Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Hello, I am Yoshimasa Aiiyashi, the Minister of Science and Technology of Japan. Although I am more inclined towards politics than technology, I'll make it a point to contribute because it feels good to be a part of a nation which is perceived as technologically advanced.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Sim Book here. I'm the serving CEO of Apple, taking over after Steve Jobs; and you know me as 'Sim'. I loved Apple and Steve Jobs very much. In fact, in 2009, I volunteered to give a part of my liver to Steve, but he angrily refused.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Hello, Kaz Masai here. I may have a funny name, but that hasn't deterred me from getting to the top management at Sony. I'm both President and the CEO of the board of directors.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: Hi, good day to everyone. I'm Bob Stringer, the CEO of Sony Music. My family is associated with Sony since quite long. My elder brother was the Chairman of Sony Corporation until 2012.
Kaz, you took away the rightful seat from my brother in 2012. I'll let that one go and be professional in this conversation, but don't forget - we have a score to settle.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Bob, let's not talk like that. The Japanese are very honorable people, and our ancestors we honor the most. Most of what we enjoy is the fruit of their hard work.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Absolutely true! As an American, I'm amazed how Masaru Ibuka started Sony in a war-torn Japan during World War II. Most people would have given up on the company, but it was Japanese temperament which perhaps sustained the growth.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Well, to be honest - the tiny department store that we started off in didn't even have windows. Masaru had a team, but no plan. In the early days, we only manufactured tiny radio-technology parts that allowed users to access even banned channels.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: But it worked out well, didn't it? From what I hear, people liked the additional hardware in their radios so much that they paid Sony in rice! Such an Asian thing to do.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Yes, we did accept both cash and rice as payment modes back then. Although the company was called Tokio Telecommunications Research and not Sony, it was pretty much the same philosophy.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: What's there in a name? Although I don't approve of Bob passing racist remarks, I'm more concerned with - what did you do with so much rice?
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Lemme tell you: when Masaru Ibuka saw that people had so much rice to give and eat, it sparked his entrepreneurial spirit and they came up with a rice cooker in the late 1940s.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Haha, yes. It was a disaster! It didn't cook the rice well. Moreover, the team's salary was being paid from the founder's savings, which were fast depleting. The only solution was to stop this product and launch a new, better one.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Kaz, the second one wasn't any better; was it? :)
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Save poor Kaz some embarrassment, Yoshimasa. The world knows that the second product was worse than the first. The heated cushions which the company sold burnt blankets and pillows!
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: Let the past be the past. We learnt from it. But here we are - strong today. Sony owes its success to the western world. Without it, Sony would have been nothing.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: I don't agree with you at all Bob. It was Akio Morita, a Japanese armyman who partnered with Ibuka after reading the success story of the radio device in a magazine. Akio-San's vision and confidence shaped Sony.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: What is this 'San' that you guys added after Akio and Yoshimasa's name? The Chinese have similar faces. Do the Japanese have similar surnames?
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Stop right there, Bob. No more racist comments. 'San' is added to end of names as a sign of respect. It is similar to the English prefix 'Mr.'
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Gentlemen, let's move on from these petty arguments. It was both Japanese technological acumen and American business sense which made Sony what it is today. When the founders toured the US to explore the market, they realized that it was THE place to be.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: True. In the cold war period, US was the center of global economic power, and the Japanese tapped into the spending potential of the growing middle class. While Americans made everything - Japanese improved upon one tiny element which changed the world. It was the transistor.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Yes, Sony had already created a magnetic recorder earlier by using an aluminium pan, heating chemicals and making ferrous oxide in a kitchen. They now purchased the patent rights to the transistor in $25,000 improved upon it and launched the first Radio Transistor - TR 55.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Although one American company had launched a radio transistor before us, they were still using generic transistors. Hence their volumes were low. Sony had hired chemical, mechanical and electronic engineers to create a 'transistor task force'. The combined efforts helped us a lot.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Despite being a small team from an unknown company, these guys created technology that beat their American counterparts to the dust. But the big problem was that American companies only wanted to sell TR 55 under their own brands, which the Japanese didn't agree to.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: But Sony eventually did enter America, right? How did that happen?
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Ummm...they gave Americans a taste of their own medicine. They did in America what America does in third world countries. They set up a corporation in America, but the business was entirely Japanese.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: The name Tatsuku was difficult for Americans to pronounce. So it was changed to Sony. The second model TR 63 was a killer and was marketed as the 'radio that can fit into your pocket'.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: Wait a minute! I've seen images of the TR 63 on Google. It was not small enough to fit in a pocket.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: The staff at Sony had a similar concern. So, we gave them customised shirts with larger pockets so that they can carry the device around and market the device better.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: What a masterstroke! Simply superb! And this led to a new era of consumer microelectronics. No doubt that Sony was the Apple of that age. I think by 1960, Sony had gone from being a small workshop to a global corporation.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: This radio actually led to the rise of the Rock & Roll music popularity in America. Now, teenagers could listen to music that they liked outdoors, by themselves, without interference from their parents. This is why the transistor was so popular.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: I personally feel that Sony struck gold with its televisions, not radio. I'm not referring to the Bravia series of today. Even in 1968, when it released a television which was portable, twice as bright as the others and more importantly, far better than the American perception of 'cheap' Japanese goods.
With one product, it changed how America viewed Japan. That's much to say.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: True. And this pretty much built Sony's foundation for the global electronics market for the next 30 years.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: After the USA, we looked to Europe. Since we already had a good friendship with Phillips and had proved our success in creating video cassettes, Sony took up a challenging project that our engineers were ready for. We gave the world the first CD, and Philips helped us with its expertise in optical radio disks.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: CDs are good, but the July of 1979 was the most revolutionary time for all music lovers. Sony launched its Walkman then. And it remained as everyone's preferred choice of music player until the iPod's launch. That's 22 years!
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Oh yes, much of our early days were spent to listening to our favorite music on the Walkman - here, we could control what we listened to, unlike the radio where we had no option.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Sony has sold 400 million units of Walkman. This gave us the chance to enter the music industry, and we acquired CBS Records for $3 billion. We also bought Columbia Pictures. In fact today, Sony Music is a very big player.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Don't get me wrong, today's world is more about software. Although Sony's hardware is used by Apple and other companies in camera lenses and sensors, it is fast failing as a company.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: Don't get me wrong, either. The technological wing may be failing, but the entertainment company is going strong.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Other than the iconic PlayStation Series since 2002, Sony hasn't added much value. But I wouldn't blame it. The Japanese central bank's failure and the subsequent recession of late 1990 was good enough to wipe out even large companies.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: Don't blame the government authorities and circumstances. Most companies started outsourcing production to emerging markets while Sony wanted to do everything in Japan. It fired engineers and hired part-time staff to cut costs. No company can function like this.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: I'm not blaming the government. More competition from South Korea (Samsung), China (Huawei) and Taiwan is also putting pressure on Sony.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Yes Sim, the situation is pretty bad, other than the PlayStation and VR expertise, the only thing that's saving us right now is our financial services division. The Sony Bank is bringing in profits to ensure that the company keeps moving forward.
Yoshimasa Aiiyashi (Minister of Technology, Japan) :
Minister: I'm sure that Sony shall move its operations around with better strategy. Although it takes time to change the course of a 150,000 person large team, it will happen.
Bob Stringer (CEO, Sony Music) :
Music Head: We're all working hard towards that as well. But today, we can't justify Sony's high prices to the customers. Earlier, the quality was much better - hence we claimed that we're selling diamonds. But today, there is not much difference between our quality and those that Chinese provide.
Sim Book(CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Sony was the first to introduce an OLED, 4K television. Moreover, it is coming up with a smartphone camera which shoots at 1000 fps. All this makes it a winner.
Kaz Masai (CEO, Sony) :
CEO: Yes, although PlayStation contributed to 78% of our profits in 2016 Q1, streamlining and structural reforms will boost profitability for other products, too.
if you skip this now, you're probably skipping for life!