Akio Morita: The Visionary Who Made Japan Great Again!

Akio Morita is a relatively unknown name in the modern business and industrialist landscape, after his passing in 1999, few have spoken about his legacy of perhaps one of, if not the greatest visionary of the 20th century, but mention the company he founded - Sony and everybody knows what you are talking about. He is my favourite visionary because unlike most entrepreneurs in his league, his vision did not only contain his company but an entire nation, he is the reason why made in Japan is superior to made in China or almost every other country in the world for that matter. In 1999, when he died, a poll conducted listed Sony as the No. 1 brand name among US consumers, superseding American companies like General Electric (GE) and Coca-Cola. But how did he take a tiny radio repair shop and turn it into one of the most innovative global electronics and entertainment giants?

he was a young techie kid often messing around with any electronics he could get his hands on, he was far more interested in Math and Physics than he was in the family business. First, he somehow convinced his father to let his younger brother take over the business and secondly despite his father’s strong recommendation that he study economics at university, he chose to study Physics instead - choosing passion over money and defining his own path to success, a decision that will become instrumental in the success of Sony and ironically make him one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Soon he would co-found Sony just a month after Japan’s surrender in the war, it was Originally known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK (the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation).

Eventually, Sony would be made aware of the invention of the transistor in America on one of Akio’s trips to the U.S., they soon partnered with a company that had a transistor patent, the partnership cost them an initial fee of $25 000 - a sum that almost bankrupted the young company,

Japan was too poor during that period for people to be able to afford to buy a home radio, so they had to figure out a way to sell it to an American market, but an American company by the name Regency had managed to beat them to market by releasing their home radio a few months earlier, as a result, they would struggle to get distributors to sell their radio. Akio was close to giving up until Bulova ordered 100 000 units of the radio and offered to distribute them in the U.S.

Akio cleverly marketed the radio as pocket-sized to make a compelling marketing campaign. Most companies are either foundered by a great product mind or marketer like Steve Jobs or a technical genius like Elon Musk very few have a combination of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, let alone a single person who embodies both traits.

The product was called the Sony Walkman, a product that would go on to sell over 350 million units. “Our plan is to lead the public with new products rather than ask them what kind of products they want. The public does not know what is possible, but we do.” Most will credit this quote to Steve Jobs, but this was a statement made by Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, years before Jobs.

Another similarity between Jobs and Morita is - remember how the Sony Home Radio was marketed as a pocket radio, well the marketing campaign behind the Home Radio and the idea behind the Walkman as a personal portable device would be the inspiration of the iPod and its tagline “a 1000 songs in your pocket.” Some could say that Akio Morita is the Original Steve Jobs. Jeff Bezos in his quest to build what he calls earth’s most customer-centric company originally got the philosophy from Morita.

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Sources:
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01027/
http://www.akiomorita.net/en/morita/history.html
http://www.akiomorita.net/en/morita/history.html

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