Dorothy Skowrunski
Project 4 Individual Assignment – Competitor Brief

Sony Corporation is a Japanesemultinationalconglomerate corporation
and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue of
$70.303 billion (as of 2007) based in Minato, Tokyo.

Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of: electronics, video, communications, video game consoles and information technology
products for the consumer and professional markets.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company
of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through
its five operating segments — electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.

Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

The company's slogan is: Sony. Like no other.

Sony is engaged in the development, design, manufacture, and sale of various kinds of electronic equipment, instruments, services and devices for consumer, industrial, and home-use markets. Products and services are marketed through subsidiaries, unaffiliated local distributors, direct and internet sales.

Sony’s Sales and Opetating Revenue by Geographic Market 2007

  • Japan 25.6%
  • USA 26.9%
  • Europe 24.6%
  • Other 22.9%

Each of the following manufacturing processes have their own North American Industry Classification System. (NAICS) Code:

  • Computer and Peripheral Equipment
  • Audio and Video Equipment
  • Electronic Computer
  • Other Computer Peripheral Equipment
  • Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment
  • Audio and Video Equipment
  • Semiconductor and Related Device
  • Software Reproducing
  • Prerecorded Compact Disc (except Software), Tape, and Record Reproducing
  • Game, Toy, and Children's Vehicle
  • Motion Picture and Video Production
  • Motion Picture and Video Distribution
  • Record Production
  • Integrated Record Production/Distribution
  • Music Publishers
  • Commercial Banking
  • Direct Life Insurance Carriers
  • Direct Property and Casualty Insurance Carriers

New products:

Electronics: To achieve future growth and to reinforce competitiveness and profitability, Sony is concentrating investment of its Electronics business resources in development and commercialization in the areas of high definition products, mobile electronics, and semiconductors and other devices, all of which are crucial to the differentiation of Sony’s products.

Game: Playstation 3 launched in markets around the world is expanding the realm of computer entertainment, including network services and other capabilities. PS3’s engine has a tremendous calculating capacity that can be used beyond the realm of games and entertainment and be applied to the betterment of humankind and society. The computing capacity is used to develop treatments for disease, thereby contributing to society.

Entertainment: Sony Pictures Entertainment is comprised of its motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment and digital entertainment businesses. Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment, a joint venture with Bertelsmann AG, are engaged in the music recording and distribution businesses. Sony/ATV Music Publishing is engaged in the acquisition and exploitation of musical copyrights.

Financial Services: Sony Live Insurance Co., Sony Assurance Inc, and Sony Bank Inc. as well as Sony Financial Holdings Inc. the holding company for these operating companies. The Financial Services segment also includes the operations of Sony Finance International Inc., which include credit cards and leasing operations.

Research and Development – 4 Key Technological Fields.

  • Platforms - for home and mobile electronics – concentrating on High Definition related technologies.
  • Semiconductor – to enable the application of elemental technologies used in Cell, Sony’s high-performance processor, in electronic products.
  • Device – focus on touch-screen and other high performance technologies for small liquid crystal displays used in mobile devices and organic light-emitting diodes.
  • Software technologies – plans to bolster Sony’s development capabilities for middleware that offers better user interfaces and facilitates home networks, as well as for application programs, codecs and digital rights management software.

R&D Highlights for Fiscal year 2007 & New for 2007/2008

  • Joined an alliance of industry-leading consumer electronics and telecommunications companies to set a single global standard for internet protocol television technologies to deliver video content via networks. Offers consumers easy access to content and services offered by various providers via mobile and home electronics.
  • Unveiled 2 next-generation television prototypes employing OLED displays.
  • Announced world’s first full-color OLED display using organic thin-film transistors mounted on a plastic substrate, paving way for flexible displays.
  • Developed a new proprietary encryption algorithm called CLEFIA as an enabling technology for copyright protection and personal authentication processes.
  • Development of a bio battery1 that generates electricity from carbohydrates (sugar) utilizing enzymes as its catalyst, through the application of power generation principles found in living organisms.
  • Development of "TransferJet", a new Close Proximity Wireless Transfer Technology enabling the high speed transfer of large data files (photos, HD images, etc.) between electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, digital video cameras, computers and TVs. Using this technology, data can be sent at speeds of 560Mbps.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Sony’s core responsibility is to pursue enhancement of corporate value through technological innovation and sound business practices. They are pursuing group-wide initiatives including strengthening their corporate governance, compliance and quality control structures; maintaining sound employment practices and a healthy work environment; conserving the environment (through global warming countermeasures, efficient resource utilization, chemical substance management and protection of the natural environment); and contributing to communities through social contribution programs.

Environmental Activities

Sony Corporation is actively promoting the use of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power generation across Sony Group companies .Targets Fourfold contribution to CO2 reduction by fiscal 2010.

Sony has established an industry-first, in-house system for regenerating plastic (polystyrene) waste from previously sold Sony CRT TVs, and polystyrene foam packaging materials into high quality, flame-retardant polystyrene that can be reused as parts in "BRAVIA" LCD TVs. This in-house regeneration delivers two significant advantages by reducing the use of new materials and lowering production costs.

Greenpeace ranks Sony Ericsson and Sony in the top 3 range of the manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling.

Core Competencies

Sony’s core competency is their expertise in electronic technology & ability to translate this expertise into developing & manufacturing innovative products. Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and on-line businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading personal broadband entertainment company in the world. To sustain their core competency, Sony selects, develops and rewards people with specific individual competencies that support the strategic direction of their company. Sony's core competency will last longer than their products. Sony has enormous value to customers and is difficult to imitate by competitors. Sony has many competencies within the core. Akio Morita, the founding chairman of Sony, believed that a company would never rise to its potential if all the thinking was left to management. "Everybody in the company must contribute," Morita wrote in his book, Made in Japan, "and for the lower-level employees their contribution must be more than just manual labor. We insist that all of our employees contribute their minds." "Of course we have to make a profit, but we have to make a profit over the long haul, not just the short term, and that means we must keep investing in research and development.”

Conclusion – Future

  • Semiconductor device development is evolving from the “micro” to the “nano” level as techniques for fabricating and measuring are increasingly miniaturized. Miniaturization is expanding computing capacity, accelerating the transition to broadband networks, and stimulating the electrification and digitization of staggering volumes of information and content in the form of text, voice, still-image and video data. This is certainly a large growth area for Sony.
  • Advances in processors, storage, networks and software will drive massive changes in the computing environment, making it possible to run large-scale simulations and process rich media applications in real time on a daily basis impossible until now because of the lack of computing power. Integration of recognition technologies with IT will render communication between humans and products/services more natural. This advanced technology will enable the development of robots that are more human-friendly,
  • R&D for traditional devices that are viewed and interacted with as collections of many molecules, atoms and electrons, Sony is starting to pursue research at a nano-device and nano-electronics level into the qualitative characteristics of small numbers of particles. Sony is venturing into biotechnology and other areas, learning how to apply in their devices the qualities of DNA – the legacy of evolution- and mimic the elaborate formation of protein molecules. Sony will continue R&D in these technologies to facilitate their use in daily life and enable Sony to offer products, services, and entertainment that improve the quality of life for people everywhere.
  • As Sony completes the transition from revitalization to driving long-term growth, dawn is breaking on a new day at Sony. They will continue to serve large and growing markets with an array of products and services most in demand by consumers. Sony’s varied businesses complement each other and present future opportunities to create shareholder value that are unique to Sony. Sony is certainly swimming in Blue Ocean waters.

Resources:Sony 2007 Annual Report, Sony 2007 Financial Report, Sony.net news releases,

Sony.net corporate website, Hoover – Sony Dossier – LexisNexis, NYSE.com, SEC.gov, Businessweek.com, Wikipedia.org Greenpeace.org,