Sony:

Sony is Japans best known global company and is second largest global consumer electronics company
with one of the most respected brand names in the world. Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita along with a
small group of people founded the company under the name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo on May 7, 1946,
immediately after the World War II with a capital of 190,000. In 1958, in order to pursue western
markets, company name was changed to Sony which was easy to read and remember. Sony is famous for
developing a series of history making products like Transistor Radio, Walkman, and CD player.

Strategies to Capture Markets:

1. Qualitative Effort:
Sonys Products were famous for unique engineering orientation, innovation and their high
quality. Companys major focus was on creating a demand for high tech and revolutionary wow
products in consumer electronics market instead of meeting consumers explicit needs.
Dismissed the offer of selling 100,000 Sonys manufactured radio under the name of a US brand.
No compromise on sale of Sonys products under the brand name of other companies. The
strategy paid off and Sony obtained global recognition(Sold half a million sets of radio between
1958 and 1960)
With the passage of time, Sonys name was associated with quality even in USA.

2. Geographical Segmentation:
Efforts to capture overseas markets by setting up overseas offices (Regional operation Centre)
and local sale companies. Efforts were taken to the next level by setting up production facilities
near markets (Ireland, San Diego, and Wales).
During 1980s, Yen was appreciated against dollar and Sony responded by expanding its
operations. Between 1985 and 1990, Sony built its fourth operational unit and 9 production plants
in Asia.
Global Localization: Regional headquarters were given authority to make decision; a strategy to
maximize operational efficiency.

3. Entry in New Businesses:

Related as well as unrelated diversification.
Sony/Tektronix Corporation (1965) to manufacture and market instrumentation and measuring
instruments in Japan.
Sony-Eveready (1975) battery manufacturing and marketing JV.
Production of Proprietary Technologies and products.
CBS Records (1968) to enter in Music Business which turned into a successful business.
Purchased Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. for $3.4 billion in 1989 which turned into a loss
for the company.
 Production of Cosmetics products in 1979.
Life insurance business in 1979 through a joint venture with Prudential Insurance Co., Ltd.
Import and sale of sports goods in Japan through a JV wit PepsiCo Inc. subsidiary to establish
Sony Wilson Inc.
Expansion through entry in Publishing, luxury goods and restaurants.

H.R Strategies:
Two Fundamental Principals are being followed while setting HR Policies:

1. Create a Pleasant Working Environment

Relaxed Culture and Working Environment to attract candidates from other companies and deal
with the issue of life time employment system in Japan
Avoid rigid corporate rules so that new recruits could contribute to the company from very first
day
2. Open Minded Corporate Culture

Strategy to hire mixed blood; both fresh and experienced employees

More emphasis on candidates capabilities and less emphasis on candidates academic
background. To emphasize this strategy, Open entry system was introduced where applicants
were asked not to name their respective school.
Candidates not necessarily have to be the so called best talents. Instead, they should have
something different from others.

Successes:
Sony produced first portable small sized, transistor radio in 1957 which followed the launch of
pocket sized radio, the TR-63 in the same year. With this radio, Sony beat the competition to the
emerging markets for transistor TVs and video tape recorder.
 Sonys second major success was the launch of Trinitron color TV tube which provided brighter
and sharper TV images with less distortion.
The most successful products in Sonys history were Walkman and compact Disc Player which
were introduced in 1979 and 1982 respectively.

Failures:
Sonys Betamax camp lost the market share from VHS camp of Matsushita and JVC for home use
VCR. Although Betamax format was launched earlier and its quality was much better than VHS
but VHS camp worked more actively to supply its products. The learning from this failure was
that the quality is not always the deciding factor. One of the reasons of this failure was the
absence of Software library in company.
Due to the minimal R&D efforts in the computer field and delay in beginning of product
development in computer related technologies, Sonys computer related products did not interest
consumers very much and company failed to establish a presence in the market.
Sonys venture in the movie business under the name of Sony Picture Entertainment which
proved to be a huge financial loss for the company. Major reason for this failure was Sonys no
direct control over this US based subsidiary.

Top contributors amongst Bank presidents:

1. President Masaru Ibuka:

2. Akio Morita:
3. President Nobuyuki idei:
4. President Norio Ohga
5. Kazuo Iwama President 1976

Problems:
 How to cope with declining profit margin
Intense competition
High exchange rates (Over 1
Increasing convergence of computing, telecommunication and electronic entertainment in new
multimedia products.
Sonys venture in the movie business under the name of Sony Picture Entertainment which
proved to be a huge financial loss for the company. No direct control over this US based
subsidiary
Expansion of limited resources through unrelated and related diversification.

Solutions:

In order to adapt the changing world, articulate a new corporate vision to ensure the evolution of
company from analog to the digital era.
Introduction of Regeneration as new management theme (Objective is to preserve the original
founding spirit by renewing the company)

Conclusion
1) James Financial performance is outstanding and his branch generated the highest revenue and
greatest margin contribution to the business. Except for Customer satisfaction, in all other measures,
James has maintained an Above Par rating. In my opinion, to remain consistent with the current
companys policy, Lisa should give James Par rating. This will give a signal to all other managers
that Company is seriously concerned about its strategy that is customer satisfaction. If Lisa will give
an above Par rating, it will be a bad example for other 30 branches who will perceive that company is
not serious about its strategy and by any mean; they will have to maximize their financial results
while customer satisfaction could be set aside.

2) I have some serious concerns about Banks Performance scorecard. First of all, different branches
have different customer base and it is quite unfair that in such a competitive environment, Bank is
using same standard for all branches. Its very much possible that James score of 72 in Q4 is
satisfactory as his branch is the largest and the toughest branch in the region and is dealing with a
diverse customer base which has complicated and sophisticated needs and requires very high quality
services. Secondly, a small pool of just 25 customers does not meet the requirement and their
feedback is mainly depending on interviews on phone calls. Result could be different if some other
ways of getting customers feedback is used. It is also mentioned in the case that James has shared his
concerns to Lisa regarding the adequacy of evaluation system. Moreover, services like ATMs and 24
hour banking are also evaluated in the same telephonic interview. These are the services which cannot
be controlled by James or any other branch manager.

Suggestions
At the first instance, Bank needs to improve its performance evaluation process. For this purpose,
company may add more than one method to get feedback from customers.

The company should add more perspectives to make its scorecard more fair and comprehensive.

The idea of different criteria of Performance evaluation for different branches could also be
considered.

Branch services should be separated from out of branch services like ATMs and 24 hour banking.

As per my suggestion, James is given a Par rating. The rating may have a negative impact on
James motivation and may also lead to losing a very competent and hardworking manager.
Before giving the rating, Frits and Lisa should explain the rating criteria to James and should gain
his confidence. They should also appreciate James performance related to financial measures and,
if possible, should reward him in some other way. They should also make out a plan for James
training and development in customer satisfaction area so that, in future, they might avoid such
dilemma.