Biography of Akio Morita - Sony Company Founder

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

Morita families have known at that time lifestyle style of Western culture, such as the phonograph and electric cars. Each time he was released from household chores, the young Akio became engrossed dismantle gramophone and put them back.
From an early age, Akio enjoy tinkering with electronic equipment, and mathematics and physics were his favorite subjects for elementary and junior high school days. After graduating from High School, he entered the Department of Physics 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 college that year, met with Masaru Ibuka in 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 a research laboratory founded by Ibuka appeared in the Asahi newspaper column called, "Blue Pencil." With the end of the war, Ibuka had founded Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute to start a new beginning. After reading this article, Morita visited Ibuka in Tokyo and they decided to set up a new company together.
On May 7, 1946, Ibuka and Morita founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) with about 20 employees and initial capital of ¥ 190,000. At that time, the 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 Sony in the areas 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.
Encouragement company to expand its business globally visible in the decision to change the company name to Sony in 1958, a decision that was not well received both inside and outside the company Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was as widely known. To cope with such a view, Morita stressed it was necessary to change the company name to something easier to pronounce and remember, in order to grow and improve the company's global presence. In addition, the company argued that Morita someday be developed into products other than electronics and Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo name will no longer be appropriate. Therefore, he changed his name to Sony Corporation and decided to write a 'Sony' in katakana alphabet (Japanese alphabet which is usually used to write foreign names), something that was unheard of at the 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 should develop its own direct sales channel, instead of relying on local dealers.
Many products have been launched in the history of the Sony can be credited to Morita creativity and innovative ideas. His ideas gave birth to a completely new lifestyle and culture, and this is evident from such products as the Walkman and the video cassette recorder.
Morita also showed his 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 the company to raise capital not only in Japan. Sony paving the way for Japanese firms to raise foreign capital, at the common practice of Japanese management is to borrow money from the bank.
In the field of human resources, Morita wrote a book called Never Mind School Records in 1966 and stressed that the school records are not important in carrying out the work. Morita point of view, the first known more than 30 years ago, is today followed by many companies in Japan.
Such as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo rename the Sony show, Morita Sony was eager to diversify operations outside the electronics business. In 1968, the company entered the business of music software in Japan with established CBS / Sony Group Inc., together with CBS, Inc. of the U.S. Later in 1979, Sony entered the financial business in Japan with the establishment of 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., the CBS records in 1988. The following year, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., allowing the company to become a comprehensive entertainment company that has a good quality software richness of content and hardware.
In addition to managing Sony, Morita active in building a cultural bridge between Japan and abroad as Vice Chairman of the 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 friction 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"
The first awards were given Japanese Morita Albert Medal of the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Arts in 1982. In 1984, he received the National Order of the Legion of Honour (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 a number of 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 emits natural light, and his personality, which he himself described as "cheerful," loved by many people. He had many friends both in Japan and abroad, including individuals like Kiichi Miyazawa, former Prime Minister of Japan, Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, and orchestra conductors such as Zubin Mehta and the late Herbert von Karajan.

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