Who created Sony? Sony Marketing Activities

Sony Corporation, a world leader in the production of electronics, appeared on the photographic equipment market relatively recently, but has already managed to occupy a very strong position in it. In general, this is not surprising, since rapid technological breakthroughs and risky marketing moves are the company’s usual tactics, which were formed at the dawn of its activities.

The year of Sony's founding is considered to be 1946, when former colleagues at the defense company Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka met in Tokyo bombed by American planes. The friends drank sake, congratulated each other on having survived the war, and immediately decided to organize some kind of production.

First initial capital partners was small: 84,500 yen, or $375 at the exchange rate of that time, most of which Morita borrowed from his father, a successful distiller. This money was enough for Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company, to start operating on the second floor of a dilapidated shopping center on May 7, with a staff of 20 people (all of these people were former employees of the same defense plant).

Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, founders of Sony

The first tape recorder

Despite the loud name, the company produced far from the most high-tech products: rice fryers, voltmeters and heating pads, which had to be peddled. With the proceeds, Morita and Ibuka bought a variety of foreign electrical appliances that poured into the country with the arrival of American troops. The engineers were most impressed by the American tape recorder with a metal magnetic tape on which radio programs could be recorded. Quickly realizing that an expensive and heavy metal plate was not the best basis for a magnetic coating, the friends set out to develop a more advanced medium. As a result, they came up with the idea of cutting a sheet of whatman paper into narrow strips and applying magnetic paint on them in a thin layer. The simple technology for producing lightweight and flexible magnetic tape was immediately patented, and in 1950, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company released the first Japanese G-Type tape recorder.

The first Japanese tape recorder G-Type weighed almost half a centner

Assembling tape recorders in the workshop of the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company, 1950s

The creation turned out to be complex, bulky and very expensive. It is unlikely that it would have become widespread if not for an unexpected order from the district court: tape recorders were then very rare even in the United States, and the Japanese judicial department, suffering from an eternal shortage of stenographers, was glad to get domestic devices for recording voices. The sale of 24 tape recorders at once brought the company 1 million yen and confidence in its abilities. IN next year the company released a more advanced model of the H tape recorder, weighing only 13 kg. Morita immediately sent the device’s designer, Masao Kurahashi, on a lecture tour around the country to talk about new sound recording technologies in educational institutions. And he himself began to convince officials from the Ministry of Education of the need to install tape recorders in schools. In the end, under pressure from Morita and teachers impressed by the new product, officials gave in, and the company received another massive order for its products. And only the third model of the tape recorder, P, became a real sales hit without any government orders - not least due to its attractive price and significantly easier operation.

The first transistor radios enjoyed unprecedented popularity

Transistors from America

In March 1952, Masaru Ibuka traveled to the United States to study the use of tape recorders in Everyday life, and at the same time see how their production is organized in American companies. The main result of this trip was the purchase of a license for the production of transistors from Western Electric. These semiconductor devices, designed to amplify and control electric current, had been invented in Germany before the war, but engineers were still vague about where exactly they could be used. While the Americans were considering the possibility of using transistors in military equipment, Ibuka designed based on them... an innocent household radio. Unlike its bulky counterparts, the transistor model was the size of a thick book and could run not only on mains power, but also on batteries. TR-2 - this is the name given to the new device - became the first truly portable radio receiver in the world.

Presentation of a prototype of the U-matic VTR household video recorder

MicroTV Sony TV5-303

Inexpensive, lightweight receivers that could be taken anywhere became wildly popular, and Ibuka decided to expand the scope of transistors. In 1960, based on them, he designed a small portable television with an 8-inch screen, and five years later the first video recorder capable of recording television programs on magnetic tape appeared. Both of these devices were released under a new brand, the name of which sounded short and noble: Sony.

Birth of sound

Telecommunications Engineering Company finally changed its complex name in 1958. Akio Morita, who by that time had become responsible for promoting the company’s products, assured, not without reason: “To gain a foothold in the world market, we need a different name - simple, short, easy to pronounce and memorable. And instead of hieroglyphs, you need to use the international Latin alphabet.” For example, Americans could not pronounce not only Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, but even the abbreviation Totsuko - and selling a product in the United States made by a company with an unpronounceable name would have been difficult, to put it mildly. At first, Morita and Ibuka wanted to shorten the name of their brainchild to three letters - TTK, but then problems would inevitably arise in the domestic market. After all, TTK is very similar to TKK, the Japanese railway company. And then, having rummaged through dictionaries, the friends pulled out the Latin word sonus - “sound”, which, in their opinion, ideally reflected the direction of the company’s activities. Having slightly modernized it, Morita and Ibuka came up with the word sony, which was destined to become the international name of the company.

The modern Sony logo was approved in 1973

The first Sony logos, which appeared on radios in 1955, were written in a dynamically slanted font. Two years later, the font was replaced with a calmer and more readable one, and since then only the thickness of the letters has changed in the style of the word Sony. The last version of the logo that we now see on Sony products was approved in 1973.

The habit of surprising

In 1968, Sony established its first overseas subsidiary, Sony UK Ltd. in Great Britain, in 1971 it introduced the world's first professional cassette recording system, and in 1972 it received its first (of fifteen subsequent) Emmy music award. People started talking about the Japanese corporation, and both competitors and students of management and marketing departments at major universities began to understand the reasons for its success.

Akio Morita unveils another Sony mini-TV, 1960s

Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Sony, 1996

Akio Morita himself called the main prerequisites for such dynamic development the constant desire to choose major goals and set ambitious scientific and technical tasks. In his book Made in Japan, he provides a simple diagram of such tactics: “Scene 1: A now familiar product (transistor radio, portable television, household VCR) is not yet on the market. Scene 2: experts say that no one needs such a product. Why make a small receiver if a big one has better sound? Why do we need a small screen TV in large rooms in American homes? Who needs a VCR with the abundance of interesting and varied programs on numerous television programs?

“Scene 3: the leader of the company clearly explains the philosophy of the new product - the transistor receiver will follow the owner to any place; The Walkman, the world's first pocket-sized audio player, replaces the hustle and bustle of the big city with the music environment of your choice; the VCR eliminates the tyranny of television companies that force everyone to watch programs only at the time they are broadcast. Scene 4: Sony engineers get down to business and decide difficult task, production workers ensure impeccable quality, and sales departments ensure the resounding market success of the new product.”

Sony has repeatedly introduced advanced video recording formats. Largely thanks to her, the concept of “high-resolution video” appeared.

From video to photo

Using the tactics Morita described, by the mid-1970s Sony had become the world's largest manufacturer of a variety of electronics, from small household appliances to computers and professional stereo systems. Not least thanks to Sony, video technologies began to actively develop, almost completely displacing movie cameras from the amateur market. And the high-resolution video recording systems developed by the company had a significant impact even on cinema. However, the company for a long time did not pay attention to another profitable segment of the market - the production and sale of amateur photographic equipment. This omission was eliminated in 1981, when Sony made not just a breakthrough into the market, but a real revolution in photographic equipment, introducing digital SLR camera Mavica (short for Magnetic Video Camera), with the appearance of which the history of modern digital photography is usually counted. A CCD sensor measuring 10 x 12 mm, which contained 0.28 megapixels, was responsible for image registration in this device. The images generated by the matrix were stored in analog NTSC video format on a special flexible magnetic disk, reminiscent of modern floppy disks. The disc was rewritable, it could hold up to 50 frames, and there was also room for audio commentary.

Sony Mavica, 1981

Technically, Mavica was a continuation of Sony’s line of television video cameras based on CCD matrices, but the result of its work was not a video stream, but static pictures, still frames, which could be viewed on a TV or monitor screen. Otherwise, Mavica was a full-fledged DSLR with a familiar viewfinder and an original mount for interchangeable lenses, presented simultaneously with the camera: 25 mm f/2, 50 mm f/1.4 and 16-65 mm f/1.4 zoom.

Sony ProMavica MVC-2000 was supplied only to order, complete with a special disk drive

Having made a lot of noise and becoming one of the pioneers of digital photography, Sony calmed down and forgot about SLR cameras for more than twenty years. In 1986, the company introduced a large camera, the ProMavica MVC-2000, equipped with a 0.38-megapixel 2/3-inch CCD sensor and an excellent fixed 48-288 mm zoom lens with a constant aperture of f/1.4. The model lost its mirror and pentaprism, and its design and appearance began to resemble a video camera even more - but it was still a camera capable of shutter speeds in the range from 1/15 to 1/1000 s. The camera came with a special portable drive for magnetic disks, making it easier to view the pictures taken on a TV screen. This model, very interesting for its time, costing $3,395, never went on general sale, but was supplied only to order as a touchstone, with the help of which it was supposed to study the demand for such devices.

Sony Mavica MVC-C1 and Canon RC-250 XapShot, 1988

Demand was low, and Sony specialists, believing that the time for professional digital cameras had not yet come, concentrated on developing a simpler and cheaper consumer model. The result of their efforts was the appearance in 1988 of two models at once - Mavica MVC-C1 Personal Camera and MVC-A10 Sound Mavica costing $230 and $350, respectively. Both cameras were equipped with 2/3-inch matrices with a resolution of 0.28 megapixels and fast lenses with a focal length of 15 mm. It was possible to shoot only at a sensitivity value of 80 ISO in the shutter speed range from 1/60 to 1/500 s. You could record 25 photos on a magnetic disk, and the MVC-A10 Sound Mavica model also allowed you to record a ten-second commentary for each photo. The cameras turned out to be quite viable, but by no means revolutionary: in the same year, Canon and Konica released production models with similar functions and even design, and Pentax presented a prototype of a very similar EI camera.

Carl Zeiss optics were already present on the first Cyber-shot, which appeared in 1996

Cybersnapshots

In 1996, Sony released a digital camera with a very interesting design: a module with a built-in flash and a 35 mm lens could be rotated 180 degrees relative to the main body. It was a device of a completely new electronic formation, which was emphasized by its name - Sony Cyber-shot F1. Pictures with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels were no longer recorded on a magnetic disk, but on a miniature memory card - and most importantly, they could be immediately viewed on a 1.8-inch display and, if any of them were not liked, immediately deleted. This model became the ancestor of the famous Cyber-shot family of cameras, thanks to which Sony, a few years later, became one of the leaders in the amateur photographic equipment market.

The 2-megapixel Cyber-shot F505 camera of an unusual design became the progenitor of all subsequent Sony “pseudo-mirrors”, up to the Cyber-shot R1 model

In 1999, a serious model, the Cyber-shot F505, appeared, which had a rather impressive-sized Vario-Sonnar zoom lens from Carl Zeiss that could move down or up relative to the camera body. All subsequent “pseudo-DSLRs” of the company, up to the 10-megapixel Cyber-shot R1, released in 2005, can to some extent be considered an evolution of this by no means compact camera. Everyone expected the next step from a company that had mastered the production of such serious devices - the release of a full-fledged digital SLR camera. But the prerequisite for this important stage in the history of Sony was an event that literally shook the entire photo world: in February 2006, Konica Minolta announced its withdrawal from the photo market. It must be said that the companies Konica and Minolta, which merged only in 2003, were considered the luminaries of Japanese photo production. The first began producing format cameras on the Japanese islands back in the 19th century, the second began with the development of medium format photographic systems, analogues of the German Rolleiflex, in the 1920s. Later, Konica concentrated on the production of rangefinder cameras, film, paper and photo printing systems, while Minolta was actively involved in the production of SLR cameras and optics, winning the trust of not only amateurs, but also professional photographers around the world. And at the beginning of 2006, the already united company KonicaMinolta suddenly unexpectedly announced the closure of photo production and the transfer of all technological developments in this area to Sony Corporation! The latest addition was somehow lost amid the shock experienced by numerous adherents of the Minolta photo system. But this news meant one thing: very soon they would have to spend considerable sums to switch to another system.

But before everyone’s amazement had passed, in June of the same year Sony introduced its 10-megapixel amateur SLR camera A100, and a year and a half later released the semi-professional model A700. The Minolta heritage was felt in the characteristic angular design and abundance of various mechanical control units of the new DSLRs. Otherwise, the cameras turned out to be far from conservative: the engineers filled them with the most modern electronic systems, which made it possible to successfully fight for the most demanding consumer on the battlefields of the market. Along with the cameras, which inherited the mount type from Minolta, several Sony zoom lenses were presented, as well as a whole fleet of high-quality optics from Carl Zeiss, the legendary German concern with which the Japanese corporation has been working closely since 1995. Today, Sony launches a variety of digital cameras on the market with enviable regularity - from sleek compact models to semi-professional DSLRs - and is about to try on the laurels of the most prolific and energetic photo manufacturer in the world.

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Gadget manufacturers

Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate. Its diversified business is focused primarily on electrical appliances (TVs, refrigerators, game consoles), as well as entertainment and financial services. The company can be called one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. In the 2014 Fortune Global 500 ranking, Sony was ranked 105th.

Sony Corporation is a business unit of the parent company Sony Group, responsible for the production of electronics. Four core operating segments - electronics (including video games, network services and medical businesses), motion pictures, music and finance - make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.

Different divisions are responsible for different segments. Sony is one of the Top 20 leaders in the sale of semiconductors, and is also the third largest manufacturer of televisions in the world (after and).

Sony's corporate group focuses primarily on electronics manufacturing and financial services (such as the insurance and banking sectors). Its foundation is associated with the names of Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuki.

They chose the name "Sony" as a derivative of "sonus" (translated from Latin as "sound"), as well as from the word "sonny", which in English language means “sons” (in the early 50s in Japan, “sonny boys” meant presentable and intelligent young people).

By the way, the use of Latin letters in the name was very unusual for a Japanese company. It was Morita who insisted on such a name, demanding that it not be tied to any industry (despite the fact that many were against it).

Future Japanese industrialist and co-founder of Sony, Masaru Ibuki, was born in 1908. He graduated from Waseda University in 1933, after which he got a job in a photochemical laboratory where film was processed. Following this, fate decreed that he enlist in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

At that time, World War II was going on, and Ibuka was a member of the Naval Research Committee. In 1946, he left the laboratory and the Navy and founded a radio repair shop.

The co-founder of the new enterprise was Akio Morita.

At the same time, Masaru played vital role in licensing transistor technology to Sony in the 1950s. As a result, Sony became one of the first to pioneer the use of this technology for peaceful purposes. Ibuka was president of the firm for over twenty years and then chairman between '71 and '76.

In 1961 he was awarded the Medal of Honor with a blue ribbon, and in subsequent years he was also awarded various orders and titles. Masaru received an honorary doctorate from Sophia University in Tokyo. He is the author of books on child psychology and learning.

Ibuka died in '97 at the age of 89. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Akio Morita, the future Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony, was born in 1921 in Nagoya. His family was involved in making miso, soy sauce and sake in the village of Kosugaya (now part of the city of Tokonoma) on the western coast of the Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665.

Akio was the eldest of four children, and his father trained him so that he could later run the family business. However, Morita found his true calling in something completely different thanks to his passion for physics and mathematics. He graduated from Osaka Imperial University in 1944 with a degree in physics.

During World War II, he also served in the Imperial Japanese Navy and worked for the scientific research committee, where he met Masaru Ibuka.

Akio Morita's family was Sony's largest shareholder and contributed a lot of money, supporting it financially early on. In 1950, the company sold its first tape recorder in Japan; Then it was the turn of the pocket radio. Akio Morita was the initiator of many of Sony's inventions.

It was he who came up with the idea of giving the radio a “pocket” format. In 1994, Morita resigned as chairman of the company after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He was replaced by Norio Oga. Akio Morita was an author of books on schooling; also wrote an autobiography.

His most scandalous work was his co-authorship with politician S. Ishihara. In this work they criticized American world business, and encouraged the Japanese to take an independent position in running their own affairs. These chapters were later removed from the English version of the book.

Like Ibuka, Akio Morita received various medals and awards, including the Royal Society of Arts Medal in '82, the Legion of Honor two years later, and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan in 1991.

In 1993 Morita received the British Order of Chivalry, and so on. He died in 1999 at the age of 78 from pneumonia. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Ribbon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

So, the Sony company actually traces its history back to the Second World War, when its two founders met. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka opened an electronics store in a Tokyo department store that had been damaged by bombing. The new company had an initial capital of $530 and a total of eight employees.

The following year, Masaru was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo.

It was this company that became the creator of the first Japanese cassette recorder (model Type-G). In the summer of 1955, the first Japanese transistor radio, the Sony TR-55, appeared. In 1958 the company name was changed to Sony.

In 1975, Sony launched a new videotape recording format - Betamax. Unfortunately, the following years were marked by the infamous “video format war.” In the 1980s, Sony supplied Betamax systems for VCRs, competing with JVC's VHS format.

In the end, VHS did manage to become a worldwide standard, and Sony also used the format. However, it is worth noting the following fact: although Betamax can actually be considered an obsolete format, the professionally oriented Betacam format (based on Betamax) is still used, especially in the television industry, although to a lesser extent due to the spread of digital technology and high resolution.

In 1985, Handycam and Video8 format products came along and became popular in the consumer market. Two years later, a new digital audio standard, 4 mm DAT, appeared.

In 1979, the company introduced the world's first portable music player, the Walkman, which supported compact audio cassettes. In 2004 Sony released Hi-MD. This was a format that allowed audio to be played and recorded on the new 1GB Hi-MD discs.

In addition to this, the new format made it possible to store computer files - documents, videos and photographs. It should be added that Sony jointly developed the S/PDIF format, as well as the SACD audio system. Subsequently, the consumer still preferred CDs. Other Sony products include disk storage and flash memory.

The modern range of Sony Corporation includes various consumer electronics, including portable audio and video players, computers and so on.

In 2011, Sony, in an effort to enter the tablet market, launched its Sony Tablet series running Android.

Since 2012, products based on this platform began to enter the market under the Xperia brand (smartphones could also be included in this category).

The company's product range also includes a wide range of digital cameras (including Cyber-shot models), televisions, semiconductors and electronic components (image sensors, laser diodes, OLED panels and so on). The image sensors produced are widely used in digital cameras, tablet computers and Sony smartphones.

The company also has businesses related to medicine, biotechnology and healthcare. In the fall of 2012, Sony announced a joint venture with Olympus to develop new surgical endoscopes. The following year, Sony Olympus Medical Solutions was created.

In 2014, the P5 enterprise was created (together with Illumina and M3) to provide research and development activities.

The company successfully produces portable gaming equipment. By the way, the best-selling video game console of all time is the PlayStation 2. In 2014, new virtual reality technology was announced for the PlayStation 4.

Sony's mobile division is headquartered in the Japanese capital. It was founded in the fall of 2001 as a joint venture with Ericsson. Sony acquired a stake in the Swedish company in the winter of 2012.

In 2013, the flagship Xperia Z3 appeared. The smartphone ran on the Android platform and was equipped with a 5.2-inch display with Full HD resolution. The mobile device had a battery with a capacity of 3100 mAh, as well as a body with high degree protection from moisture and dust.

Back in the early 90s, Ericsson collaborated with General Electric in the USA. They were called Ericsson Mobile Communications. This name was not chosen by chance, and primarily so that the company would be recognizable in the USA. Ericsson supplied the chips for its phones from the Philips plant in New Mexico.

In 2000, a fire occurred at this facility, and production was suspended indefinitely. While we had already established supplies from alternative sources, we encountered serious problems. For decades, this company has been in the mobile device market and has managed to achieve significant success.

As a result, there was a lot of speculation about the possible sale of the mobile division, although the president of Ericsson himself denied this, noting that mobile phone- This is a core business. At the time, Sony was a minor player in the global device market, with less than 1% share. Final terms the merger of the two companies was announced in the summer of 2001.

The strategy of the merged company included the release of new models with digital photography functions, as well as other multimedia capabilities. For this purpose, Sony Ericsson specially released several mobile devices with a camera and a color screen.

Despite the success of selling new products, the joint venture continued to suffer losses. The K750i model was introduced in 2005. The device had a 2 megapixel camera.

The W800i model was also a notable device. It was the first Walkman phone capable of playing music for up to 30 hours.

The first 5-megapixel camera phone, the K850i, was released in 2007, followed by an 8-megapixel camera device the following year. At the 2009 exhibition, the company presented the first device with a 12 megapixel camera – Satio.

It is known that in those years they also repeatedly became sponsors of professional sports teams.

In 2011, Sony announced the acquisition of a stake in Swedish partner Ericsson for $1.47 billion. This buyout was approved by the European Union in 2012. Around the same time, the company decided to completely focus on the production of smartphones, excluding the release of all other mobile devices.

To support the gaming sector, Sony is also purchasing the Gaikai cloud service. The Sony logo was replaced with a new power button, and consumers could clearly see these changes after the new Xperia series mobile devices in 2013. In the same year, the Z and ZL models were introduced. This was followed by the flagships Z1 and Z2. The Z3 was also announced in 2014.

Since 2012, all of the company's mobile products have been released under the Xperia line. The following year, a design known as "OmniBalance" appeared. Since 2014, more and more attention has been paid to high-end products, while the budget segment has been almost completely ignored.

The company is also involved in the production of televisions and film products. There is a special division called Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as a record company, Sony Music Entertainment - the second largest among the Big Four companies, the basis of which was the acquisition of CBS Records, as well as the buyout of Bertelsmann's share.

The subsidiary, which develops and publishes video games, is called Online Entertainment. There is also a label called ATV Music Publishing. Interesting fact: The label owns most of The Beatles' publishing rights.

Sony and its mission. Like every company, Sony has a date of birth - May 7, 1946. Its original name was Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, or Tokyo Telecommunications Company. Her start-up capital was 500 dollars. The company's founders began by assembling electric heating pads, which they sold at street markets in Tokyo for a profit. Then they mastered the production of short-wave attachments for medium-wave radio receivers, as well as spare parts (motors and pickups) for repairing and improving old players produced before and during the war. These goods were regarded by the founders of Sony as temporary, providing the opportunity to quickly replenish working capital. Two ideas for technology-intensive products soon emerged. The idea of producing a wire tape recorder. For the first time such tape recorders appeared in Germany. At Tohoku University (in northern Japan), research was carried out on the production of special steel wire as a kind of tape. The Sumitomo Metals company, capable of producing the necessary wire, refused the order. In addition, experiments have shown that wire is not entirely suitable for implementing this idea. The idea of producing a tape recorder. The implementation of this project, which was embodied in the Model O, released in 1950, required research and development to create technology for the production of magnetic tape. In 1948, employees of the American laboratory Bell Lab Research invented the first transistor. American experts believed that the transistor could only be used in hearing aids . But the management of Totsuko (as Sony was called at that time) went further - it set out to develop its own high-frequency transistors for radio receivers. This was done by the company's research laboratory, using the acquired patent. In 1955, Sony mastered the production of miniature parts and released a transistor radio (model TN-55), and in 1957, its “pocket” version. In January 1958, it changed its name to Sony Corporation. Consequently, the content of Sony's mission became the following formulation: “innovative ideas - the latest technology - technology-intensive products - consumers all over the world.” An important stage in the development of Sony's mission was 1958, associated with the beginning of the export of its products. The basis for this was the solution of the most important problems in the domestic market: . finding a “niche” in the domestic market using technology-intensive goods; . gaining respect for your brand; . creating your own stores, and later - your own sales and distribution network; . acquiring the glory of pioneers. Sonya's mission is determined by the appearance of the company's founders, who also became its leaders. If we translate it into the language of a figurative formula, it looks like this; Mission = (knowledge, ingenuity, enthusiasm) x (intuition, courage, audacity). The first bracket can be called personal “Capital number one”, and the second - “Capital number two”. The fusion of both naturally led to the emergence of the mission. The original statement of the Sony philosophy was as follows: “If conditions could be created in which people could unite with the firm intention of working together and using their technical abilities to realize their deepest desires, then such an organization could bring great pleasure and benefit " Subsequently, the “leading force" was identified very clearly: “No theory, program or government policy can make an enterprise successful; only people can do this.” And the main thing in people is their abilities, and in leaders - “the ability to use abilities.” The undisputed leader of the company was one of its founders, Ibuka. The originality of his thinking and even his genius in the technical field, the ability to look into the future, played an outstanding role in the production of technology-intensive products. “The childhood of Sony is the activity of a group of people striving to implement the ideas of their technical leader. "The youth of Sony" is Ibuka's ability to "...take a group of young and daring engineers and turn them into a team of managers who know how to collaborate in an atmosphere that encourages everyone to speak their mind." The strength of Sony lies in the ability of its managers to find application for extraordinary individuals, their ideas, and harmoniously combine different opinions. These are not big words or idealization. The weakness of many companies is that the personnel service and its managers consider themselves to be the “arbiters of the destinies” of the people who come to work for them. They “bind” a person to a position and consider their task completed. In fact, finding a person’s true place in an organization is a constant process of search and self-search, assessment and self-assessment to realize the abilities of a “working person.” As practice shows, companies that tried to reach the forefront in business often suffered complete fiasco precisely because they failed to create a management system based on the use of the abilities of their employees. According to experts, in the 21st century, organizations that use systems for managing the abilities of their personnel will become the predominant type of enterprise. The fate of an innovator is to move forward. It is impossible to stand still, as this may lead to the loss of conquered positions. The paradox is that Sony, as before, will have to get ahead, first of all, of itself. Avis Car Rental had the following motto: “We are in second place. Therefore, we try harder.” Sony has a more difficult task: “We are in the lead. Therefore, we try as hard as we can.” To maintain the mission in the future, it is necessary maintain this unique edge. As time passes and Sony's leaders change, will new generations of managers be able to retain and enhance the values and innovative style of their predecessors in such critical areas as R&D, management and marketing? Practical answers are key to the mission " Sony" in the 21st century. Sony management. It is believed that the success of Japanese companies does not depend on the policies of the authorities or economic theories. Everything that is achieved is done by people. The most important task of Japanese managers is to create an atmosphere of cooperation between workers and management, to formulate in the minds of workers an attitude towards the corporation as a family. Such a system, for example, cannot be mechanically transferred to Russian soil; betting on people is very risky. But no matter how talented the managers are, the fate of the company is in the hands of the workers who make up the team. When a young worker is hired, the company is handed over to him. In Japan academic year ends at the end of March. All those invited to work for the company at the end of the last semester gather together at Sony headquarters in Tokyo. At this meeting, acquaintance occurs, and their prospects open up for young people. Young people are told that during their studies they received a small amount of points, for good ones - a hundred. Someone from the top management of the company tells them: “At work, you can get an unlimited number of points for your work, or get a very small number of points because of a mistake. But this mistake can lead to very large losses in the company. Therefore, your mistakes could be catastrophic for the company." Working with people in industrial enterprises, Japanese managers understand that workers do not work only for money; workers should feel that they are members of a family and are treated as respected members of the family, as close colleagues. Engineering and technical workers at Sony enterprises have a uniform - identical jackets and have lunch in cafes at the same tables where workers eat. Not a single manager in the company has a separate office. All managers sit in the same rooms with their subordinates. Every morning, foremen talk to workers before starting work and give them instructions. Masters are interested in the health of their subordinates and the health of their family members. They find out if people have problems that can be solved with the help of the administration. All young engineers in the company begin their careers on the assembly line in order to understand the technology in practice and get an idea of their influence on this process. An in-house newspaper is published weekly where vacancy announcements are posted. This practice makes it possible to change jobs within the company. In this case, they kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the employee finds a more suitable job, on the other, the personnel service identifies managers with whom people do not want to work. This information makes it possible to draw organizational conclusions. If the Sony company has achieved success, then these successes can be attributed mainly to the fact that the company's managers have the ability to cooperate. The company respects your opinion different people. And when they ask how compatible people are with different views , then they are answered, what would happen if all managers had the same opinion. Different opinions help to find the truth and move the company forward. Sony has a manifesto developed by managers. The manifesto is called "Spirit of Sonya". In particular, the manifesto says: “Sony” is a pioneer and will never follow others. By making progress, Sony wants to serve the whole world. The path of a pioneer is full of difficulties, but despite numerous hardships and obstacles, Sony employees will always be harmoniously and closely connected by the joy of participating in creative work and the pride of investing their unique talents in achieving this goal. The Sony principle is to respect and encourage the abilities of everyone (a person in his place) and, as always, strive to bring out the best in a person, believe in him, which constantly gives him the opportunity to develop his abilities. This is the lifeblood of Sony. In the company's tradition, senior managers are required to attend gala dinners on the occasion of the anniversary of the company's founding or other events organized at the company's expense at Sony's parent enterprises and its foreign branches. In the company, employees constantly strive to make innovation proposals, which are greatly encouraged. On average, there are 8 innovation proposals per employee per year. If company employees are faced with unfamiliar situations, then the principle “act without waiting for instructions” applies. In this way, employees are taught to be independent in resolving issues. Japanese workers constantly operate in conditions of self-motivation and self-stimulation. Top managers, relying on the integrity of middle managers, are engaged in planning and prospects for the development of the company. That's why Sony doesn't strictly regulate responsibilities. Everyone acts like a family - doing what is necessary. If a defect occurs in a company, they do not look for the culprit, but look for the reason. And if you ostracize the perpetrator in a marriage, he may lose motivation for the rest of his career, and if he knows that he made a mistake, it will not happen again. The company's family policy constantly bears fruit. During the economic recession of 1973/1974, inflation was around 25%. At some Sony factories, workers were sent home. But suspended professionals could not sit quietly at home when their company found itself in dire straits. They came to their businesses, did the cleaning, mowed the lawns and did any kind of work without getting paid a yen for it. And one more important aspect of the company’s work. When a company gets into trouble, the first thing they do is reduce wages high-ranking managers, and then middle managers and workers. The qualities of managers at Sony are judged primarily by how well they organize a large number of people and what results they can achieve from each individual. At Sony, the age limit for the president is 65 years. But the experience of retired managers is widely used. They work as advisers, inspectors, experts. Attend meetings and meetings with the right to an advisory vote. Some retired managers find work in small firms and subsidiaries of Sony. I would like to give several opinions of one of the founders of the company, Akio Morita, on the problem of management. First opinion. The art of management is elusive, which cannot always be judged by today's financial results. They can be wonderful, but the company will die after some time. Investments are needed for the future. Second opinion. The main indicators of a manager’s abilities are how he organizes work and how effectively he achieves results from each of them, combining them into a single whole. Third opinion. Good results in management are obtained as if by themselves if employees voluntarily and enthusiastically follow the leader in order to achieve them. According to A. Morita, it was the unique practical concept of “Sony Management”, which became its spiritual strength, that ensured, provides and will ensure the achievements of the company. What is characteristic of her? First of all, Sony, like other Japanese enterprises, according to A. Morita, is like a wall made of stones. First, people are accepted into it, they take a closer look at these “raw stones,” and then determine the possibilities of use in the “wall.” Stones come in different shapes and change over time. New circumstances also appear in the activities of the company itself - then the entire wall or part of it needs to be rebuilt. This mobility, variability and adaptability to new conditions “from a person” is an important feature of “Sony management”. According to A. Morita, American companies are more like a brick wall, where each brick has a precisely defined scope of activity. If a person applying for a job is less or more than a certain brick, then he is rejected. Here they adhere to the rule “a person for a specific job,” while “Sony management” is “based on the principle of “the best use of a person’s abilities.” The personnel service and the head of the department when hiring do not always hit the mark, and therefore the employee begins look for a more suitable place. There are managers who view employees as performers of their teams. Sony grasped the range of these problems and began publishing a weekly newspaper with the publication of so-called internal vacancies. This made it possible, along with rotation, to create a kind of self-search mechanism for a job that is more consistent with personal abilities. Well-known American authorities in the field of management, in particular Peter Drucker, comparing the work of American and Japanese managers, emphasized rational thinking their compatriots. But the work practice of Japanese managers not only at home, but also at enterprises in the United States provided many examples of a different way of thinking and management style, leading to better results. So how is rationalism measured in management? A familiar chain of actions, decisions, a familiar style of behavior or something else? Rationalism of management in the Japanese style, including Sony management, is providing the “working person” with opportunities for self-expression and the realization of their abilities. Today, this type of “rational management” is considered the highest level of work, a kind of extra-class indicator, and requires managers to have appropriate thinking and preparation. At the same time, the style of “double standard” is excluded - we declare one thing, but do it differently. If such rationalism is not natural, it will not work. Studying the experience of Sony Management, you come to the conclusion that its past and current successes are due to the fact that managers often acted and made decisions contrary to “effective standards.” What explains this seemingly paradox? The fact is that from the very beginning the company had a spirit of novelty and inventiveness, which over time turned into a system and one of the main components of the company's philosophy. Sony management technology is ingenuity in everything: in the emergence and “mining” of scientific and technical ideas, making decisions about creating a new product, planning its production, organizing sales and marketing, building and restructuring a management system, etc. Moreover, each employee has the right to submit his proposals for consideration by the company management. And they will definitely be considered. Moreover, according to A. Morita, “when an idea passes through the Sony system, its author continues to be responsible for assisting technical specialists, designers, manufacturers and marketers in its implementation and bringing it to its logical conclusion, be it technological process or new product that comes to market." As the company formed and developed, its style increasingly showed the features and philosophy of a “single enterprise.” Briefly they can be expressed as follows. 1. Company employees are not a tool for achieving goals, but colleagues and assistants. If it is not possible to create a “spirit of a single team”, no, especially long-term goals will be achieved. 2. “The duty of the people who lead the company is to honestly lead the family of the company’s employees and take care of its members” (A. Morita). 3. To create a “family spirit”, a wide variety of forms and methods are used, which over time reflect the reality - “the company is us”, and “we are the company”. Creating and maintaining such a spirit is a unique and complex art that does not tolerate falsehood or masquerade. But Sony managers had the appropriate abilities. They mastered this art and enriched it with their professional activities. References: Morita A. “Made in Japan. History of the Sony Company. /Translation from English M.: Progress, 1993. "How Japanese Enterprises Work." /Ed. J. Mondena. M.: Economics, 1989. "Sony's Mission" Personnel Management. No. 10 1998. “Lessons from the formation and development of the Sony company.” Personnel Management. No. 12 1998.

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