hi I’m Evan Carmichael and welcome to
another edition modeling the Masters
where we look at how you can model the
successful strategies of famous
entrepreneurs today we’re going to look
at akio morita a man who turned a
bombed-out department store in japan
into one of the most successful consumer
electronic companies in the world Sony
Akio Morita was a Japanese businessman
and co-founder of Sony Corporation along
with Masaru Ibuka a bucha was 38 years
old and Morita was 25 when they started
the company founded just after world war
ii and based nagoya japan the company
was established with initial capital of
just three hundred and fifty dollars in
a bombed-out shop that had been
abandoned Japan at the time was known
for making low quality products and
Morita was determined to reverse that
stigma he is often cited as a man who
increased the value of the words made in
Japan supported by innovative product
launches like the Walkman Sony became
the first Japanese company to ever be
listed on a New York exchange and has
revenues in the trillions of dollars
Morita helped with his country back on
the map while building his own
reputation across the world in 1998 a
Harris survey revealed that Sony was
ranked the number one brand name by
American consumers ahead of coca-cola
and General Electric
so the next question is how can you
model the success of Akio Morita here
are three action items that you can put
to use into your business today action
item number one trust your gut
there’s never enough information to make
a decision that you can be 100% sure of
by the time the information becomes
fully available it’ll be too late either
someone else would have scooped the idea
from you or the window of opportunity
will have closed as entrepreneurs we
have to trust our gut when making
decisions using the best information
that we have available in 1978 Sony
developed the prototype product that
would allow people to listen to cassette
tapes while they were on long flights
the project was put on hold as market
research indicated that no consumer
would buy a tape recorder that did not
have the capacity to record and that
earphones would hold the product back as
they were seen to be irritating and
potentially associated with hearing loss
despite the advice given to him by his
marketing department Morita chose
instead to trust his gut
he told Sony SAP that they were going to
create a worldwide culture of headphone
wearers and in 1979 Sony released the
Walkman it went on to sell over 330
million units Morita then gave the
following advice for business owners
carefully watch how people live get an
intuitive sense as to what they might
want and then go with it don’t do market
research
action item number to find a good
company name and product name the names
you choose your company and products our
people remember you by
if they’re too hard to pronounce
difficult to spell are not easy to
recall then you lose out on the
opportunity of having customers talk
about you to their friends and coming
back as repeat buyers Sony’s original
company name was Tokyo jooshin kogyo
kabushiki kaisha long and difficult to
remember in English the company decided
it would need to change its name
to better serve the North American
market trying to find the new name
Morita found that sonís is the Latin
word for sound he thought its meaning
was appropriate considering their
industry however he didn’t think that it
was catchy enough Morita decided to
combine sona’s with Sonny a nickname
that had become popular amongst American
kids Morita thought Sonny would help
portray the image of the company as a
youthful one with lots of energy and
bright future ahead with that the Sony
Corporation was formed
similarly when Sony first released a
Walkman Sony’s u.s. division considered
the name Walkman to be improper English
and changed the product to the sound
about for the American market other
divisions also began using different
names until Morita put his foot down and
insisted that everyone used the same
name Walkman became such a success that
is listed as a word in almost every
major dictionary
action item number three look after your
people if you’re building a company
beyond yourself you’ll quickly realize
how important it is to have the right
people in place and to look after them
money is important to them but don’t
forget that people want to feel
appreciated challenged and be a part of
a team that’s working on important
problems
here’s akio morita is advice the most
important mission firm manager is
develop a healthy relationship with his
employees to create a family feeling
within the corporation a feeling that
employees and managers share the same
fate we will try to create conditions
where persons could come together in a
spirit of teamwork and exercise the
heart’s desire the technological
capacity I believe people work for
satisfaction I believe it is a big
mistake to think that money is the only
way to compensate a person for his work
people need money but they also want to
be happy in their work and proud of it
so remember trust your gut
find a good company name and product
name and look after your people I wanted
to end the video today by sharing one of
my favourite true stories about Akio
Morita Akio Morita was born into a
family that had been in the Sakae
brewing business for over 15 generations
from his childhood it had always been
assumed that Morita would continue the
family tradition of making sake he had
begun being groomed to take over the
family business by the age of 10
at which time his father even made him
attend all of the company’s board
meetings in just a few years
Morita have become an expert on
everything from monitoring the brewing
process to evaluate in quality the sake
that their factories were producing to
managing their workers but while Morita
was learning the ins and outs of the
family business so too did he discover
that his interest was not in sake after
all
Morita realized that he was not destined
to keep the family tradition alive
much the disappointment of his father
and followed his true passion for
mathematics and physics which led him to
founding Sony
thank you for joining me for another
edition of modeling the masters I hope
you enjoyed I’d love to hear your
thoughts if you want to leave a comment
below and stay tuned for the next
episode
another edition modeling the Masters
where we look at how you can model the
successful strategies of famous
entrepreneurs today we’re going to look
at akio morita a man who turned a
bombed-out department store in japan
into one of the most successful consumer
electronic companies in the world Sony
Akio Morita was a Japanese businessman
and co-founder of Sony Corporation along
with Masaru Ibuka a bucha was 38 years
old and Morita was 25 when they started
the company founded just after world war
ii and based nagoya japan the company
was established with initial capital of
just three hundred and fifty dollars in
a bombed-out shop that had been
abandoned Japan at the time was known
for making low quality products and
Morita was determined to reverse that
stigma he is often cited as a man who
increased the value of the words made in
Japan supported by innovative product
launches like the Walkman Sony became
the first Japanese company to ever be
listed on a New York exchange and has
revenues in the trillions of dollars
Morita helped with his country back on
the map while building his own
reputation across the world in 1998 a
Harris survey revealed that Sony was
ranked the number one brand name by
American consumers ahead of coca-cola
and General Electric
so the next question is how can you
model the success of Akio Morita here
are three action items that you can put
to use into your business today action
item number one trust your gut
there’s never enough information to make
a decision that you can be 100% sure of
by the time the information becomes
fully available it’ll be too late either
someone else would have scooped the idea
from you or the window of opportunity
will have closed as entrepreneurs we
have to trust our gut when making
decisions using the best information
that we have available in 1978 Sony
developed the prototype product that
would allow people to listen to cassette
tapes while they were on long flights
the project was put on hold as market
research indicated that no consumer
would buy a tape recorder that did not
have the capacity to record and that
earphones would hold the product back as
they were seen to be irritating and
potentially associated with hearing loss
despite the advice given to him by his
marketing department Morita chose
instead to trust his gut
he told Sony SAP that they were going to
create a worldwide culture of headphone
wearers and in 1979 Sony released the
Walkman it went on to sell over 330
million units Morita then gave the
following advice for business owners
carefully watch how people live get an
intuitive sense as to what they might
want and then go with it don’t do market
research
action item number to find a good
company name and product name the names
you choose your company and products our
people remember you by
if they’re too hard to pronounce
difficult to spell are not easy to
recall then you lose out on the
opportunity of having customers talk
about you to their friends and coming
back as repeat buyers Sony’s original
company name was Tokyo jooshin kogyo
kabushiki kaisha long and difficult to
remember in English the company decided
it would need to change its name
to better serve the North American
market trying to find the new name
Morita found that sonís is the Latin
word for sound he thought its meaning
was appropriate considering their
industry however he didn’t think that it
was catchy enough Morita decided to
combine sona’s with Sonny a nickname
that had become popular amongst American
kids Morita thought Sonny would help
portray the image of the company as a
youthful one with lots of energy and
bright future ahead with that the Sony
Corporation was formed
similarly when Sony first released a
Walkman Sony’s u.s. division considered
the name Walkman to be improper English
and changed the product to the sound
about for the American market other
divisions also began using different
names until Morita put his foot down and
insisted that everyone used the same
name Walkman became such a success that
is listed as a word in almost every
major dictionary
action item number three look after your
people if you’re building a company
beyond yourself you’ll quickly realize
how important it is to have the right
people in place and to look after them
money is important to them but don’t
forget that people want to feel
appreciated challenged and be a part of
a team that’s working on important
problems
here’s akio morita is advice the most
important mission firm manager is
develop a healthy relationship with his
employees to create a family feeling
within the corporation a feeling that
employees and managers share the same
fate we will try to create conditions
where persons could come together in a
spirit of teamwork and exercise the
heart’s desire the technological
capacity I believe people work for
satisfaction I believe it is a big
mistake to think that money is the only
way to compensate a person for his work
people need money but they also want to
be happy in their work and proud of it
so remember trust your gut
find a good company name and product
name and look after your people I wanted
to end the video today by sharing one of
my favourite true stories about Akio
Morita Akio Morita was born into a
family that had been in the Sakae
brewing business for over 15 generations
from his childhood it had always been
assumed that Morita would continue the
family tradition of making sake he had
begun being groomed to take over the
family business by the age of 10
at which time his father even made him
attend all of the company’s board
meetings in just a few years
Morita have become an expert on
everything from monitoring the brewing
process to evaluate in quality the sake
that their factories were producing to
managing their workers but while Morita
was learning the ins and outs of the
family business so too did he discover
that his interest was not in sake after
all
Morita realized that he was not destined
to keep the family tradition alive
much the disappointment of his father
and followed his true passion for
mathematics and physics which led him to
founding Sony
thank you for joining me for another
edition of modeling the masters I hope
you enjoyed I’d love to hear your
thoughts if you want to leave a comment
below and stay tuned for the next
episode
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