EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Formatted: Left: 1.

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Sony is one of the world's most widely known electronics companies. Founded in

Japan, after World War II in 1946 in Tokyo under the name Tokyo Telecommunications

Engineering Corporation by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. The company has grown

from humble roots to a multinational giant. The company started with 190,000 yen--

slightly more than $1,500--and began researching. In less than a year, the company

released its first product, a power megaphone. In 1950, it released Japan's first magnetic

tape and tape recorder.

From the tape player to the Walkman to OLED TV, Sony's tradition of innovation

has made it a profitable company for more than 60 years. Kazuo Hirai, who joined the

company in 1984 and worked his way up through its media and consumer electronics

divisions, became its president and CEO in 2012.

When Sony looked to go global with its products in the mid-1950s, it looked for

a new name because the initials TTK were already taken. The company came up with its

name by combining the Latin word for sound, "sonus," and the American word "sonny."

The company wanted a word that was not found in any language for trademarking

reasons. Many within the company questioned the change because of the time spent on

making its original name known in the business world, but in 1958, the name was

officially changed to Sony Corp. In 1960, Sony launched its U.S. branch. Eight years

later, Sony opened a branch in the United Kingdom. The company continued to grow in

the 1970s, when it expanded into Spain and France in 1973. German operations were

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 Sony has a long history of introducing technologies. In 1955, Sony introduced

Japan's first transistor radio, the TR-55. Soon after, the company launched a pocket-sized

transistor radio. In 1960, Sony released the world's first direct-view portable TV, the

TV8-301. The company continued improving the TV and within two years produced the

tiniest all-transistor TV. In 1989, Sony released the Handycam, a portable, easy-to-use,

8 mm camcorder. In 2003, the company released the world's first Blu-ray disc player. In

2005, Sony upgraded the Handycam to the High Definition Handycam, creating the

world's smallest video camera.

As of March 2013, Sony employed more than $146,000 people worldwide. The

company's year-end revenue in March 2014 was over $7.5 billion, with an operating loss

for the year of over $1.2 billion U.S.. Much of that loss came from the company's decision

to shut down its troubled PC manufacturing operation, as well as lower-than-expected

sales of smartphones and ongoing price pressure from lower-cost rivals in its audio and

video divisions. Its mobile communications division, gaming division, imaging-products

division and Sony Pictures division remain strong, providing the bulk of the company's

projected revenue growth for 2015.

With the vast of growing technologies and innovations nowadays, SONY has a

lot of competitors in the field of products and in the market. Despite some successes, the

company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s. In 2012, Kazuo Hirai was

promoted to president and CEO, replacing Stringer. Shortly thereafter, Hirai outlined his

company-wide initiative, named "One Sony" to revive Sony from years of financial losses

and bureaucratic management structure, which proved difficult for former CEO Stringer to
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accomplish, partly due to differences in business culture and native languages between

Stringer and some of Sony's Japanese divisions and subsidiaries. Hirai outlined three major

areas of focus for Sony's electronics business, which include imaging technology, gaming

and mobile technology, as well as a focus on reducing the major losses from the television

business. In February 2014, Sony announced the sale of its Vaio PC division to a new

corporation owned by investment fund Japan Industrial Partners and spinning its TV

division into its own corporation as to make it more nimble to turn the unit around from

past losses totaling $7.8 billion over a decade. Later that month, they announced that they

would be closing 20 stores. In April, the company announced that they would be selling

9.5 million shares in Square Enix (roughly 8.2 percent of the game company's total shares)

in a deal worth approximately $48 million. In May 2014 the company announced it was

forming two joint ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to manufacture and market

Sony's PlayStation games consoles and associated software in China. It was reported in

December 2016 by multiple news outlets that Sony was considering restructuring its U.S.

operations by merging its TV & film business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, with its

gaming business, Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to the reports, such a

restructuring would have placed Sony Pictures under Sony Interactive's CEO, Andrew

House, though House wouldn't have taken over day-to-day operations of the film

studio. According to one report, Sony was set to make a final decision on the possibility of

the merger of the TV, film, & gaming businesses by the end of its fiscal year in March of

the following year (2017).

The company’s strategies depend largely on a variety of factors and putting together

an effective strategy is an unsurmountable task for many firms. It has been successful as Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt
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its successfully planned for its future growth and well-structured analysis. An astute

knowledge of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and knowing its competitors are

those important strategies of the company.

This report analyzes the problems/issues which Sony Corporation faces. The

company is facing multi faced problems and its solution should also be multi faced. It

requires a major over haul. Sony's current financial difficulties are tied to its corporate culture

which begun over 30 years ago.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.How would you rate SONY’s ability to create and deploy their strategies?

2.How does the industry in which SONY competes dictate the type of strategy it must

implement in order to be successful?

3.How might SONY plan for the future in the electronics industry? What opportunities and

threats do you see coming in SONY’s future?

4.Who are SONY’s competitors?

5.What are the advantages and disadvantages possessed by SONY’s competitors in

comparison to SONY products?

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6.How might SONY deal with these disadvantages in order to be more competitive?
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DATA ANALYSIS

Discussion Question 1

Figure 1. Evolution of Technology by SONY CORPORATION

As you can see from above figure above, SONY’s ability to create new products

is evidently seen for almost in every decade achieving awards and vast approaching to

innovations and technologies.

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 As a big and well-known company, SONY corporation always come up with

good strategies. This strategies is create and deploy trough planning proses. A strategy

is a comprehensive plan guiding resource allocation to achieve long term organi zation

goals. By this we can say that strategy is a shape of the way for what company will

become it the future. This company have good ability to create and deploy the strategy.

This ability have make them able to overcome any problem and stand firmly in

electronic industry. At all time, SONY has always used two main strategy, there are

partnership or joint venture, and human resource. This two thing are very important to

them. Sony has realize that by doing partnership and joint venture, they got benefits

like, gathering the strength with other company to do bigger work, and in human

resource, they look very close on the important of individual’s commitment in

achieving their goals. Sony realize the important of human capital and they know that

it is important to maintain the professional working relationship with their worker In

partnership and joint venture. They realize this tactic when joint with GOOGLE in to

take control cellular phone marketing. They was able to learn and have build android

phone technology. Their android has better system by backing up by GOOGLE online

system. In maintaining the state of excellent in human resources, the management

always communicate directly to their worker in their gathering function and always

create the opportunities for dialogue. They always want to have a good communication

and discussion with their worker. I believed this two point is making this company

name stand really high in this business and their ability to create a strategies is very

good.

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 It is also evident though its revenues. Sony is one of Japan's largest corporations by

revenue. It had revenues of ¥6.493 trillion in 2012. It also maintains large reserves of cash,

with ¥895 billion on hand as of 2012. In May 2012, Sony shares were valued at about $15

billion.The companyBillion.The Company was immensely profitable throughout the 1990s

and early 2000s, in part because of the success of its new PlayStation line. In September

2000 Sony had a market capitalization of $100 billion; but by December 2011 it had

plunged to $18 billion, reflecting falling prospects for Sony but also reflecting grossly

inflated share prices of the 'dot.com' years. Net worth, as measured by stockholder equity,

has steadily grown from $17.9 billion in March 2002 to $35.6 billion through December

2011. Earnings yield (inverse of the price to earnings ratio) has never been more than 5%

and usually much less; thus Sony has always traded in over-priced ranges with the

exception of the 2009 market bottom.

Sony's 2009 sales and distribution by geographical region

Geographic region Total sales (yen in millions)

Japan 1,873,219

United States 2,512,345

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 Europe 2,307,658

Other areas 2,041,270

Discussion Question 2

Hypercompetition facing several direct competitors and competitive advantage

tend to be short live..Differentiation Strategy offer products that unique and different from

the competitors - Research and development , cost leadership strategy seeks to operate with

low cost so that products can be sold at lower price

SONY has always believed in outsourcing production whereas its competitor

SAMSUNG held true to manufacturing their products internally. According to Yoo Beun

Keun, president of SAMSUNG, Giving up manufacturing is tantamount to abandoning

your brand. SONY however believes to concentrate SONY-unique applications according

from Sue Tanaka (SONY’s spokesperson).One of the methods of SONY is the formation

of strategic partnerships that allow it to capitalize on its own strengths as well as the

strengths of other firms like the alliance of SONY and Google’s open source Android.

Strategic management is the process of formulating and implementing strategies to

accomplish long-term goals and sustain competitive advantage. Corporate Strategies works

with rivals on projects of mutual benefit. A business strategy is for a single business unit

or product line which identifies how a division or strategic business unit will compete in

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its product or service domain. Another strategy is functional strategy where it guides the

use of organizational resources to implement business strategy.

Management Practices and Systems is also a strategy requires supporting structures

and workflows staffed by talented people ;need leaders who can motivate everyone to do

their very best work while strategic leadership is the capability to inspire people to

continuously change, performance enhancement, and implementation of organizational

strategies. These are the strategies being practiced by SONY Corporation.

Discussion Question 3

Sony SONY looks not only to existing products but also in new markets where it

can advance its position. In future Sony have trend to entire to new market that have lower

competitor or niche market. Get market share in middle and lower market by reduce price

and made diverse product. Sony brand still keep competitive advantage like quality,

creativity and employee synergy.

SONY consistently invents its resources in research and development in order to

maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. It realizes that it must contend with its

existing competitors in order to persuade its consumer to purchase its products.

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SWOT Analysis of SONY Corporation
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 SWOT Analysis of SONY Corporation

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Innovation Maintaining T.V. Category Competitor’s

Multiple and Gaming Competition
Quality Segment
Function
Global
Brand Strength Investing
International Economic
Product Expansion Network Recession
Differentiation Initiative
Product Pricing Electronic
International Network
Financial Market Security
Service Penetration
Industry
Corporate
Governance

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Discussion Question 4
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 One of the sony SONY competitor is Samsung SAMSUNG corporation. This

company is using a vise versa policies to SonySONY. They prefer to do their

improvement on their own. They do their research and development without any parties

take part on that activities. For them, their technologies is not to be shared and only to

be used for them and to be shared by other. Their advantages is, the policies,

technologies, skills, expertise, and culture of working is cannot be copied by other. This

will maintain their advantages in edge of competition in the industry. This companies

strategy in unread by any competitor which if that may happen it will let to the lacking

of their ideas to their competitor where it was the weapons for them to useduse in

competition with their competitor. But their policies also have weaknesses. First, they

may facing insufficient capital to invest in developing their new technolog ies and

continuing research and development. They don’t have enough money to do some

development, and not just that, in fact they may facing the lack of expert and knowledge

where all of this really costly to be gain in short time. This is really bad for that

company. One of they way to overcome this problem is by doing the same thing like

SONY, the partnership, actually SAMSUNG corporation just don’t realize that doing

joint venture is not giving all of your company treasure to the other, just sharing what

is needed to do research and development for new invention. Another thing they can do

is focus on marketing to reach target and make profit. This is important because the

profit is really needed to make new investment and build new project

for company company development

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KEY DECISION CRITERIA

1.Cost Cutting

2.Competitors

32.Moving Factories to Asian Countries

34. Proprietary Technologies

45.Integration among Branches

6.High Pricing

57.Management Issues

ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS

1.Due to vast of technologies and innovations, SONY should divert to a more in demand

products nowadays among the consumers.

2. A market study and environmental scanning should be done all over again.

3.Thorough rgh research studies should be manifested not only on new and latest products

and inventions but also with the management styles and strategies in business.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1.Cost cutting, by eliminating jobs, standardizing parts, and cutting the number of suppliers

to increase revenues and help meet the global recession..

2.Moving factories in Asia, in order to get cheaper work force without allowing quality to

suffer.

3. Banish of the proprietary technologies, by emergent partnership with other companies, in

terms of product development. like GOOGLE and other partnerships.

4.Integration and cooperation between the divisions, which should be done by bringing

executives of different company’s branches together and discussing plans and goals which

can help company to rise its value.

5.Efficient management, which means that all these changes, should be done in a short

period of time and in most effective way. Products should be refined instead of reinvented

so that there would be less set up cost and greater computerization could be achieved.

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