Akio Morita

Akio Morita (盛田昭夫, Akio Morita^? January 26, 1921-October 3, 1999) was a Japanese businessman, physicist, and co-founder of Sony along with Masaru Ibuka.

Early Years

Akio Morita was born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Morita's family was involved in the production of sake, miso, and soy sauce in the village of Kosugaya (now a part of Tokoname City) on the west coast of the Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665. It was the eldest of four brothers and was trained as a child by his father Kyuzaemon to take over the family business. Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics, and in 1944 he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He later was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army and served in World War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partner Masaru Ibuka in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.

Sony

In September 1945, Ibuka founded a radio repair shop at the Shirokiya Warehouse in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Morita saw a newspaper article about Ibuka's new venture and, after some correspondence, decided to meet with him in Tokyo. With funds from Morita's father, they co-founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of Sony Corporation) in 1946 with about 20 employees and an initial capital of $190,000. yen.

In 1949, the company developed the magnetic recording tape and in 1950 sold the first recorder in Japan. Ibuka was instrumental in licensing transistor technology from Bell Labs to Sony in the 1950s, making Sony one of the first companies to apply transistor technology to non-military uses. In 1957, the company produced a pocket radio (the first to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to change their company name to Sony Corporation (derived from "sonus" –Latin for " 34;sound"- and Sonny-boys, the most common American expression). Morita was an advocate of all products made by Sony. However, since the radio was too large to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita had his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a "pocket-sized" appearance. # 3. 4;.

Morita founded the Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, now abbreviated as SCA) in 1960. In the process, he was impressed by the mobility of employees between American companies, something unheard of in Japan at the time. When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced middle-aged employees from other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony. The company filled many positions in this way and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same. In 1961, Sony Corporation was the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in the form of American Depository Receipts (ADRs).

In March 1968, Morita established a joint venture in Japan between Sony and CBS Records, with him as president, to manufacture "software" for Sony hardware.

Morita became president of Sony in 1971, replacing Ibuka, who had served from 1950 to 1971. In 1975, Sony released the first Betamax home video recorder, a year before the VHS format came out.

Ibuka retired in 1976 and Morita was appointed company president. In 1979, the Walkman was introduced, making it one of the world's first portable music players, and in 1982, Sony released the first compact disc player in the world, the Sony CDP-101, featuring a compact disc (CD), a new data storage device. Sony and Philips co-developed format. In that year, Sony introduced a 3.5-inch floppy disk structure and it soon became the de facto standard. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended its Walkman brand to portable CD products.

Under Morita's vision, the company aggressively expanded into new businesses. Part of his motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence," uniting film, music and digital electronics. Twenty years after establishing a joint venture with CBS Records in Japan, Sony purchased the CBS Records Group, which consisted of Columbia Records, Epic Records, and other CBS labels. In 1989, they also acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, and others).

Norio Ohga, who had joined the company in the 1950s after sending Morita a letter denouncing the poor quality of the company's recorders, succeeded Morita as CEO in 1989.

Morita suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1993 while playing tennis, and on November 25, 1994, he stepped down as president of Sony to be replaced by Ohga.

Other affiliations

Morita was vice president of the Japan Business Federation (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and was a member of the Japan-US Economic Relations Group. UU., also known as the "Group of Wise Men". He helped General Motors with the acquisition of a stake in Isuzu Motors in 1972. He was also the third Japanese Chairman of the Trilateral Commission. His ham call sign is JP1DPJ.

Posts

In 1966, Morita wrote a book called Gakureki Muyō Ron (学歴無用論, Never Mind School Records), where he emphasized that school records are not important to success or business skills. In 1986, Morita wrote an autobiography titled Made in Japan. He co-authored the 1991 book The Japan That Can Say No with politician Shintaro Ishihara, where they criticized American business practices and encouraged the Japanese to take a more independent role in business and foreign affairs.. The book was translated into English and caused controversy in the United States and Morita later removed its chapters from the English version and distanced himself from the book.

Awards and Honors

In 1972, Morita was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Academy of Achievement. Morita was awarded the Albert Medal of the UK's Royal Society of Arts in 1982, becoming the first Japanese to receive the honour. Two years later, he received the prestigious Legion of Honor, and in 1991 he was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan. In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary British Knighthood (KBE). Morita received the Distinguished International Entrepreneur award from the University of Manitoba in 1987. In 1998, he was the only Asian person on Time magazine's list of the 20 Most Influential Entrepreneurs of the Century XX as part of Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1999.

Death

Morita, who loved to play golf and tennis and watch movies when it rained, suffered a stroke in 1993 during a tennis match. On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as president of Sony. On October 3, 1999 Morita died of pneumonia at the age of 78.