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NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

Group Project About Akio Morita Course Instructor: KH. ASEF SAFA KABIR (KSU)

Course Name: MGT-321

Section: 09

12/15/2014

Project made by :

NAME ID

ZAHID HASAN DIPU 1320381030

SHIABUL ISLAM CHOWDHURY 1320797030

ABDULLAH AL NOMAN MAJUMDER RAJU 1310443630

SHAW KAT HOSSAIN TUHIN 1320250030

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Letter of acknowledgement

15th December, 2014

KH. ASEF SAFA KABIR (KSU)

Here is the group report about Akio Morita of Requirement for our MGT-321(Organizational

Behavior) course.

In presenting this report, we have tried our level best to include all information and explanation

to make the report informative and comprehensive.

It was a very enriching and enthralling far up to prepare this report. Our report writing skills have

improved a lot while doing it If, further any report is required. We will be available by any

means. Thank you sir for believing in us and giving us this opportunity

sincerely,

Zahid Hasan Dipu

Shiabul Islam Chowdhury

Abdullah Al Noman Majumder Raju

Shawkat Hossain Tuhin

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Letter of Transmittal

15th December, 2015

KH. ASEF SAFA KABIR (KSU)

Course Instructor

School of Business

North South University

Submitting the report about Akio Morita.

Dear Sir,

We are glad to submit our report on the specific topic as you have assigned us to prepare a report

on Akio Morita as a partial requirement of the course. Now we are looking forward for your kind

appraisal regarding this report.

The report reviews on Akio Morita. We are pleased to prepare this report and we expect that it

provide you an overall review on leader Akio Morita.

We would like to thank you for your support and feedback by evaluating our report.

Sincerely yours,

1. Zahid Hasan Dipu 132 0381 030

2. Shiabul Islam Chowdhury 132 0797 030

3. Abdullah Al Noman Majumder Raju 131 0443 630

4. Shawkat Hossain Tuhin 132 0250 030

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Table of contents

PAGE NO TITLE

Page –(5-6) Introduction to the leader Page -(6-7) The Success Factors Page -(8-10) Analysis of the Leader’s personality Page -(10-12) Leader’s Source of motivation Page -(12-14) The decision making style Page - (13-15) Analysis of Leader’s Organization Page –(16) Communication Page- (16-17) Leadership Style Page-(18-20) Notable Quotes by the Leader Page-(20) Conclusion

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Introduction:

Akio Morita is a Japanese businessman & leader; he was the co-founder of Sony along with

Masaru Ibuka. He is famous for the desire to do something different & for his visionary

leadership. Morita was born on 26th January 1921 in Nagoya, Japan. As the oldest sibling he was

trained to take over the family business. However Morita found himself being interested in

physics and mathematics. He graduated from Osaka Imperial University in 1944 after which he

entered the Imperial Japanese Navy and served in the Second World War. This was where he

met his future business partner Masaru Ibuka. Upon his return from the war Morita accepted the

offer from the Tokyo Institute of Technology to join the faculty. In 1946 Morita and Ibuka

founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K consisting of twenty employees and a capital of 190,000

yen. The company made the magnetic tape recorder, a pocket sized radio which was fully

transistorized and many more innovative products.

In 1960 Akio Morita launched the company in the United States and renamed it ‘Sony’. The

same year they produced the very first transistor television. In 1973 Sony got an Emmy Award

for creating the Trinitron TV-set technology. Next in line was the home video recorder, the VHS

format and then the Walkman, the first portable music player in the world. In 1984 the Discman

series was released. Sony Corporation of America was the first Japanese company to be listed in

the New York Stock Exchange. Along with his relation with Sony his other affiliations include

the vice chairmanship of Japan Business Federation and membership of the Japan-U.S Economic

Relations Group. Morita is the third Japanese to be chairman of the Trilateral Commission.

Most of the Sony’s success can be attributed to Morita. With his inventive ideas and creative

thinking, he produced new cultures and lifestyles with products such as the Walkman and the

video cassette recorder, which were groundbreaking ideas of the time. In 1966 Morita wrote a

book called ‘Never Mind School’ based on human resources. His view point that schools are not

important in carrying the job out is becoming popular belief nowadays in Japan. He was very

eager to diversify the company’s operations to other things besides electronics. Thus they moved

in the music software business and started CBS/Sony Group Inc. In 1979 they diversified into the

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financial arena by establishing the Sony Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. He also acquired

CBS Records Inc. and Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc.

Morita received several awards for his outstanding achievements. He was given the Albert Medal

by the UK’s Royal Society of Arts in 1982. In 1984 he received the Legion of Honor and in 1991

the Emperor of Japan gave him the first Class of Order of the Sacred Treasure. In 1987 the

University of Manitoba awarded Morita with the International Distinguished Entrepreneur

Award. He was presented with the honorary British Knighthood in 1993. After his death he was

recognized with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. He left the chairmanship of

Sony on 25th November 1994. Morita died due to pneumonia in October 1999.

One of the significant key factors was in those days his family already embraced the latest in

Western culture, like the automobile and the electric phonograph. Whenever he was relieved

from his household duties, the young Akio would become engrossed in taking apart the

phonograph and putting it back together. From an early age, Akio was fond of tinkering with

electronic appliances, and mathematics and physics were his favorite subjects during his

elementary and junior high school days. After graduating from High School Number Eight, he

entered the Physics Department at Osaka Imperial University.

The Success Factors:

Here are some individual level factors of Akio Morita given below.

Internal Factors:

Heredity:

Leadership in business was hereditary to the Morita family. Akio Morita in his book Made in

Japan wrote, “Being in a business so central to the community, the Morita family has always

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taken a position of civic leadership as well”. Akio Morita was groomed to become the heir to the

family business.

Ability:

Morita's business strength was in his ability to study both Western and Eastern cultures and

combine the best parts of each. With this expertise, he was often consulted about US-Japanese

trade issues.

Fearless:

When it came to both his home and work lives, Morita flew in the face of thousands of years of

Japanese tradition. He risked everything on a small startup with a friend. He even dared to

challenge the global superpower, America. When it came to his beliefs, Morita was never afraid

to speak his mind.

Optimistic:

Mr. Morita is a positive, happy person by nature. Facing various problems, he never thought

negatively even once, through his school days, naval force days, and after he established Sony.

Innovation:

At Sony, roughly six percent of sales has always been invested back into research and

development. Morita wanted his company to always be at the cutting edge of the industry. Even

where that meant a market had not yet been established, Morita was willing to take the risk that

the demand was out there, and that he would find it.

External Factors:

Political and Legal Factors:-

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It is rules and regulations, which has been imposed by a stable Government on the business. On

the other hand, these changes may expected from the govt. by business. This flexible rules and

regulations helped Akio Morita to run his business properly.

Socio-cultural forces:-

From the very young age Akio Morita’s family was in Japan. But they strictly followed the

western culture alongside the Japanese culture. As a result of following the western culture

Morita started to learning about the western culture from his early age & that helped him to

establish his business in western countries.

Technological forces:-

Japan was technologically enriched and Sony works around the technology every day. Sony

should use new and upgraded technology in productivity which could may give sony competitive

advantages. This helped Sony to established, itself as Market leader in technology & this

technological advantages helped Akio Morita.

Akio Morita personality:

We can use The Myers-Briggs Type indicator (MBTI)

Extraverted versus introverted:

He was extraverted. He was spontaneous and always he was smiling face.

Sensing versus Intuitive:

Akio Morita was intuitive. Intuitive rely unconscious process look at the “big picture”,

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Thinking versus feeling:

Feeling types rely on their personal values & emotions. Akio Morita was feeling type of people,

sometimes he sometimes he made his decisions by using his “six-sense” instead of logic.

Judging versus perceiving:

Perceiving types are flexible & spontaneous. His decision and thinking was very flexible.

Pro-active:

Akio Morita was a person between opposite poles and ambiguity. He took pro-active decision

before any unpredictable situation. He said that “No theory or plan or government policy will

make a business a success, that can only be done by people” .He could easily understand the

innovative demand of general people and also able to create those.

Type A People:

From another perspective, we can say that Morita’s personality was related to “Type-A People”.

Morita was, sometimes, accused of moving too first, of being impatient. To convey the same to

him, his New York office staff presented him a red firemen’s helmet as a present, because they

said, he was always in such a hurry.

It is important for Akio to dress well. Morita radiates a kind of raw power and able-ness, which

needs to be refined and enhanced by his clothing. Akio Morita may even dress a bit flashy, but

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that will not harm him. Quality is among Akio's highest priorities, and should reflect in his

clothing.

Morita radiates confidence. People defer to him because they sense his sureness and

effectiveness. Akio Morita also exudes a kind of controlled benevolence. People sense that he is

generous, once he is convinced of the worthiness of the cause.

Mr. Morita is a positive, happy person by nature. Facing various problems, he never thought

negatively even once, through his school days, naval force days, and after he established Sony.

He is not in leisurely as you may imagine from the word “Optimism”, but at any hand, he never

feels blue or gets depressed. He says “I don’t have such time” and always goes all over the world

like a bird. The negative side of his personality can cause Morita to be ruthless, greedy, and

intensely lonely.

Akio Morita, though a successful person an illustrious leader, could not pay adequate attention to

his personal life. According to Hideo Morita, Akio’s eldest son and the current head of the

family, his father was a consummate performer of his life. In his own country, where executives

tend to be self-effecting, Mr. Morita was viewed as a bit flam boy ant & arrogant.

Source of Motivation:

Motivation is the result of interaction of the individuals and the situation. Akio Morita was born

into a family of sake brewers who have been in the business for 14 generations. His father,

Kyuzaemon, groomed Akio from an early age to take over the family business. So we can see

Akio Morita was mainly motivated by the family. He is non-combative, noncompetitive, and

somewhat of a pacifist. Morita will give something up rather than fight for it. He may seem

weak-willed or ineffectual, for he does not have a powerful ego drive for personal achievement

and material advantage, or for winning at the expense of someone else. Being first, being best or

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being on top does not mean much to Akio Morita, and he can be quite happy in a supporting role,

working for the benefit of others or for a cause that he believes in. Akio Morita is gentle and

impressionable and is motivated by less mundane and less tangible things than most other

people. He may have difficulty formulating clear, definite personal goals and making his way in

the world. Akio has many dreams, high ideals and a strong mystical or religious impulse. Akio

Morita also has a creative imagination and can successfully apply himself to art or music. Akio

Morita has a sensitive physique and he needs to maintain good regular health habits in order to

build strength and stamina.

He is a team player and works well in collaboration with others who share his goals, ideals, and

intentions. Akio Morita can coordinate group efforts and inspire people to work toward a shared

goal. Team sports are also a lot of fun for Akio, and he could be a leader, coach, or director of

any group endeavor.

Akio Morita has an adventurous, entrepreneurial spirit and the instincts to achieve major success.

Competition and rivalry spur Akio Morita on to do his best and push past his limits. He enjoys

taking initiative and has positive expectations that generate positive results. At times, however,

Akio Morita is overconfident, cocky and vainglorious. Sports and business are both suitable

arenas for Morita.

Akio Morita seems to lack determination and has a sense of inferiority. He tends to think

negatively about himself and is inclined to downgrade himself. But Akio Morita has strong self-

control, accepts hardship well and has the desire to overcome his difficulties. Positions of honor,

affluence, influence, and stature in his community can be his. Akio Morita feels he has a destiny

which involves leadership or distinguishing himself in some line of endeavor. Akio possesses an

innate sense of greatness or importance, and a strong drive to achieve recognition for his talent.

Akio Morita should avoid excessive egotism and arrogant pride, for these could limit his

opportunities.

Often Akio Morita feels like he is being pulled in two directions - what he needs to do to fulfill

his long-range ambitions, and what he actually feels like doing. This may make it difficult for

Akio to be constant and consistent in pursuing goals, career aims, etc. Relationships with

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women, trying to satisfy family needs, or other emotional attachments sometimes also conflict.

Often Akio Morita has to decide on one or another at a given time, rather than try to have both.

Morita may well have an unusual destiny or pivotal role to play in a drama that involves much

more than his own personal ambitions and professional aims. This could involve uncovering

secrets, bringing deception, cruelty, or injustice to light, or making fundamental changes in some

field. Akio's work may also include dealing with life and death situations, crises, and

emergencies. Somewhere along the way, fate may force Morita's hand - and it may require some

self-sacrifice on his part. On the other hand, his real work may be rather subtle - a quiet

transformation of a particular area or field. Akio Morita is meant to do in-depth work.

Decision Making Style:

Akio Morita used Intuition decision making process which is an unconscious process created out

of distilled experience. It doesn’t necessarily operate independently of rational analysis rather,

the two complement each other. And importantly, intuition can be a powerful force in decision

making. Akio Morita’s decision making style falls under intuition.

Effectiveness and Significance of Decisions:

Akio Morita’s decision making was useful. Morita’s tactic got success, The TR-63 of 1957

cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics;

American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel

the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of

1968. Which was one of his significant decisions? Sometimes he used six sense rather than logic.

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Values and Visions:

He is most commonly known as the man behind Sony. Originally groomed to take over the

family sake- brewing company, Morita's entrepreneurial vision has created one of the technology

giants of our time. Co founding the company with Masaru Ibuka, they strived to provide

consumers with products of the best quality and technology available.

He changed the accepted marketing concepts and focused on brand-name identification and

brand responsibility - a concept widely used today but virtually unheard of then. By insisting on

producing high quality products with cutting edge technology, Morita transformed the reputation

of the Japanese technology industry so that it became associated with superior quality rather than

inexpensive copies. As he himself said, "[They] made Sony the Cadillac of electronics."

Morita also understood the impact of globalization and in the 1960 expanded Sony into the US.

He even moved his family there to gain an understanding of the culture and customs vital to the

company's international survival. His success in the US meant that Sony became the first

Japanese company to offer shares on the New York stock market, changing the way Japanese

companies raised foreign capital forever. Thanks to his vision and passion, Sony is now

recognized as one of the top brand names in the world for electronics and music to name but a

couple.

Analysis of Leader’s Organization:

Organization’s Mission & Vision:

MISSION:

“To experience the joy of advancing & applying technology for the benefit of the public”

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Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology

products for the consumer and professional markets. Its motion picture, television, computer

entertainment, music and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive

entertainment and technology companies in the world

VISION:

“To create exciting new digital entertainment experiences for consumer by bringing together

cutting-edge product with latest generation content & services”

Organization’s Culture:

To maintain their vision they need people with knowledge and flair to ensure that they remain

the leader and innovator in current and emerging markets and technologies. The diversity of

skills, experience and cultural background of SONY’s employees is crucial to their success.

They value the diversity of their workforce and respect the differences between employees;

therefore they believe that all employees are entitled to work in an environment in which

employees can enjoy their work and relationships with colleagues free from unwanted

harassment of any kind.

Sony is an equal opportunity employer and committed to providing equal opportunities in its

employment, promotion, reward and development of staff. Their recruitment, development and

promotion of employees are based on genuine merit and suitability for the job regardless of

personal characteristics and circumstances.

They also have a commitment to provide the ultimate in customer service to their wide-ranging

customer base and to enhancing their customer relationship management.

SONY is the achievers and had received awards for Excellent Performance.

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Organization’s Structure:

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Communication:

Sony had 168,200 employees as of 2011 and 57 manufacturing sites as of September 2008.

Communication is the process of exchanging information. Akio Morita said that “The most

important mission for a Japanese manager is to develop a healthy relationship with his

employees, to create a family-like feeling within the corporation, a feeling that employees &

managers share the same fate. We will try to create conditions where person could come together

in a spirit of team work, and excess to their heart’s desired their technological capacity ” from

this statement we can say that our leader Akio Morita tried with his best to create a best

communication process with others through a healthy relationship.

Obviously, it was related to success. From our Organizational Behavior text book we have learnt

that a healthy relationship & friendly communication process can increase the productivity of the

workers & Akio Morita was also followed the same thing. As a result of this Akio Morita’s

workers were able to express their innovative ideas to Akio Morita. As a result of his worker’s

high contribution to his organization. In 1998, according to a Harris Poll, Sony overtook General

Motors and General Electric, as best-known and the most highly esteemed brand name among

US consumers. Now we can tell that “It was the result of his workers hard work alongside his

visionary leadership”.

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Leadership style:

We can analyze Akio Morita’s leadership style based on Trait theory: Trait theory is a virtue

theory of leadership. It begins with the idea that specific virtues a leader must have. These are

usually inborn .Akio Morita born in a business family. His family was affected by western .He

used to go his father business which helped him to see the leadership process practically. As a

result Akio Morita has different inherited traits like:

Energetic (high activity level)

Tolerant of stress

Assertive

Self-confident

Adaptable to situation

Ambitious

Behavioral theory:

Behavioral theory contain some very different assumptions from trait theory . This theory

assumes that leaders can be made rather than are born. Akio Morita learned from the situation

and learned from the environment. He had made him a successful leader gradually. He developed

his analyzing capability gradually so that in a critical situation he could handle the situation . He

had a positive outlook. He never give up any task without trying this helped him much to reach

success.

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Contingency theory:

There are many different styles of leadership and most are effective, if use in the right situation

Akio Morita had a charismatic ability to handle any unpredictable situation. He learned from

those situations.

Morita was often a spokesman for Japanese management. In articulating his own ideas, he

emphasized the importance of teamwork and of motivating people by providing challenging

work in a family-like environment; engineers in industrial companies particularly need targets

for their creativity. Above all, management must treat workers not as tools but as fellow human

beings. Morita argued that manufacturing determines the strength of the economy and blamed

excessive financial dealings to create paper profits for undermining this base. Morita praised

familialism and loyalty to the company as facilitating long-range planning and investment. He

often criticized American management's preoccupation with quarterly profits and dividends and

its tendency to postpone investment in equipment.

Notable Quotes by Akio Morita:

“Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for

the times.”

-AKIO MORITA

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(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“From a management standpoint, it is very important to know how to unleash people’s inborn

creativity. My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use

it”.

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“I believe people work for satisfaction. I believe it is a big mistake to think that money is the

only way to compensate a person for his work. People need money, but they also want to be

happy in their work and proud of it.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“My solution to the problem of unleashing creativity is always to set up a target.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html

“I established the rule that once we hire an employee, his school records are a matter of the past,

and are no longer used to evaluate his work or decide on his promotion.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“We all learn by imitating, as children, as students, as novices in the world of business. And then

we grow up and learn to blend our innate abilities with the rules or principles we have learned.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“There are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing. To

have any one of these without the others is self-defeating in business.”

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-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

“The investor and the employee are in the same position, but sometimes the employee is more

important, because he will be there a long time whereas an investor will often get in and out on a

whim in order to make a profit.”

-AKIO MORITA

(http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html)

Conclusion:

Akio Morita’s one attitude has impressed me much which is he was optimistic. I think it’s the

main reason for his success. He always thought positive in any harder or unpredictable situation.

He never lost his hope. As a result, he solved any problem very tactfully. From analyzing his life

history, we can say that everybody have to be optimistic for accomplishing their actual goal.

Akio Morita watched how people live, he took his market research on the street so he was able to

understand the customer innovative need which helped him to create new innovative product,

Walkman is one of them. From this I can understand that practical experience is very efficient

way to create innovative idea. In a seminar Akio Morita advised us “don’t be afraid to make a

mistake, but make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice. From this quote I have learn that

mistake is the efficient way to learn but we have to ensure that one mistake never be repeated.

The key factor in industry is creativity .There is three types of creativities: creativity in

technology, in product planning and in marketing.

Though he had a lot of quality but his some negative attitudes have depressed me. Some of his

office staffs said that Akio was arrogant, he was greedy, and he never spent much time with his

family. But it’s a universal truth that after get reputation people only see ones success not the

way of success.

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Appendix:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akio_Morita

2. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/04/business/akio-morita-co-founder-of-sony-and-

japanese-business-leader-dies-at-78.html

3. http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/words-of-advice-from-the-founder-of-sony-

akio-morita/

4. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197676

5. http://agilewriter.com/Biography/Morita.htm

6. http://www.quoteswise.com/akio-morita-quotes.html

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owXhVn-0YKI (Video Link).

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