Akio Morita | |
|---|---|
盛田 昭夫 | |
 Morita in 1965 | |
| Born | (1921-01-26)January 26, 1921 |
| Died | October 3, 1999(1999-10-03) (aged 78) Tokyo, Japan |
| Education | Osaka University (BS) |
| Known for | Co-founder ofSony |
| Spouse | Yoshiko Kamei |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Albert Medal (1982) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Branch | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Rank | Sub-Lieutenant |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Akio Morita (盛田 昭夫,Morita Akio; January 26, 1921 – October 3, 1999) was a Japanese entrepreneur and co-founder ofSony along withMasaru Ibuka.
Akio Morita was born inNagoya.[1] Morita's family was involved insake,miso andsoy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part ofTokoname City) on the western coast ofChita Peninsula inAichi Prefecture since 1665. He was the oldest of four siblings and his father Kyuzaemon trained him as a child to take over the family business. Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics, and in 1944 he graduated fromOsaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He was later commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in theImperial Japanese Navy, and served inWorld War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partnerMasaru Ibuka at a study group for developinginfrared-guided bombs (Ke-Go) in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.
In September 1945, Ibuka founded a radio repair shop in the bombed outShirokiya Department Store inNihonbashi, Tokyo.[2][3] Morita saw a newspaper article about Ibuka's new venture and, after some correspondence, chose to join him in Tokyo. With funding from Morita's father, they co-foundedTokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of Sony Corporation) in 1946 with about 20 employees and initial capital of ¥190,000.[4][2]
In 1949, the company developedmagnetic recording tape and, in 1950, sold the firsttape recorder in Japan. Ibuka was instrumental in securing the licensing oftransistor technology fromBell Labs to Sony in the 1950s,[5] thus making Sony one of the first companies to apply transistor technology to non-military uses.[6] In 1957, the company produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their companySony (derived from "sonus"—Latin for "sound"—and "sonny", a then-common American expression).[7] Morita was an advocate for all the products made by Sony. However, since the radio was slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita made his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a "pocket sized" appearance.
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Morita founded Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, currently abbreviated as SCA) in 1960.[8] In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan at that time.[8] When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony.[8] The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same.[8] In 1961, Sony Corporation was the first Japanese company to be listed on theNew York Stock Exchange, in the form ofAmerican depositary receipts (ADRs).
In March 1968, Morita set up a joint venture in Japan between Sony andCBS Records, with him as president, to manufacture "software" for Sony's hardware.[9]
Morita became president of Sony in 1971,[10] taking over from Ibuka who had served from 1950 to 1971.[11] In 1975, Sony released the firstBetamax homevideocassette recorder, a year before theVHS format came out.
Ibuka retired in 1976[11] and Morita was named chairman of the company.[10] In 1979, theWalkman was introduced, making it one of the world's first portable music players and in 1982, Sony launched the world's firstcompact disc player, theSony CDP-101, with acompact disc (CD) itself, a new data storage format Sony andPhilips co-developed.[12] In that year, a 3.5-inchfloppy disk structure was introduced by Sony, and it soon became thedefacto standard. In 1984, Sony launched theDiscman series, which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products.
Under the vision of Morita,[13] the company aggressively expanded into new businesses.[14] Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence", linking film, music and digital electronics.[14] Twenty years after setting up a joint venture with CBS Records in Japan, Sony bought CBS Records Group[15] which consisted ofColumbia Records,Epic Records and other CBS labels. In 1989, they acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures,TriStar Pictures and others).[9]
Norio Ohga, who had joined the company in the 1950s after sending Morita a letter denouncing the poor quality of the company's tape recorders, succeeded Morita aschief executive officer in 1989.[16]
Morita suffered acerebral hemorrhage in 1993 while playing tennis[10] and on November 25, 1994, stepped down as Sony chairman to be succeeded by Ohga.
Morita was vice chairman of theJapan Business Federation (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations), and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, also known as the "Wise Men's Group". He helpedGeneral Motors with its acquisition of an interest inIsuzu in 1972.[10] He was the third Japanese chairman of theTrilateral Commission. Hisamateur radio call sign is JP1DPJ.
In 1966, Morita wrote a book calledGakureki Muyō Ron (学歴無用論, Never Mind School Records), where he stresses that school records are not important to success or one's business skills. In 1986, Morita wrote an autobiography titledMade in Japan. He co-authored the 1991 bookThe Japan That Can Say No with politicianShintaro Ishihara, where they criticized American business practices and encouraged Japanese to take a more independent role in business and foreign affairs. (Actually, Morita had no intention to criticize American practices at that time.) The book was translated into English and caused controversy in the United States, and Morita later had his chapters removed from the English version and distanced himself from the book.[17]
In 1972, Morita received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[18] Morita was awarded theAlbert Medal by the United Kingdom'sRoyal Society of Arts in 1982, the first Japanese to receive the honor. Two years later, he received the prestigiousLegion of Honour, and in 1991, was awarded the First ClassOrder of the Sacred Treasure from theEmperor of Japan. He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1992 and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.[19][20] That same year, he was awarded an honoraryBritish knighthood (KBE). Morita received the International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from theUniversity of Manitoba in 1987. In 1998, he was the only Asian person onTime magazine's list of the 20 most influential business people of the 20th century as part of theirTime 100: The Most Important People of the Century.[21] He was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Rising Sun in 1999. In 2003,Anaheim University's Graduate School of Business was renamed the Akio Morita School of Business in his honor. The Morita family's support for the program led to the growth of the Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business in Tokyo, Japan.
Morita, who loved to play golf and tennis,[23] suffered a stroke in 1993, during a game of tennis.[10] The stroke weakened him and left him in a wheelchair.[24] On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as Sony chairman. On October 3, 1999, Morita died ofpneumonia at the age of 78 in a Tokyo hospital, where he had been admitted since August 1999.[25]
Quotations related toAkio Morita at Wikiquote
Media related toAkio Morita at Wikimedia Commons| Business positions | ||
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| Preceded by | Chairman ofSony 1976–1994 | Succeeded by |
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