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The early days of Sony. Corporation of America. Sony's decision to shift focus from the domestic to the international market took seed during Morita's 1953 visit to Philips. "Holland resembles Japan in many ways. If a company like Philips can succeed in the international market, there's no reason why Totsuko can't," he thought.
- A Symbol of Japan’s Postwar Economic Miracle
- A Visionary Name Choice
- Resisting Temptation
- Ibuka’S Toy Becomes The Walkman
- New York Debut
- Controversial Opinions
- Amiable and Magnanimous
In December 2020, Ezra Vogel, famed US Japanologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University, passed away. Just a year earlier, in an interview with Mainichi newspaper’s Economist magazine, he lamented contemporary Japan’s loss of “hunger.” He spoke of the passing of the prominent entrepreneurs of postwar Japan, including Morita Akio, Honda Sōi...
The name “Sony” was the brainchild of Morita, who was adamant that the company name should be easy for people outside Japan to pronounce. He knew that neither Tōkyō Tsūshin Kōgyō nor its Japanese abbreviation, Tōtsūkō, would do. He and Ibuka struggled to find a suitable name, finally settling on “Sony” in 1955. The name, registered in katakana, was...
The background to Sony’s emergence as a global brand includes a decisive episode that is now company lore. In 1955, the company developed the world’s second transistor radio, and a major US watch manufacturer offered to buy 100,000 units. Morita was initially impressed with the offer, given the scale of their business, but his excitement cooled whe...
Morita also possessed an eye for recognizing potential hit products. The story of the Walkman portable headphone cassette playeris a classic example. It began with a request in 1978 to developers by Ibuka, then honorary chairman, to customize a portable cassette player for him. He wanted to be able to enjoy music in stereo when flying overseas on a...
Morita’s pioneering global approach was radical. In 1962, Sony opened a showroom on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Morita believed that demand for Sony products would be spurred by a prominent presence in the Big Apple, visited by people from all over the world. A part of him also dreamed of brandishing the Japanese flag in this major arena of the busine...
Thanks to Morita’s desire to fit in, he gained many friends and acquaintances from diverse fields, including leading businessmen, heads of state, politicians, and artists. But the 1980s saw a growing fear in the West of the threat posed by Japanese business, and increasing trade friction with the United States and Europe. In 1989, Morita co-authore...
The first time I met Morita, I was impressed that although he was chairman of the company, he wore the same gray uniform as the employees, and was smiling and amiable throughout the interview. This man was contending with world heavyweights on an equal footing, but he was not intimidating. If anything, he had an air of humility. Many hoped that he ...
Before that he was Ibuka's junior partner. Morita reached the peak of his career in 1993, at the age of 72, when he was picked to be the chairman of Keidanren. Tragically, on the same day the announcement was made, Morita suffered a serious stroke while playing tennis. He retired from Sony for health reasons in 1994.
Jan 13, 2018 · The name change came in 1958 when Morita and Ibuka decided to name their company Sony. ... Akio later managed to find a distributor who would sell their little radios under the Sony brand. As he ...
The public does not know what is possible, but we do.”. Most will ascribe this quote to Steve Jobs. But this was a statement made by Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, years before Jobs. Sony is an amazing story of how Morita’s determination and relentless pursuit of his vision enabled the “Made in Japan” tag, a symbol for substandard ...
In 1957, the company produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony (derived from "sonus"—Latin for "sound"—and "sonny", a then-common American expression). [7] Morita was an advocate for all the products made by Sony.
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Sep 3, 2023 · Sony audio introduced us to the concept of listening on the go before anything as complex as the iPod hit the market. Today, we’re going to guide you through the history of Sony radio and how it affected the world, we live in today. The Sony audio story continues…. 1. Sony ZSPE60 compact boombox.
