Sony Case Study

Abstract
The purpose for this paper is to analysis the case of Sony Corporation, which is a leading transnational media manufacturer of electronics, music and film entertainment and videogame technology. (Gershon, 2002) There are three main parts in this paper. Part I. evaluates how the different factors of the environment and the organisational design effect Sony’s strategic direction. Part II. examines how innovation and change process directed and facilitated at Sony. Part III. discusses how does Sony’s culture reinforce the structure and strategy of the organization. The analysis is based on Gershon’s (2002) article of Sony’s case study and other theoretical research in the field. Introduction

As a leading transnational media corporation (TNMC), Sony is considered one of the world’s most successful companies operating in to “electronics, games, music, films and financial services” industry (Hanson at al, 2001)

How different factors of environment integrate effectively in Sony’s strategic direction How organisation structure and design aspects integrate effectively in Sony’s strategic direction

Innovation and change process at Sony
Mintzberg (2003) identified that the “one best way” for organisations or “contingency approach” are no longer enough to base a strategic change around. Mintzberg instead believes that structure and strategy exist interdependently and influence each other. He identified that every activity revolves around the division of labour and the coordination of tasks, and the way this is done shapes a company’s structure. Mintzberg believed that situational factors influence the choice of the structure and strategy design such as age, size, environment, power and technical system.

According to Mintzberg Sony are restructuring into an innovative organisation as they have a number of support staff such as the innovative workers, and they are centralized with their decision-making. Sony is attempting to re-establish their internal progression through innovation with their new strategy. Organisations need to adapt to changing environmental conditions to develop (Herber et al, 2003), Sony appointed Stringer to keep up with the dynamism of the environment. Herber at al identified six new organisational forms that companies can develop into depending on company goals and authority relations on the one hand and the nature of changing market and technology on the other.

Sony’s new strategy has developed around a centralized decision making system and one that relies on innovation from all workers while their goal is for growth and market leadership in a highly dynamic market and technological environment. Therefore Herber at al would regard Sony as a “Sense and respond Organisation” where they meet ever changing needs and wants of the customer and work on the premise that unpredictable change is inevitable, while using ideas and information from all levels of the company, in this Sony are building upon their core competences. Due to Sony operating in a dynamic environment they are unable to be based around positional concepts and therefore act to capitalise on their core competencies, a more “inside-out” corporate strategy where emphasis is placed on developing and building upon core resources.

The culture at Sony reinforce the structure and strategy