It also gives an insight into the lives and homes of the common Japanese people, their preferences, their beliefs. This is almost the history of Japan from pre-WWII era to the present, running parallel to the story of SONY itself. This book is probably the best lecture on management and entrepreneurship that you could ever probably get. He talks about all things Japanese, and all things American- and attempts to distinctly mark the difference between them. It gives an insight into how the Japanese way of doing business, along with a burning passion to conquer the marketplace and the vision of producing the highest quality products in the world grew Sony into the most respected multinational corporation in Japan and worldwide, and allowed it to become the first real Japanese company which cut across regional and international barriers and vanquished foreign competition.Īkio Morita's style of writing is conversation style.

This book is the story of Sony's legend, told in the words of its most famous co-founder himself. This is where Apple drew inspiration from Sony's Walkman, an inspiration which culminated in the first iPOD. Apple still does, in fact.īoth companies were leaders in 'personal technology'. And I joined Steve Jobs and many more from the Akio Morita fan club.ĭid you know that he was such a sensation that Steve Jobs wanted to build Apple to be like Sony? Here are the similarities- Both Apple and Sony had a reputation of creating perfectly crafted consumer products which conquer the marketplace.

100,000 first printing major ad/promo Fortune Book Club dual main selection BOMC and Executive Program alternates author tour.Ĭopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.Amazing book. Liberalization of trade on both sides, he avers, would be a positive step in solving the worldwide economic crisis. He contrasts the Japanese familial, long-term concept of employee relations and other business practices with those of the U.S., which he criticizes for its litigious, hasty and often uncompromising attitudes. While retaining the mental discipline of his native education, Morita has adopted features of the Western world.

where he established a subsidiary, he was gratified that Sony products were soon copied by global competitors. Determined to change the image of Japanese goods to one of quality in foreign markets, especially in the U.S. With the help of Time magazine's Tokyo bureau-chief Reingold and Japanese journalist Shimomura, he traces the development of his multinational firm, starting with a primitive tape recorder he built amid Tokyo's wartime rubble. Cofounder and chairman of Sony Corporation, Morita, who personifies Japan's postwar technological ascendancy, ascribes his interest in electronics to his mother's love of Victrola recordings of European music.

Made in japan akio