The story of Sony founder Akio Morita

1946, Tokyo was full of ruins after World War II, devastated and desolate. On May 7th this year, two young men, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, who had experienced the war, hired 20 helpers and set up Tokyo Telecom Industry Company with the borrowed $527 as capital. This is the predecessor of Sony, the largest electronics company in Japan today. At present, the company has more than 654.38+04,000 employees, 72 subsidiaries and 37 factories in the world, and sells more than 654.38+07,000 different types of electronic products to more than 654.38+0.70 countries and regions, with annual sales exceeding 5 billion US dollars. It is a large multinational company that produces electronic equipment, electronic instruments and electronic devices. Sony started from more than 500 dollars, and after more than 40 years of development, it finally jumped to the top of Japanese electronics manufacturing industry, which is undoubtedly a miracle. The number one hero of this miracle is Mr. Akio Morita, the founder and current chairman of Dangtui Company.

Akio Morita192110 was born in a winemaking family in Aichi prefecture on October 26th. Morita family is the oldest and most prestigious family engaged in the brewing industry in Japan, and its famous rice wine "Nianjiesong" has a history of more than 300 years. As the eldest son of the family, Akio Morita should follow in his father's footsteps. So, when he was in primary school, his father took him to the office of the brewing company to attend a business meeting, trying to let him learn the management of brewing. But Morita is more interested in modern technology. In middle school, he was fascinated by new inventions such as record player and radio, and spent almost all his time after school decorating these electronic gadgets. He installed a record player and a radio himself, made a record with his own voice and played it on his record player. In his senior year, he chose physics without hesitation. Later, regardless of his father's wish to choose an economic major to inherit his ancestral career, he was admitted to the physics major of Osaka Imperial University. Four years of study in college laid a solid foundation for him to gallop in the electronics industry in the future.

1944 After graduating from university, Morita was enlisted as a junior technical officer in the navy. Soon after, he worked as a technical engineer in the Naval Research Center, engaged in the research of heat tracing weapons. At this time, he met Mr. Masaru Ibuka, the chief engineer of Japan Precision Instrument Society, who was 13 years older than him. The two of them have established a cooperative relationship for 40 years and jointly founded Sony.

1945 after the war, Akio Morita returned to his hometown and soon taught in tokyo institute of technology. One day, he happened to see in the newspaper that his old friend Ibrahimovic was organizing a telecommunications company, and he immediately got in touch with Ibrahimovic. After many consultations, they decided to set up a new company together. As the eldest son of the family, it is a great illegal act in Japan to start a company in partnership with others without inheriting his family business. Therefore, Masaji Inoue and his father-in-law, Mr. Maeda, then Minister of Education, specially went to his house with Akio Morita to discuss the matter with his father.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they explained their purpose, the well-prepared father said cheerfully, "I really hope that Zhao Xiong can take my place and take charge of the family business." But if the child is determined to engage in other jobs for the development of his career and talent, I also think he should do it. " Then he smiled and said to Akio Morita, "Don't worry about doing the business you like." It turned out that the enlightened father had already seen through his eldest son's mind, and had arranged for his third son and Zhao Lai, who were studying at Waseda University in Tokyo, to inherit their rice wine brewing industry. Things have been solved satisfactorily in this way.

Back in Tokyo, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka raised more than $500 to set up Tokyo Telecom Industry Company above the bombed department store. The preparation work is very difficult, with few staff and no salary. Fortunately, Akio Morita's father often borrowed money to help them, which strengthened their determination to start a business.

At that time, the Japanese market lacked new motors and electromagnetic amplifiers. Akio Morita and his colleagues worked hard to develop and soon produced high-quality new phonograph motors and amplifiers, which met the market demand and ensured the company's financial turnover, thus enabling this small company to gain a firm foothold in the electronics industry with strong hands.

However, the real goal of Morita and Masaru Ibuka is to create high-tech electronic products, not just accessories business.

1949 One day, Masaru Ibuka went to Japan Broadcasting Corporation on business and happened to see an American-made tape recorder there. His heart broke and he immediately realized the great potential of this high-tech commodity. After he went back, he discussed with Morita and decided to buy his production patent. Because of the early experience in manufacturing wire machines, it was not difficult to trial-produce tape recorders, but magnetic tapes were a big problem because there were no magnetic tapes in Japan at that time. Morita and Masaru Ibuka personally developed a recording tape based on traditional Japanese "paper" and coated with magnetic powder. After a year of struggle, the first cassette recorder finally came out in Japan. It's just that this kind of tape recorder is too big, reaching 35 kilograms, and it's expensive, about 500 dollars each, which was difficult to sell in Japan at that time. So, the company called relevant personnel and held a 10-day think tank meeting, and finally found various ways to reduce costs and reduce volume. The company's first generation of electronic products-tape recorders began to enter the market.

They spare no effort to promote tape recorders. It was difficult to break the deadlock at first. They realize that only unique technology can produce unique products, which does not mean that their career will be successful, and they must also pay attention to the promotion of goods. Therefore, Akio Morita shifted from focusing on technology to focusing on sales. By chance, he learned that court clerks were in short supply and had to work overtime. Akio Morita immediately took his products to the door to sell. The Japanese High Court alone bought 20 sets, and other courts followed suit. The products he brought were sold out quickly. The first battle was successful.

Then Morita developed an H-type tape recorder, which was only a little bigger than a briefcase. This H-tape recorder is very suitable for school teaching. Morita used it to quickly open the school's sales and spread it to the whole country.

Morita and Ibuka are not satisfied and further develop more attractive new products. Just then, news came from the other side of the Pacific Ocean: Bell Laboratories invented the transistor, and American Western Electronics Company only used this transistor in the production of hearing AIDS. After hearing this news, Masaru Ibuka and Morita, who have received higher education and professional knowledge, are keenly aware that this great invention has a good development prospect. 1952, Masaru Ibuka and Shengyin flew to the United States for a field trip and bought this patent from a western electronics company for $25,000. Engineers from western companies gently suggested to them that this thing can and can only be used as a hearing aid. Of course, Morita and Ibrahimovic are not interested in hearing AIDS, but want to use them to produce electrical products for everyone.

After returning home, they were delighted to find that transistors can amplify signals like electronic tubes that have been used for 40 years, and have the advantages of fast response, small size, low power consumption and strong reliability, and they are likely to replace electronic tubes. After many trials and failures, Morita and Masaru Ibuka finally made the world's first pocket transistor radio in 1957. In the advertisement, they emphasize that this kind of radio is very small and can be put in a shirt pocket. In fact, the smallest radio in the world was a little bigger than the standard men's shirt pocket. To this end, Morita asked all the sales staff of the company to wear special shirts, the pockets of which are a little bigger than ordinary shirts, just enough to put down this radio.

In order to give this soon-to-be-born "biological eldest son" a resounding name, Morita and Masaru Ibuka thought hard and finally decided to use it in any country in the world. No matter what nationality people are, it is impossible to mispronounce and remember the name "Sony". It means a combination of Latin "SONUS" and English "SONNY", that is, "a vocal electrical appliance company composed of smart and lovely children". Since then, the "Tokyo Communication Industry Company" founded by Morita and Inoue has been officially renamed as "Sony Corporation", that is, "Sony Corporation".

As soon as the first batch of 2 million portable transistor radios produced under the "Sony" trademark were put on the market, they were favored by consumers and there was an explosive sales boom. Sales amounted to $2.5 million, which is exactly 65,438+000 times of the funds used to purchase patents. The name "Sony" has also spread all over the world. 1958 1, Sony's stock was officially named "Sony Corporation" and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The adoption of transistors has become a springboard for Sony to develop a series of electronic products. The company launched the first FM transistor radio in 1958, the first transistor TV in 1959, the transistor video recorder in 1960, and the first small-screen transistor TV in 196 1 year. Sony has won the reputation of "pioneer" in the world electronics industry.

With the development of business, Sony turned its attention to overseas markets. As early as 1953, Morita visited Europe and visited world-renowned large enterprises. In Holland, he visited Philips Electric Company. On the one hand, he was surprised by its great achievements. On the other hand, he is also puzzled: In the Netherlands, where the population is only about100000, and the area is smaller than Kyushu Island in Japan, how did a large electrical appliance manufacturing company like Philips develop from a small light bulb factory? After in-depth investigation, he learned that Philip is an international enterprise. Although its headquarters is in the Netherlands, the production and sales of its products have expanded to all countries in the world. He suddenly realized that the relationship between the market and the enterprise is just like the relationship between the pond and the fish. Only in big ponds can big fish be raised. Since then, Sony's business strategy has undergone fundamental changes and embarked on the road of international enterprises. Morita and Ibrahimovic have a division of labor. Masaru Ibuka devotes himself to research in China, constantly introducing new inventions, while Morita investigates international markets in Europe and North America, promotes new products and sets up foreign branches.

The late 1950s was a period of high economic growth in the United States. The employment rate is very high, people are enterprising and like new things and products. Sony began to enter the American market, and Morita's first trump card product was transistor radio.

Morita took dozens of samples of pocket transistor radios and went to retail stores in new york to sell them door to door. "Only one person can interfere with each other and listen to his favorite program in his own room." Morita's convincing persuasion caused a large number of orders. Sony's products thus entered the American market.

Although Sony was not famous in America at that time, Morita cherished his brand very much. In the promotion, a large company was particularly optimistic about pocket radios and said, "If we are allowed to distribute them, we will order 6,543,800+sets first." 65,438+10,000 units, which is an incredible number. After discussing the details further, Morita unexpectedly refused the order. It turns out that the company has an additional condition according to the usual practice: it must mark their OEM trademark on the pocket radio, and can't use Sony trademark. Because the name of their company is a golden signboard with a long history of more than 50 years, and the name Sony is almost unheard of by Americans.

In this regard, the person in charge of this American company is puzzled: "Why not make a fortune by using our good reputation?" Morita has his own opinion: "The order volume of 65,438+10,000 units is really attractive. If you accept this business, Sony's operating conditions will be greatly improved. But I refused. Because the new product I brought today is to make our company's Sony trademark popular all over the world in 50 years and become a gold-lettered signboard like yours. If you use the OEM trademark on your terms, my dream will never come true. "

A few years later, when radios, televisions and video recorders with the "Sony" trademark flooded the American market, people had to admire Morita's practice that year. John Niwin, chairman of the American company "Increase Your Wisdom", marveled at this: "If he accepts that condition, the name Sony will be unknown in the United States."

With the development of its business in the United States, Morita formally founded Sony Corporation in February 1960. 1961June, Sony issued 2 million shares in the American market, becoming the first Japanese company to be listed on the American stock market.

1one night in June, 967, Sony principals and technicians such as Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka sat in the laboratory. After six years of struggle, the world's first single-gun three-beam color TV set was finally born here. Morita realized that this new product had a broad market and immediately decided to produce it in the United States. 1972, the Sony TV factory was officially put into production in San Diego, California, USA. "Made in America" Sony color TV sets continue to enter the American and Central and South American markets.

A few years later, some other Japanese companies dumped a large number of products to the United States, and serious trade friction occurred between Japan and the United States. The United States took measures to restrict the import of Japanese goods. Since Sony set up a factory in the United States, it has been peaceful in this trade war, which fully proves the correctness of Morita's decision.

1974, Sony opened a color TV factory in Brechin, England. Then, an audio-visual tape factory was opened in Dorsan, Alabama. 198 1 Established a tape factory in Bethany, France. 1988, Sony made another amazing move, acquiring the American Columbia Film Company for $3.4 billion, thus breaking into Hollywood with aggressive momentum.

"What Philip can do, we can do it!" More than 30 years ago, Akio Morita's brave words when he visited Philips in the Netherlands were finally confirmed. Today, Sony has opened up vast markets in Western Europe, the United States, Eastern Europe, Brazil, China and other places. The company's exports account for more than 60% of the total turnover, and its business projects have also changed from a single electrical appliance to diversification, becoming a first-class multinational company that keeps pace with General Motors, Siemens and Philips. , and famous in the world.

Sony's rapid development has a lot to do with Akio Morita's consistent emphasis on personnel training and its eclectic use of talents. He once wrote a very popular book-On Useless Academic Qualifications. He believes that the uselessness of academic qualifications is not to look down on academic qualifications, but to evaluate a person's value only by academic qualifications. The practice of attaching importance to qualifications and academic qualifications is a major obstacle to the ability of many young and promising staff. Therefore, Sony must adopt the guiding ideology of "giving full play to talents and arranging talents according to actual achievements and working ability" in order to make Sony invincible forever.

Morita himself took the lead in practicing this concept. 197 1 year, he succeeded Masaru Ibuka as the president of Sony. 1979 he publicly said: I don't want to love stack for too long, which will damage the ambition of the next generation. I don't care if the heir is my son or daughter, I just need a capable person to lead Sony.

Three years later, a baritone actor unexpectedly sat on the throne of Sony President.

His name is Dianxiong Yamato. His acquaintance with Morita was purely accidental. 1950, Morita made the first tape recorder. At that time, Yamato was a student in the vocal music department of Tokyo University of the Arts. He wrote a letter to Morita from the perspective of a singer and told him in thoughtless sentences that the performance of this machine was not good and the sound was too distorted. What a singer needs is a mirror-a mirror that can hear his own voice. Therefore, he thinks this tape recorder is just a pile of rubbish. Morita was not angry with his sharp criticism, but thought his so-called mirror image idea was very pertinent and challenging, so he wrote back to Yamato and hired him as a part-time consultant of the company.

1954, after graduating from Daiwa University, he went to Berlin to study music for three years and took part in a tour in Europe. During this period, Morita still actively contacted Yamato, insisted on constantly paying Yamato, and asked him to continue to help Sony after studying abroad. What Morita did deeply touched Yamato. 1959, they went to Europe together, and Morita wanted to promote FM transistor radios and other products through this behavior. Finally, they set off from England by boat and turned to new york to go home. During the long journey of 4 days 10 hour, they did nothing but talk nonstop. Akio Morita found that Dianxiong Yamato's musical attainments are very useful to Sony, which mainly focuses on audio and video, and Yamato also knows some business methods, so he said to him, "You are first-class as a vocalist, but I think your talent as an industrialist will be even more outstanding." In this way, with Morita's encouragement, the baritone singer abandoned art and went into the sea, stepping into the door of industry.

Dianxiong Daiwa initially served as the general manager of Sony's recorder production department. 196 1 year, Morita promoted him as the director of product design department. A few years later, he became the president of Columbia-Sony Records, a joint venture between Sony and American businessmen. Yamato lived up to Morita's expectations and worked very hard to study business strategies. In vocal music, I also play a special role, and I am very good at choosing recorded tracks and keeping the timbre pure. In order to develop a new record industry, in the early 1980s, Daiwa focused on developing laser records that can reproduce music under numerical control. He successively cooperated with famous conductors Seiji Ozawa and karajan to make the world's earliest CD and CD player. The record company he led gradually developed into a first-class record company in Japan.

1982 in September, Akio Morita, chairman of Sony Corporation, officially announced the appointment of Dianxiong Daiwa as the new president of the company at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting. This wise and correct decision made by "Bole" Morita has won unanimous praise from shareholders.

With the cooperation of Morita and Yamato's Qi Xin, Sony has made rapid progress. Portable CD player, walkman, 3.5-inch compressed floppy disk, overspeed video recorder system, 8 mm "Walk with You" model 55 camera, home stereo, electronic camera, high-definition TV camera ... New products leading the world spread all over the world with Sony's good reputation.

Although Akio Morita is now over 70 years old, his career ambition remains the same as before, and he is rushing to realize his "Sony Company of the World". For more than 40 years, he has been flying around the world like a tireless bee, understanding the market situation of various countries and promoting products. The accumulated flight mileage has reached more than 50 million kilometers, which is equivalent to circling the earth 130. Now, as always, he has visited five continents and worked hard all day to draw the grand blueprint of Sony 2 1 century.