categories, and (b) impacting children’s social and moral development. Keywords: AIBO, children, human–computer interaction, human–robot interaction, moral development, social development, Value Sensitive Design Animals have long been an important part of children’s lives, offering comfort and companionship, and promoting the development of moral reciprocity and responsibility (Beck & Katcher, 1996; Kahn, 1999; Melson, 2001). Yet in recent years there has been a movement to create robotic pets that mimic aspects of their biological counterparts. In turn, researchers have begun to ask important questions. Can robotic pets, compared to biological pets, provide children with similar developmental outcomes (Druin & Hendler, 2000; Pérez-Granados, 2002; Turkle, 2000)? How do children conceive of this genre of robots? It is a genre that some researchers have begun to refer to as “social robots” (Bartneck & Forlizzi, 2004; Breazeal, 2003): robots that, to varying degrees, have some constellation of being personified, embodied, adaptive, and autonomous; and Interaction Studies 7:3 (2006), 405–436.
    [Show full text]
  • Robotic Pets in Human Lives: Implications for the Human–Animal Bond and for Human Relationships with Personified Technologies ∗ Gail F
    Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 65, No. 3, 2009, pp. 545--567 Robotic Pets in Human Lives: Implications for the Human–Animal Bond and for Human Relationships with Personified Technologies ∗ Gail F. Melson Purdue University Peter H. Kahn, Jr. University of Washington Alan Beck Purdue University Batya Friedman University of Washington Robotic “pets” are being marketed as social companions and are used in the emerging field of robot-assisted activities, including robot-assisted therapy (RAA). However,the limits to and potential of robotic analogues of living animals as social and therapeutic partners remain unclear. Do children and adults view robotic pets as “animal-like,” “machine-like,” or some combination of both? How do social behaviors differ toward a robotic versus living dog? To address these issues, we synthesized data from three studies of the robotic dog AIBO: (1) a content analysis of 6,438 Internet postings by 182 adult AIBO owners; (2) observations ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gail F. Melson, Depart- ment of CDFS, 101 Gates Road, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-20202 [e-mail: [email protected]]. We thank Brian Gill for assistance with statistical analyses. We also thank the following individuals (in alphabetical order) for assistance with data collection, transcript preparation, and coding: Jocelyne Albert, Nathan Freier, Erik Garrett, Oana Georgescu, Brian Gilbert, Jennifer Hagman, Migume Inoue, and Trace Roberts. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-0102558 and IIS-0325035. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Sony Corporation – Restructuring Continues, Problems Remain
    BSTR/361 IBS Center for Management Research Sony Corporation – Restructuring Continues, Problems Remain This case was written by Indu P, under the direction of Vivek Gupta, IBS Center for Management Research. It was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. 2010, IBS Center for Management Research. All rights reserved. To order copies, call +91-08417-236667/68 or write to IBS Center for Management Research (ICMR), IFHE Campus, Donthanapally, Sankarapally Road, Hyderabad 501 504, Andhra Pradesh, India or email: [email protected] www.icmrindia.org BSTR/361 Sony Corporation – Restructuring Continues, Problems Remain “Seven out of eight years, Sony has failed to meet its own initial operating profit forecast. This is probably the worst track record amongst most major exporters. That means that either management is not able to anticipate challenges … or they fail on execution almost every time. Either way, it does not reflect well on Sony’s management.”1 - Atul Goyal, Analyst, CLSA2, in January 2009. SONY IN CRISIS, AGAIN In May 2009, Japan-based multinational conglomerate, Sony Corporation (Sony) announced that it posted its first full year operating loss since 1995, and only its second since 1958, for the fiscal year ending March 2009. Sony announced annual loss of ¥ 98.9 billion3, with annual sales going down by 12.9% to ¥ 7.73 trillion. Sony also warned that with consumers worldwide cutting back on spending in light of the recession, the losses could be to the extent of ¥ 120 billion for the year ending March 2010 (Refer to Exhibit IA for Sony‘s five year financial summary and Exhibit IB for operating loss by business segment).
    [Show full text]
  • Autonomous AIBO Watchman
    Autonomous AIBO watchman TDT4735 Software Engineering, Depth Study Ingeborg Strand Friisk November 28, 2003 Norwegian University of Technology and Science, NTNU Department of Computer and Information Science, IDI Supervisor: Tor St˚alhane Co-supervisor: Siv Hilde Houmb 2 Abstract As society has gradually moved towards an extensive use of computers and automatized sup- port, both in everyday life and in work environments, the role and feasibility of autonomous robots has grown in importance. The concept of smart homes, with several computer-based systems making everyday life easier is presently an active research and development subject, i.e. at Telenor [27]. Another aspect is the inclusion of electronics and robotics for fun and enter- tainment in homes such as PC and TV-games and the robot entertainment dog, AIBO. AIBO walks on four legs and commercial software makes it act like a small pet, that walks around, sings songs or chooses to do nothing. AIBO owners also has the opportunity to program it to do other and maybe more useful things. This report presents the possibility of automating watchman activities using simple and small robots such as AIBOs. We demonstrate through design analysis and implementation how AIBO can be used as a watchman to keep areas under surveillance. The main focus in this study is safety, with risk analysis and some implementation as natural parts of the study to better comprehend the concept of software safety in critical systems. A simplified version of the safety lifecycle of IEC 61508 has been applied. For a structured Preliminary Hazard Analysis HazOp has been applied.
    [Show full text]
  • 80 the MARKET Sony Corporation Is a Leading
    THE MARKET a very small group of young peo- Sony Corporation is a leading man- ple with the energy and passion for ufacturer of audio, video, communi- unlimited creation. cations, and information technology This passion and creativity products for the consumer and pro- eventually led to the development of fessional markets. Additionally, the Sony’s Trinitron TV in 1968, which company’s music, motion picture, set the world standard for high television-production, game, and quality in home theater products. online businesses make Sony one of As a proponent of global oper- the most comprehensive entertain- ations based on a local presence, ment companies in the world. Morita set up manufacturing plants all over the world. Its Trinitron® ACHIEVEMENTS color television assembly plant Today, Sony employs almost 170,000 in San Diego, California, built in people worldwide, with almost 1972, was the first consumer elec- 22,000 working in the United States. tronics manufacturing facility built For fiscal year 2001, Sony Corpor- in the United States by a Japanese- ation had total sales of more than based company. $56.9 billion, with the electronics Morita’s deep confidence in segment making up more than two- another legendary Sony product, thirds of the revenues. the Walkman personal stereo, was Sony Electronics Inc. (SEL), the key factor in its ultimate formerly known as Sony Corpor- success. While retailers were ation of America, was established in initially resistant, the Walkman 1960 to oversee Sony’s sales and stereo’s compact size and excel- marketing activities in the United lent sound quality attracted con- States.
    [Show full text]
  • Ph. D. Thesis Stable Locomotion of Humanoid Robots Based
    Ph. D. Thesis Stable locomotion of humanoid robots based on mass concentrated model Author: Mario Ricardo Arbul´uSaavedra Director: Carlos Balaguer Bernaldo de Quiros, Ph. D. Department of System and Automation Engineering Legan´es, October 2008 i Ph. D. Thesis Stable locomotion of humanoid robots based on mass concentrated model Author: Mario Ricardo Arbul´uSaavedra Director: Carlos Balaguer Bernaldo de Quiros, Ph. D. Signature of the board: Signature President Vocal Vocal Vocal Secretary Rating: Legan´es, de de Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 HistoryofRobots........................... 2 1.1.1 Industrialrobotsstory. 2 1.1.2 Servicerobots......................... 4 1.1.3 Science fiction and robots currently . 10 1.2 Walkingrobots ............................ 10 1.2.1 Outline ............................ 10 1.2.2 Themes of legged robots . 13 1.2.3 Alternative mechanisms of locomotion: Wheeled robots, tracked robots, active cords . 15 1.3 Why study legged machines? . 20 1.4 What control mechanisms do humans and animals use? . 25 1.5 What are problems of biped control? . 27 1.6 Features and applications of humanoid robots with biped loco- motion................................. 29 1.7 Objectives............................... 30 1.8 Thesiscontents ............................ 33 2 Humanoid robots 35 2.1 Human evolution to biped locomotion, intelligence and bipedalism 36 2.2 Types of researches on humanoid robots . 37 2.3 Main humanoid robot research projects . 38 2.3.1 The Humanoid Robot at Waseda University . 38 2.3.2 Hondarobots......................... 47 2.3.3 TheHRPproject....................... 51 2.4 Other humanoids . 54 2.4.1 The Johnnie project . 54 2.4.2 The Robonaut project . 55 2.4.3 The COG project .
    [Show full text]
  • JACCES Vol 2 N1 2012
    www.jacces.org JACCES JOURNAL OF ACCESSIBILITY AND DESIGN FOR ALL Volume 2 - nº1 (2012) Journal of Editorial Accessibility and Design for All. EDITORS’ LETTER Editors This volume 2, number 1 of the Journal of Daniel Guasch Murillo Accessibility and Design for All comprises a Jesús Hernández Galán selection of papers presented at the IV Editorial staff International Congress on Design, Research Maria Hortènsia Álvarez Suau Networks, and Technology for all held in Madrid, Raquel Vállez Vidal June, 27 - 29, 2011. This congress is promoted by the ONCE Foundation for cooperation and social Editorial Advisory Board inclusion of persons with disabilities and intends Julio Abascal to monitor the progress of assistive technologies Colin Barnes for people with disabilities. Therefore, papers Hennie R. Boeije here presented cover different areas related to Lin Chern Sheng learning, health, communication and social life, Alarcos Cieza which are also in line with the philosophy of the Patrick J. Devlieger journal and complement some of the five research Satoshi Kose areas of this journal. Joan M. McGuire Roger Slee Nick Tyler Daniel Guasch Murillo Jesús Hernández Galán Office Accessibility Chair Director UPC- Universal Accessibility Director BarcelonaTech Fundación ONCE Accessibility Chair, UPC- Chief Editor Chief Editor Barcelona Tech. Av. Víctor Balaguer, 1. 08800 Barcelona. www.jacces.org ISSN: 2013-7087 CONTENTS ARTICLES Improving the Accessibility at Home: Implementation of a Domotic Application using a P300-based Brain Computer Interface System Rebeca Corralejo Palacios1, Roberto Hornero Sánchez1, Daniel Álvarez González1, Laura Martín González1 ................................................................. 1 Developing an accessible video player Juan José Rodríguez Soler ............................................................................ 15 Predictive system text entry controlled by accelerometer with any body part Isabel Gómez, Pablo Anaya, Rafael Cabrera,Octavio Rivera, Alberto Molina .............
    [Show full text]
  • Aibo Programming Using OPEN-R SDK Tutorial
    Aibo programming using OPEN-R SDK Tutorial François Serra Jean-Christophe Baillie http://www.ensta.fr/˜baillie June 2003 URBI Notice We have recently (2004) created and released a new interface to program and control Aibos, called URBI (Universal Robotic Body Interface). URBI is an interface language basedonaclient/server architecture and can work together with C++, Java and Matlab (more languages to come) on any operating system. URBI is robot independent, working with Aibo but also with humanoid robots or with the Webots4 simulator. Changing from the real robot to a simulation is just about changing an IP address. URBI is considerably simpler to use and understand than OPENR. For example, the ball track- ing example described in this tutorial is only 3 lines long in URBI... URBI is simpler to use for beginners but comes with many features for advanced programmers, especially useful for robotic applications: simple access to the motors and sensors, parallel processing of complex script com- mands, event driven programming, complex motor trajectory, extended mutex policies, integrated behavior description,... For more details about URBI and to download it: http://www.urbiforge.com The URBI Team. www.urbiforge.com 1 Foreword The Sony Aibo robot is currently a very interesting (and relatively cheap) plateform to conduct research in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Aside the numerous captors and actuators, the most important element is that Aibo is programmable. The Aibo programming language, built on top of C++, is provided by Sony as the OPEN-R SDK. This tutorial is intended to ease the use of this SDK. The official documentation given by Sony on the www.aibo.com web page is not currently covering all aspects of OPEN-R.
    [Show full text]
  • Computer Programs—Repair Item A. Commenter Information Electronic Frontier Foundation Cara Gagliano1 Kit Walsh 815 Eddy St
    Comments of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Proposed Class 12: Computer Programs—Repair Item A. Commenter Information Electronic Frontier Foundation Cara Gagliano1 Kit Walsh 815 Eddy St. San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 436-9333 [email protected] Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic Georgetown Law Amanda Levendowski Nina Srejovic 500 First St. NW Washington D.C. 20001 [email protected] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a member-supported, nonprofit public interest organization devoted to maintaining the traditional balance that copyright law strikes between the interests of rightsholders and the interests of the public. Founded in 1990, EFF represents tens of thousands of dues-paying members, including consumers, hobbyists, artists, writers, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, students, teachers, and researchers, who are united in their reliance on a balanced copyright system that ensures adequate incentives for creative work while promoting innovation, discouraging censorship, and enabling broad and equal access to information in the digital age. Item B. Proposed Class Addressed EFF submits this Comment in support of Proposed Class 12: Computer Programs—Repair. An exemption should be granted for software and compilations of data, where circumvention is for the purpose of repair, diagnosis, or noninfringing modification of any software-enabled device. A physical device qualifies as a “software-enabled device” if its operation is controlled in whole or in part by software. “Modification” as used here means to alter some aspect of a device’s functionality. 1 Primary contact. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic are deeply grateful to Georgetown Law J.D. Candidates Michael Rubayo and Natasha Tverdynin for their work researching and drafting this comment.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    Index 3P Innovation, 31 Breach of trust, 66, 67, 222 Consumer marketing, 109 3Ps (Proactive, Professional, British government, 21 Continual crisis, 35, 44, Progressive), 142 Buchon, 22 110, 113, 125, 126, 7 DNA, 132 BusinessWeek, 43, 63, 113, 186, 205, 232, 233 8 Action Values, 133 204, 214, 235 Continuous innovation, 9 Shared Values, 144 132, 137, 144 Control Data, 17 A C Canon, 17 Convertible bonds (CB), 49, Adizes, Ichak, 9, 10, 11, 12, 67, 68, 87 13, 88, 124, 185, 201 Chaebol, 2, 5, 17, 28, 29, 30, 32, 38, 47–50, 52, 54, Corning, 22, 168 Aibo, 81 Corporate life cycle, 5, American Depositor 55, 56, 58, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 94, 121, 7–16, 34, 124, 201 Receipts (ADRs), 73 Creative management, 44, American Forces Korea 124, 126, 129, 130, 131 Charge Trap Flash 148, 188, 212 Network (AFKN), 21 Credit Lyonnais, 80 Apple, 74, 83, 158, 181, 189, (CTF), 177 Cheil Communications, Crisis awareness, 136, 211, 212, 216, 224 137, 144 Asia Business Leader 110, 112 Award, 36 Cheil, 18, 50 Asian financial crisis, 6, 33, Cheil Jedang, 50, 53 D 55, 155, 217 Chin Dae-je, 103 Daegu, 18, 50 Asia’s Businessman of the Christian Science Monitor, 27 Daesung Heavy Industry, 52 Year, 36 Chrysler, 53 Daewoo, 30, 32, 52, 129, Chu Woo-sik, 43, 54, 215 B 188, 206 Daewoo Electronics, 25, Balli balli (quickly Chun Doo-whan, 23 32, 101 quickly), 138 Circular shareholding, 49, 53 Datamonitor summary, 48 Bankruptcy, 3, 20, 28, 29, Clinton, Bill, 21 Debt ratio, 30, 62 54, 107 CNBC, 36 Decentralization, 42, 88, 90 Bateman, Graeme,COPYRIGHTED 39 Code Division Multiple
    [Show full text]
  • Design Management Seen at SONY − Having Managers and Designers Meet Halfway −
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DSpace at Waseda University WASEDA BUSINESS & ECONOMIC STUDIES 2013 NO.49 Design Management Seen at SONY − Having Managers and Designers Meet Halfway − by Shin’ya Nagasawa * Abstract: SONY Corporation is a good example of Japanese companies has established so-called “SONY Design.” This paper considers “Design Management at SONY,” which is based on the interview with the late Mr. Yasuo Kuroki (SONY’s former Director of the Creative Center) and argues the following; (1) Harnessing SONY’s Core Competency of Simplification, (2) Techniques for the Systematic Pursuit of Functional Beauty, (3) Design Is a Personal Matter (Activity that People Perform), (4) Meeting Each Other Halfway by Learning from One Another, (5) Design Management under the Guise of Attitude Management, (6) Is Design Management Working? − The Sun Also Rises. Finally this paper proves the essentials of “Design Management at SONY.” 1. Introduction SONY Corporation is a good example of Japanese companies has established so- called “SONY Design.” This paper will consider the design management at SONY Corporation by approaching it based on the thinking of the late Mr. Yasuo Kuroki (Figure 1; SONY’s former Director of the Creative Center), who is known as “Mr. Walkman” (Nagasawa, 2009). SONY’s core competency is generally deemed to lie in its miniaturization technology in the sense of making things smaller, but Kuroki recognized that for SONY this was to be found in its simplification technology. In any event, what * Shin’ya Nagasawa is a professor of Luxury Branding (LVMH Moët Hennessey.
    [Show full text]
  • SONY Corporation Presentation of a Company
    SONY Corporation Structure of the presentation: 1. General facts 2. Company structure 3. Figures 4. Management styles / recruitment methods 5. Advertising / marketing 6. Environmental affairs General facts: founded: May 7, 1946 headquarters: Tokyo representatives: Norio Ohga (Chairman and Representative Director, Chief Executive Officer) Tsunao Hashimoto (Vice Chairman and Representative Director) Nobuyuki Idei (President and Representative Director, Chief Operating Officer) number of employees: 151.000 (as of March 21, 1997) capital: 332.036.923.736 yen (as of March 31, 1997) SONY Corporation is the 3rd biggest electronics company in the world Company structure: Electronics Business (Video Equipment, Audio Equipment, Televisions, Others) Entertainment Business (Music Group, Pictures Group) Insurance and Financing Figures: 1997 1996 Income Statement Sales (mil.) $45.670 $43.326 Cost of goods sold (mil.) $29.545 $28.203 Assets Total (mil.) $45.809 $47.601 Liabilities Total (mil.) $34.040 $36.571 Equity Shares outstanding (mil.) 384 374 Common stock eq. (mil.) $11.770 $11.030 as of March 31 (fiscal year end) Recruitment methods: SONY is a trailblazer, always a seeker of the unknown. SONY never intends to follow old trails, but hopes to find its own paths of progress by opening up new trails, yet to be trod. Through this progress, SONY wants to serve mankind. New trails are strewn with hardships. But the people in SONY work in harmony to surmount these hardships, finding joy and pride in participating creatively to achieve the goal of each pioneering effort. Sony’s policy is to respect and foster each one’s abilities --- the right person in the right position --- always striving to bring out the best in the person, believing in each one and constantly allowing the individual to develop his or her abilities.
    [Show full text]