Module Code: Strategic Management and Leadership - Assignment Example

It came to prominence by being the first company to make a pocket-sized radio, using transistor technology licensed from the USA. This was followed by the world’s first transistorized TV, and the Trinitron color television system. It became one of the world’s premier suppliers of high quality TVs, videos, and audio equipment to home and corporate users, with production and R&D facilities on four continents (Haberberg & Rieple, 2007). It cemented a reputation for innovation when in 1979 it introduced the Walkman, a portable cassette player designed to be clipped to a belt and worn while walking or skating.

It moved into the business of making music and film with the 1988 acquisition of CBS Record which changed names to Sony Music, and later on acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment. In the recent past, Sony has seen its profile further boosted by introducing PlayStation videogames, joint ventures with Sony Ericson for mobile phone production, and its Bravia flat-screen televisions (Schermerhorn, 2011). Sony’s enormous growth was evidenced in a quintupling of sales in the decade from 1972 to 1981.

By 2003, Sony’s revenue had reached $47 billion as compared to $5 billion earned in 1985, and total assets had reached $87.41 billion (Ajami, 2006). Today, 62 percent of Sony’s revenues come from its electronics segment. This segment includes digital cameras, DVD players, and various television and home audio systems. Ten percent of Sony’s revenues come from the video-segment. This primarily includes Sony PlayStation video-game consoles and software (Haberberg & Rieple, 2007). Sony’s financial success lies in its enormous research and development (R&D) strengths, its international revenue diversity, and its ability to find successful partnerships and methods of increasing the breadth of its sales to a given consumer (Kodama, 2008).

Sony’s R&D strategy is based on creating an environment of freedom and open-mindedness in which its researchers and developers can use their imaginations freely, while also efficiently focusing management resources in strategic fields (Sharan, 2006). At the moment, 30 percent of Sony’s revenue comes from Japan, while 20 percent of its revenues come from the United States. European sales account for 21 percent of total revenues, with the remainder coming from sales elsewhere the world. In terms of production facilities, Sony has the majority of them in Asia but does have a presence in both Europe and North America (Ajami, 2006).

To continue to succeed in today’s global marketplace, Sony has in the past decade relied on the successful implementation of “Transformation 60,” a program which was scheduled for completion in 2006 and was meant to coincide with Sony’s sixtieth anniversary (Ajami, 2006). The objective was to position Sony as a global company, and to ensure that the diversity provided by the company allowed it to withstand dramatic shifts in the world economy (Hill & Jones, 2010). As part of the plan, the company instituted fixed cost cuts via downsizing of non-value added areas of its company, and also promoted the idea of “convergence” and centralization of management resources with the Sony group (Kodama, 2008).

Such convergence initiatives again relied on the company’s strength in R&D. The plan was to use the role of