SONY

The SONY Group is primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products & components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. Not only do SONY represent a wide range of businesses, but SONY remain globally unique. Its aim is to fully leverage this uniqueness in aggressively carrying out their convergence strategy so that it can continue to emotionally touch and excite its customers. Company Name - Sony Corporation Founded - May 7, 1946 Founders: Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. Headquarters 1-7-1 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan
Members of the Board

Howard Stringer Ryoji Chubachi Yotaro Kobayashi Yoshiaki Yamauch Peter Bonfield Fujio Cho Ryuji Yasuda Yukako Uchinaga Mitsuaki Yahagi Tsun-Yan Hsieh Roland A. Hernandez Kanemitsu Anraku Yorihiko Kojima

Osamu Nagayama

Representative Corporate Executive Officer

Howard StringerChairman, CEO and President Ryoji Chubachi Vice Chairman Officer in charge of Product Quality & Safety and Environmental Affairs.

Corporate Executive Officers

Yutaka NakagawaExecutive Deputy President Officer in charge of Manufacturing, Logistics, Procurement and CS Platform

Hiroshi YoshiokaExecutive Deputy President Officer in charge of the Consumer Products, Professional Solutions, and Device businesses

Keiji KimuraEVP Officer in charge of Intellectual Property and the Disc Manufacturing business

Nicole SeligmanEVP and General Counsel Kazuo HiraiEVP Officer in charge of the Networked Products and Services businesses

Masaru KatoEVP and CFO

Life at sony
Sony aims to create a workplace that inspires employees to pursue new challenges and grow by realizing their creative and innovative potential. Sony also strives to further enhance motivation and encourage personal growth through on-the-job learning, as well as access to a variety of programs tailored to different regional needs, including education for next-generation business leaders, management skill improvement training, and training aimed at enhancing the abilities and skills of individual employees.

Culture
Sony culture emphasizes "a spirit of freedom and open-mindedness," and a fighting spirit to innovate. Founder Masaru Ibuka crafted this vision in Sony's Founding Prospectus, and the philosophy is embedded in our company DNA, embodied in our employees, and seen throughout our history. Learn more about our spirit, people, and history by following the links.

Issues:
Examine the adverse implications of frequent restructuring at Sony Corporation. Analyzing the impact of competition in global consumer electronics industry on Sony. Evaluate the strategies being adopted by Sony to regain lost market share. Appreciate the importance of innovation and introducing new technologies in the consumer electronics industry. Critically study the latest restructuring plan proposed by Stringer in February 2009 and evaluate its efficacy.

Cultural Challenges faced by Sony

o Sony has developed a website which is available in the different languages which has been further categorized on the basis of Regions the countries belong to. For example it is dived Continent wise. o Then country wise also they have made the websites. o They also use different languages to script their sites. Infact they have used National language of every country.
o They have also made microsites. Eg : www.sony.jp , www.sony.cn etc.

o Its all done to provide more ease and convenience for the customers. o They also give assistance to particularly translate a particular site. o Thus to sum up Sony is facing problem by diversification as they have to study different cultures , languages and even they have to make separate websites for different countries. o All the products of Sony are available online and company is capable to cater a mass market through its online marketing. o Workforce Diversity is one of the challenges faced by the company. Even Marketing and catering the product to different markets and after sales service are the challenges the company needs to work upon.

Products launched by sony

1. Sony India to launch 10 new LED TV models Consumer electronics major Sony has lined up a string of launches in the LED television segment in India this year, even as it is preparing a new marketing initiative that aims at capturing a 30 per cent market share in the LCD segment by 2010-end.company will be launching 10 new products in the LED segment from June this year. Sony is betting big on the 3D enabled TV that will be launched

across all its markets, including India, from June. It will simultaneously launch some software products to support the 3D TVs.As part of its plans to strengthen its brand image, the company will be investing Rs 140 crore in 2010 for a new marketing campaign that will cover the print and electronic media, online and outdoor platforms. It also plans to double its outlets from the present 2,500 this year. 2. HD camera The SNC-CH240 Full HD Fixed camera was launched at Sony's Power of Images (POI) event in Germany, completing its HD range. IFSEC heralded the European launch of two new HD cameras. The SNC-DH180 and SNC-DH240 were unveiled for the first time at ISC West in the US in March and will be on show for the first time in Europe at IFSEC 2010. Focused on image quality, the SNC-DH180 boasts a built-in infrared (IR) illuminator to deliver excellent images even in absolute darkness, while the SNC-DH240 is equipped with various different image enhancers including View-DR. 3. Laptop with new Transfer Jet Sony will launch the first laptop containing the new Transfer Jet short-range wireless system on Saturday. Sony hopes Transfer Jet will replace cables for shifting data between gadgets, but the technology's success will depend on its use in products from the big-name consumer electronics companies that have pledged to support it. 4. Sony to launch new e-reader in Japan Sony has partnered with three local companies including mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp, Toppan Printing Co. and Asahi Shimbun, a major newspaper in Japan, to establish an e-book distribution company. 5. Sony Unveils Its Answer to Apple's iTunes Sony (SNE) is taking a page from Apple's playbook .On Nov. 19, Sony said it plans to launch an online store selling music, movies, and books as well as other downloadable applications for mobile products. Sony's top executives didn't specify when the Internet store, tentatively called Sony Online Service would go live or what it would look like. But the online storefront announced at a management strategy meeting in Tokyo, is likely to bear some similarities to

Apple's iTunes store and would be Sony's most ambitious attempt to link its products to its own vast library of digital content.

Completely new lineup of BRAVIA LCD televisions with LED backlight technology and our new Monolithic Design is a clear example of how Sony will continue to own the living room by creating products that deliver on Sonys promise of exceptional TV quality and performance-a promise that continues with the upcoming launch of 3D televisions. VAIO PCs continue to impress with their strong combination of innovation, entertainment and elegant design. One particularly exciting model in the lineup is the Z series. Weighing in at just three pounds and featuring cuttingedge graphics, it is a wonderful example of our ultra-mobile engineering expertise. Sony Ericsson introduced the Xperia X10-a feature-rich Smartphone built on a new open platform-and is currently rolling it out globally. In addition to rich graphics and a large touchscreen display, the Xperia X10 also features applications to intelligently manage both communications and media from multiple sources. Cinemas around the world are starting to deploy digital projectors, which allow content to be projected at substantially higher image quality than existing projectors. The 4K digital cinema projector system already commercialized by Sony is designed for easy conversion to 3D projection, and the two largest theater chains in the United States have signed on to deploy our systems across their circuits of more than 11,000 screens, representing an important step for this growth business. Sony/ATV Music Publishing, for the first time in the Companys history, was named ASCAP Pop Publisher of the Year-the industrys highest honor. Sony/ATV continues to be tremendously innovative in licensing the songs in its catalog, and with the years biggest international country and pop sensations-Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga-signed to Sony/ATV, there is a lot to be excited about.

6. Televisions The Company is targeting profitability in LCD TVs in fiscal year 2010. In addition, this autumn we will launch the Sony Internet TV. Developed in collaboration with Google, Sony Internet TV is an exciting new generation of television that not only offers new forms of enjoyment through unprecedented Internet integration, but is also able to evolve through the download of applications. We are also developing the next generation of TV display, and over

the medium term are targeting a 20% market share. 7. Game The PlayStation3 platform has been gaining momentum since the launch of the slimmer, lighter and attractively priced PS3 last year. PlayStationMove features a new motion controller that, when combined with the PlayStationEye camera, can very precisely track users movements to add a new dimension to PS3 games. Additionally, as a core aspect of Sonys Groupwide launch of 3D products, we have commenced the era of 3D gaming by enabling all existing PS3s to be upgraded to 3D-compatibility with a free firmware download, and will release our own 3D game titles and continue to actively support the development of 3D games by third-party software developers.