Sony: The Private Life

by John Nathan

Sony's cofounders, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, met near the end of World War II. Ibuka was an engineer with a childlike love for gadgetry and technology; Morita, a pragmatic physicist who arranged to be away from his military unit on the day Japan surrendered, fearful that all officers would be ordered to commit ritual suicide. (He guessed correctly.) Together they founded Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Co., Ltd., the forerunner of Sony, in 1946, using loans from Morita's wealthy family for startup capital. But even that wasn't as simple as it seems. First, Morita had to be released from his obligation, as first-born son, to take over the family sake business. The very Japaneseness of that moment goes a long way toward illustrating the exotic charm of The Private Life. John Nathan is a professor of Japanese culture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and speaks and understands the nuanced Japanese like a native. He was given extraordinary access to Sony employees, and found some of them telling him company secrets that had never been revealed to outsiders. (In international business, the electronics giant has traditionally been regarded as a black hole; information goes in, but it never comes out.) From these intimate revelations, he tells a story of a company that to Western observers always seemed like a bottom-line-oriented conglomerate. The reality, he writes, is that Sony has always operated via intense personal relationships and loyalties--in that sense, in a very Japanese way. Even the company's disastrous decision to buy Columbia Pictures came from top Sony executives' desire to honor Morita, who'd always wanted to own a movie studio. Although that decision ultimately cost Sony billions of dollars, it pleased the man who mattered. --Lou Schuler

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Japan, History, Technology, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2001

Reviews

[Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too detailed. Sometimes good and sometimes a drag.
Gives you insight into world leader in electronics and entertainment. How it was established, progresses and maintained integrity throughout good times and tough. You can learn how Japanese businesses are run, no matter what size, by personal hierarchy and command.

[Kenneth Cooke]

So far, so good. I really wanted to dig into this company who's products I've known my whole life but have never thought twice of.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read company profile for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.

[Link Wei]

读的是中文版。

[Jamel Cato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and extremely well-written inside story of the founding and rise of Sony. The book focuses on Sony's glory years (when the Sony Walkman was the cultural and business equivalent of today's iPod.) It was published before the company's recent decline, when all its business units but the Playstation division lost money and it was so desperate that it appointed its first non-japanese CEO. The absence of these important developments makes the book no less interesting, but somewhat anticlimatic. It's sort of like reading a book about George W. Bush's presidency that was written before 9/11 happened. One of my favorite takeaways from the book was learning that "Sony" is not actually a Japanese word; the founders came up with that name because it was easy to pronounce in English.

[Anoop S Raj · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly one of the most complicated and senseless way of writing about a business house I have read ever. From not following a chronological order in many places to going much deeper into unwanted details makes this book a very uninteresting read. Not recommended.

[Cessaly Denise Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Amazed at how hard these guys worked, from ashes of WWII, just punched it! Origins of co name is a bit amusing!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so surprised that this was as entertaining and memorable a book as it is!

[Glenn Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars