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Corporate Leadership and technological innovation in Sony Company

Sony Corporation is one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Sony, which is a multinational Company, is a leading company in the manufacture of electronics, video games, and video communications. The company also deals with information technology and has revenue amounting to over US$88.7 billion from its technologically motivated productions. Currently many companies have emerged posing a competition challenge for Sony in terms of technology advancement and manufacture of new products. The top management of Sony are facing various challenges as the company profits decrease due to factors such as innovation challenges, low profits, sales remaining flat, and the poor performance of the company’s films. Sony management team’s technological and innovation strategies include changing from analogue to digital technology.

Sony Company faces most of its challenges in the electronics section, yet it is the sector that gives it the largest amount of revenue totally to almost two thirds of its total revenues. The main electronics devices offered by the company are television sets, Music and DVD players. The electronic business faces a lot of competition from the other products such as Samsung and Apple companies. The problems facing Sony in its electronic production is competition due to new products by the competitors, which applies the current technology. Digitization in the electronics industry is a factor that contributes to winning the market especially the mobile and the television markets as its CEO Hirai believes. Some countries in the developing world are turning to digital television transmission, providing a market for digital TVs and decoders. For a company to maintain high profits, it must meet the market demand in both quality and quantity. Sony Company has resulted to the production of high quality Sony televisions and other electronic gadget to meet the market requirement.

Sony applies the method of division of labour and task coordination to provide high technological goods to its market, a factor that will enable it to compete well with its competitors. The company has many innovative workers who are good decision-makers although they have to keep but with the fast changing technology patterns in the electronic and entertainment industry. The centralized decision-making strategy adopted by Sony management team helps the company to gat innovative ideas from its entire staff to help in the production of new products. The company applies the porters 5 forces and the 3 generic strategies to help in setting out its strategies for the production of new products in the highly competitive market. Sony leadership allows its employees to come p with ideas aimed at developing the cutting-edge technology especially in the entertainment sector. For the companies to compete well with the other products from the competitors, the company tries to come up with something new or improve on the existing products. The manufacture of thee high technological gadget iPod by Apple company made Sony to realise that it was not doing enough to outshine its competitors. Sony management is therefore keen to keep up with the new technology to come up with new digitalized products for its market especially involving video communication and video games.

Sony is currently producing new products under the Sony’s 4K Ultra High-Definition technologies, smart Wear, and High Resolution Audio also Hi-Res. The products include the 4K BRAVIA LCD TVs which are its newest products in the market and the thinnest series of televisions with Hi-Res compatible speakers in the world. The other technology Sony is working on is the equipment of the4K and full HD sets to make a cross functionality between the TV and the Mobile better. The sets will work with Google’s Android operating System (OS) to make the functionality a reality. The company’s entertainment sector is also busy developing a high tech One-Flick Entertainment interface enable the users to access more content by Flick Operation through the touchpad. The consumers of Sony products will now increase their Telvision usage and get access to more services and apps. The digital imaging sector is also another target for Sony, through the use of 4K technology by coming up with the newest Action Cam Model able to shoot 4K videos. The camera will capture very clear images and videos making it one of the most effective cameras.

Sony is in the process of producing new high technology gadgets in the market such as HI-Res Walkman, wireless speakers, headphones, multichannel integrated amplifiers, and home theaters. Sony is using its new technology that it developed named as LDAC codec technology that beats the current audio devices by transmitting thrice the amount of data by the existing ones. The SongPal Link by Sony is also a new functionality that can allow simultaneous playback in interconnected devices. To expand its business activities beyond electronics and entertainment, the company plans to create its own SmartWear devices to provide newer living styles. The items will range from headsets, eyewear with various forms and shapes to suit the market demand. The company also plans to start producing Blues ray disks in May to enable it have a variety of products in the market. Sony’s products will provide the best entertainment gadgets and devices for many functions such as communication, running, and any fitness activities.

The CEO of Sony Company, Hirai, aims at reducing costs and integrating innovation in the company to avoid the company making losses in the future. His aims are to offer advice and teach the company’s employees on better production methods of producing both hardware and software to have a variety of products in the market. The main businesses for Sony according to the CEO are entertainment, banking, and electronics although the company suffers threats from hackers. The exposure of its personal information by the cyber criminals and the top executive’s communications via emails was a big blow to the company. High technology and innovation is the only thing that can help the company to solve such issues and prevents further attacks. The CEO promised the management of the company of negotiations with the US team to bring back the Hollywood studio, which moved from Sony after the hacking incident. The movie and theater business is a revenue earner to the company and the management intends to apply all technological means to secure its accounts from cyber criminals.

Its High-resolution audio device is one of the technologies promised by the management of Sony via the CEO, a device that has the capability of playing a high-quality audio and uses Bluetooth wireless connection. The other areas of interest to Sony are in the production of the image sensors and a cloud-based TV service called PlayStation Vue. The other service to be launched soon will be the subscription-based online videogame services for entertainment fans. The products will appear as new brands in the market and compete with products from Samsung, Apple, and other big companies. The CEO and the leadership of Sony Company aim at investing in real estates and production of devices for internet-connected homes to increase its entrepreneurial programs. The company uses the crowd-funding website for financing of Qrio Smart Lock, for enabling its Smartphones to have control of their door locks.

In conclusion, Sony is at the position of producing high-tech products ranging from the electronic devices, entertainment and imaging gadgets. The environment is full of competitors such as Samsung who pose a big threat to the company’s management team. To enable Sony remain relevant in the competitive world, the leaders through their CEO, Hirai have come up with several innovative gadgets such as high-resolution audios and also plans to venture in other areas such as real estate. The other areas of interest to Sony are in the production of the image sensors and a cloud-based TV service called PlayStation Vue. Sony’s products will provide the best entertainment gadgets and devices for many functions such as communication, running, and any fitness activities. Sony leadership allows its employees to come p with ideas aimed at developing the cutting-edge technology especially in the entertainment sector. The main aim of diversifying production is to enable the company recover and earn profits from its various devices and products. All the company’s plans will be effective if the company totally adopts modern technology where digitalization is the only thing that makes companies to remain relevant in the market.

References

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Hachiya, Masanori. Historical Review Of Sony’s Innovations And Future Steps. 2010. Print.

Sangani, K. ‘Sony Security Laid Bare’. Engineering & Technology 6.8 (2011): 74-77. Print.

‘Sony Succeeds’. Int J Productivity & Perf Mgmt 61.1 (2011): n.p. Print.

‘The Teardown: Sony PS4’. Engineering & Technology 9.1 (2014): 88-89. Print.