Becoming: SONY

“More than any other individual, Akio Morita (1921-1999) personified the integration of Japanese industry into the global community from the 1960s to the end of the century.”

The Economist[i]

The transition of Japan from an agrarian economy to a technologically advanced economy is best illustrated by the consumer electronics firm, Sony. At the time of its foundation in 1946 (when it was known as “Totsuken”), it had to explain to Japanese people what tape recorders were.[ii] By the beginning of the 21st century, Japan was already a world leader in technology.

The First Sony Factory

In the same period, Sony moved led the introduction of the Walkman, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs (in conjunction with Philips) and the world’s most popular video game console, the Sony Playstation. Sony’s role in the advancement of consumer electronics is often understated. And many of the steps taken to achieve it, outlined below, have provided a template for the most successful firms in its industry today:

Everything follows the brand

Sony was the first Asian technology firm to create a brand. In the 1950s, Pentax was making products for Honeywell, Ricoh for Savin and Sanyo for Sears[iii]. As long as a negative perception existed around the ‘made in Japan,’ there seemed little added value in taking ownership of a Japanese brand.

In January 1958, Akio Morita changed the name of his nascent electronics firm from Totsuken to Sony, with the intention of creating a name that would be easily understood abroad.[iv] Instead of making products under other companies’ brands, it would produce its own. In 1998, Sony was named the number one consumer brand in the United States.

Realize what the consumer wants before they do
A common refrain of innovators is that they need to show the consumer what they want before the consumer even knows they want it.[v]Removing itself from the constraints of developing products for US consumer electronics firms allowed Sony to put this into practice. Akio Morita wrote in his autobiography: “Our plan is to lead the public with new products rather than ask them what kind of products they want. The public does not know what is possible, but we do.”

The Sony Walkman was the most striking manifestation of this. After traveling with a heavy cassette player in 1979, Sony chairman Masaru Ibuka said to Akio Morita: “Don’t you think a stereo cassette player that you can listen to while walking around is a good idea?’ Within months, Sony had developed the Walkman, which old over 220 million units over its lifetime.[vi]

Sony was the first to emphasize design in consumer electronics

The importance of design and aesthetics in technology is by now well-versed, but Sony were the first to emphasize this importance. Its former head of design, Yasuo Kuroki cited Louis Sullivan’s maxim “form follows function” and remarked that Sony’s products should have “functional beauty” in the 1980s, when competitors still emphasized utility.[vii]

Following this, Akio Morita installed a ‘design philosophy’[viii] at the company which provides a roadmap for new product development. One of the core values of this states: “through a relentless process of considered refinement, we determine the distinct essence. Expressed in its clearest and most beautiful form, this essence symbolizes what we strive to achieve in all our design.”

[i] https://www.economist.com/news/2008/11/07/akio-morita

[ii] Gershon, R.A. (2002). “The Sony Corporation: A case study in transnational media management.” The International Journal on Media Management, Vol 4, No 2, pp. 105-117.

[iii] Morita, A., Shimomura, M., Reingold, E. (1986). “Made in Japan.” E.P. Dutton, New York.


[iv] Gershon, R.A. (2002). “The Sony Corporation: A case study in transnational media management.” The International Journal on Media Management, Vol 4, No 2, pp. 105-117.

[v] Notable examples include Henry Ford (‘”if I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘a faster horse’” and Steve Jobs (“People don’t know what you want until you show it to them.”).

[vi] https://www.economist.com/business/2010/11/04/from-walkman-to-hollow-men

[vii] See: http://design-cu.jp/iasdr2013/papers/2116-2b.pdf

[viii] See: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/design/philosophy/