I was surprised that I did not know about the R & D efforts that Sony put in to make the transistor work. Sorry about this but it’s such a fascinating tale about semiconductor physics that I cannot not write about it. Feel free to skip it if it’s not your cup of tea. This section, in green, is a bit technical. This would change the world in ways that no one could have imagined at the time. In 1948, John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain of the Bell Labs at New Jersey invented the transistor. Just around this time, a breakthrough happened in the field of semiconductor physics. It was a flop, at least initially, because no one in Japan knew what a tape recorder was. It worked most of the time but not for the first product they chose to make – a tape recorder.
Their philosophy was somewhat similar to that of Steve Jobs – people do not know what they want until you make the product for them. Their aim was to always make products that did not exist. Morita’s background of physics combined well with Ibuka’s engineering talent. After the war, instead of going into the family businesses of brewing sake – as he was expected to do as the eldest son – he chose to open a new company with his engineer friend Ibuka. Morita used to listen to music as a child on a phonograph and this is where his love for music and sound production started. It is very instructive to see the journey of a giant company like Sony. Also, it fitted well with my rule of ‘ jumping genres’. Nonetheless, the book was an interesting read. So all the statements made relate to the situation in 1986. Ditto for the socialist Japanese society that he describes. Sony’s reputation took a dive with the e-mail leak scandal, Akio Morita is no more and I am not sure to what extent Sony still follows the management philosophy that he describes in this book. So when I came across this autobiography of Akio Morita, I delved into it to know more about the company.Ī disclaimer. I have had the same experience with Sony products, especially the audio equipment. I never had to buy another one till 2017 and that was because I lost the Japanese one. When I went to Japan in 2003, I bought a nail cutter. If there is one thing you can say about Japanese products, it’s their quality.
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