SONY ELECTRONICS SINGAPORE AUDIT

5 Product Life Cycle………………………………………………………………………………6 Blue Ocean strategy, Bell Curve strategy and Absorptive Capacity……………………………7 Innovation Dilemma……………………………………………………………………………. 7 Impact on Society………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Type of innovation………………………………………………………………………………. 8 Sources of innovation……………………………………………………………………………. 8 Competitive Advantage…………………………………………………………………………. Introduction Sony’s predecessor Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K. K. ) was started in 1946 when Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita joined hands to establish the company (Sony Singapore, 2018). The company was started with just 190,000 Yen and had about 20 employees. The founder of the company, Masaru Ibuka said that the company was established purposely to create a factory that emphasized freedom and open-mindedness and will make a contribution to the Japanese culture through technology (Sony Singapore, 2018). Recently the company has come up with many innovations in electronics and these are all available in the Singapore market.

One of the latest innovations is the A8F ultra HD OLED Smart TV. Other innovations are the HT-Z9F soundbar, WF-SP700N wireless headphones, live sound wireless speakers and many other recent innovations (Sony Singapore, 2018). The reason why the company innovates is to continually lead the digital revolution and maintain their relevance within the tech industry. Macro-analysis using PESTEL Pestel analysis usually analyzes external factors like economic, sociocultural, political, technological, environmental and legal. These forces apply to Sony Corporation, Singapore in different ways. First of all, there is competition, and this is a strong force were Sony is concerned (Greenspan, 2017). Currently, in electronics firms like Samsung, LG and so forth have a lot of aggressiveness and provide stiff competition to Sony.

Also, there are low switching costs, and hence many people in the nation can easily switch from a Sony Xperia to a Samsung Galaxy. Next is the bargaining power of its customers, a strong force. When it comes to strategy, first of all, the company has adopted appropriate budgets. Also, it plans annually, and this helps it a lot. The next element is structure, and Sony has made sure that the organizational structure particularly where e-commerce teams have been integrated with other staff. Next is systems and the primary process that gives Sony a competitive edge is the adoption of a secure and appropriate method of handling and sharing customer information (Hanlon, 2015). When it comes to staff, Sony management realized long ago the advantage of the mobility of employees between companies, and therefore it identifies top people in other companies and convinces them to join them.

This financial sector is essential to Sony as the company can get access to quality commercial banking services. Also, the government has put in place a foreign income exemption policy, as it attempts to foster innovation. This policy provides that Sony can repatriate dividends held in outside countries to its Singapore branch for free. Another way the Singapore government has promoted innovation is by introducing a good regime that protects intellectual rights and this is backed both by the legal system and a firm IP infrastructure. This has promoted innovation, creativity and development of Sony. These include relative advantage, and many of Sony’s products like phones and screens have an advantage over other products in the market regarding quality. It is rare to get an electronic product in the Singapore market that beats a similar product manufactured by Sony when it comes to quality.

Compatibility is another feature which Sony’s products fulfill for the most part. Where one loves taking pictures using smartphones, for instance, Sony Xperia phones have top quality cameras for this. When it comes to complexity, some but not all of Sony’s products are complex. Innovation Dilemma Sony’s innovator dilemma came about following the departure of one of its founders where it failed to move into new markets effectively. The reason as to why this happened is that the new management came with complex and sophisticated, attribute-based techniques for determining a market’s potential (Henderson, 2006). Initially, deep intuition guided the decision to enter a new market. This issue resulted from the failure of the senior management to understand the nature of disruptive innovation (Christensen, 2013).

Impact on Society Sony has a significant impact on the society. Sources of Innovation Sony has a lot of sources of innovation. The technological market for instance constantly changes as new products are continually released by the many firms (Bessant and Tidd, 2007). To stay relevant Sony has to regularly keep up with this to remain relevant to its consumers. Another thing that fosters innovation is competition (Drucker, 2014). The Singapore market, for instance, is full of other leaders in technology like Samsung and LG that compete with Sony for the customers and hence Sone has to innovate to get a competitive edge against these companies continually. Through these innovative activities, Sony has remained on top of the electronics industry. Future Innovations One of the future innovations by Sony is an audio system called “N” which transmits audio to users without utilizing headphones or earbuds.

There is already a prototype for this system. Normally, when one is listening to audio through earbuds, they cannot listen to surrounding noises, and this “N” system ensures that one gets more freedom in this regard (Future Experiences Program, 2017). Another prototype is called “T” which creates an interactive space on the surfaces of real objects like tables. This system helps resolve the issue where one cannot hear what is going on in their surroundings when earbuds are plugged in. Hence, it promotes freedom of the user. The other system is the “T” system which creates an interactive space on the surface of objects like tables and so forth. Reference list Bessant, J. and Tidd, J. Available at: http://www. futurelab. sony.