Biography Akio Morita - Founder Sony Inc

Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921, in Nagoya city, from a family of makers of sake (Japanese typical beer). Morita family has been in the brewing of sake for nearly 400 years in the city of Tokoname, near Nagoya. Under his father's strict upbringing, Kyuzaemon, Akio was groomed to become the heir to the family business. As a student, Akio often sit on company meetings with his father and he will help the family business even on school holidays.

Morita's family at the time have known the way of life-style of Western culture, such as automobiles and electric phonograph. Each time he was freed from household chores, young Akio became engrossed dismantle the phonograph and put them back.

From an early age, Akio fond of tinkering with electronic equipment, and mathematics and physics were his favorite subjects during the elementary and junior high school days. After graduating from High School, he entered the Physics Department at Osaka Imperial University.

During that time, Japan was in the middle of the Pacific War. In 1944, Akio, who has been a Navy lieutenant after graduating from university that year, met with Masaru Ibuka, the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.

When he returned to the family home in Nagoya after the war, Morita was invited to join the faculty of Tokyo Institute of Technology by one of the professors. Morita packed his belongings and prepared to leave for Tokyo, when an article about the research laboratory founded by Ibuka appeared in an Asahi newspaper column called, "Blue Pencil." With the end of the war, Ibuka had founded Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute to initiate a new beginning. After reading this article, Morita, Ibuka visited in Tokyo and they decided to establish a new company together.

On May 7, 1946, Ibuka and Morita founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) with approximately 20 employees and initial capital of ¥ 190,000. At that time, 38-year-old Ibuka and Morita 25 years.

During their long partnership, Ibuka devoted to energy technology research and product development, while Morita was instrumental in leading the Sony in the field of marketing, globalization, finance and human resources. Morita also spearheaded Sony's entry into the software business, and he contributed to the overall management of the company.

Urge the company to expand its business globally visible in the decision to change its corporate name to Sony in 1958, a decision that was not well received either inside or outside of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo company since has been widely known. To overcome such a view, Morita stressed it was necessary to change the company name to something easier to pronounce and remember, that the company to grow and enhance the global presence. In addition, Morita founded a company that could one day develop into products other than electronics and the name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo will no longer be appropriate. Therefore, he changed his name to Sony Corporation and decided to write a 'Sony' in the alphabet katakana (Japanese alphabet which is usually used to write foreign names), something that was unheard of at that time.

In 1960, Sony Corporation of America was founded in the United States. Morita decided to move to the U.S. with his family and took the lead in creating new sales channels for the company. He believes that Sony must develop its own direct sales channel, rather than relying on local dealers.

Many products have been launched throughout the history of the Sony can be credited to Morita's creativity and innovative ideas. His ideas gave birth to a completely new lifestyle and culture, and this proved of such products as the Walkman and the video cassette recorder.

Morita also demonstrated its ability to break away from conventional thinking in finance, when Sony issued American Depositary Receipts in the United States in 1961. This is the first time that a Japanese company had offered shares on the New York Stock Exchange, and this allows companies to raise capital not only in Japan. Sony opens the way for Japanese companies to raise foreign capital, while the common practice of Japanese management is to borrow funds from banks.

In the field of human resources, Morita wrote a book called Never Mind School Records in 1966 and stressed that school records are not important in carrying out the work. Morita's point of view, which was first identified more than 30 years ago, is today followed by many companies in Japan.

Such as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo change the name to the Sony show, Morita eager to diversify operations outside of Sony's electronics business. In 1968, the company entered the business of music software in Japan by establishing the CBS / Sony Group Inc. in conjunction with CBS, Inc. from the U.S. Then in 1979, Sony entered the finance business in Japan with the establishment of the Sony Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., a 50 - 50 joint venture with The Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America. Furthermore, Sony acquired CBS Records Inc., a group of CBS records in 1988. The next year, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., which enables the company to become a comprehensive entertainment companies that have good quality content software and hardware wealth.

In addition to managing Sony, Morita was active in building a cultural bridge between Japan and overseas as Vice Chairman of Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and as a member of the Japan-US Economic Relations Group, better known as the "Wise Men's Group. He was instrumental in trying to reduce trade frictions between Japan and the United States, and through the publication of literary works such as Made in Japan, he became, "one of the most famous in the United States of Japan"

Morita's first award given Japan's Albert Medal of the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Arts in 1982. In 1984, he received the National Order of the Legion of Honor (ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur), the highest and most prestigious in France, and in 1991, he was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from HM the Emperor of Japan. In addition, Morita received numerous awards from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the United States, which shows the extent of its global recognition.

Morita emit natural light, and his personality, which he himself described as "cheerful," loved by many people. He had many friends both in Japan and overseas, including individuals like Kiichi Miyazawa, former Prime Minister of Japan, Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, and orchestra conductors like Zubin Mehta and the late Herbert von Karajan.

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