Strategic Planning: Sony Corporation

Strategic Planning Sony CorporationStrategy proviso business preserve the in store(predicate) it is the process of checking the goals set by the steering for the c everyer-out in for the future and how they can be achieve. Strategic formulation process its a wide process which looks at the wider picture and usu eithery its flexible when it bob ups to movement of goals for the organization the process damped hygienic-nigh(prenominal) goals for middle level and caramel level management to achieved and works on the strategic excogitates for the future found on the achievement of the goals set for the middle and l everywhere management in short it can be say that strategic provision is the planning of the future for the ac social club.Based on the above definition the club of Sony give be look with regards to its strategic planning in the outgoing, on-going and future.Sony-Sony its a Japanese familiarity which has its headquarter ground in Minato. It is unity of the largest electronic impression manuf compriseurers in the piece.The go with Sony has many a(prenominal) crossroads in the commercialize from electronic appliances for billet to lively phones and manoeuvre topographic points which is physical exercised by many volume around the world, the phoner has contri onlyeed itself in the markets of all continents whether is the States or Asia, Sonys products argon used by many consumers with a confidence in them.For the purpose of this assignment the strategies of Sony will be discussed which were used by the ac companion in the some condemnation(prenominal) and with regards to that the current strategies will be look and ground on the analysis of past and current strategies the future strategies will be identified.1990 to 2000-Sony al slipway tries to differentiate its products from the contentions and provide its customers with latest technology from CD players to rambling phones the scheme at this stage of Sony was to provide its customers with everyplace the top technologies .The company use many strategies to make success roughly of them were successful and some were non the company was besides subject to some restructuring as a part of its scheme by looking at the company restructuring processes everywhere the years in this period it can be knock againstn that the company Sony was non to the mark when choosing its strategies the company has to transform the strategies quite number of metres at the time in 90s the strategy of Sony seems like work with different strategies and see which one is working for them. In 1993 Sony enwrapd its customers with Mini Disc format which was an election to Philips Digital Compact Cassette after this introduction the company wear the strategy to promote its take in audio compression technologies under the chump reach of ATRAC it was an attempt to go against the widely used format of MP3 at that time and beside that Sony withal try to chall enge the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 reverberate sound format with its fresher and to a greater extent advance sound format called SDDS (Sony explode Digital Sound) patch the Dolby Digital was proving six audio carry at that time Sony Dynamite Digital Sound provide its customers with 8 channels of audio. This new format of Sony also had the feature of providing the users of the remains a relief pitcher system using having mirrors ar shafts of bit on both side of the contract which provide reliability to the users if the film get damage on one side it became an instant hit among the customers scarce after a few years it was non in that much postulate due to organism overshadowed by the theme theatre system of Dolby Digital 5.1 system which reduces the cut-rate sale of Sony systems only when at that time Sony did nothing to compete with the system with its own home theatre system which was design to sale in the interrogation picture industry.In 1998 Sony introduce its memory stick format make memory cards to be use in Sonys digital cameras and portable music players which was on the format on SD card format which was adopt many competitors in the industry, it provide the users an opportunity to save their data on those memory sticks and can save up to 1000 pictures and songs on that elegant device it set up popular among the people at that time and its however widely used in many products this was the result of Sony strategic planning which always focuses on providing the customers latest technologies so the customers preferred the company more(prenominal) than the competitors, Sony also work with other manufacturer much(prenominal) as Philips in developing or working on new products and by doing this the company was able to grow in the industry.Despite the success in Sony planning the company was subject to many restructuring due to change in form _or_ system of government and some of the strategies not working and resulting in a lo ss the riddle can be seen that at that time the planning of Sony was very bellicose and the company was trying to grow its market sh ar fast which result in some plan getting failed inconsistency can be another reason in the planning of Sony be expect the world of music and electronics devices change rapidly everyday and every other month new products set out into the market making the old one unwanted, while the competitors were developing new technologies whether its in MP player or home theatre systems Sony did not tried to compete with them with updating their current product at that time.2000 to 2010- everywhere the years from 2000 to 2010 Sony developed many products which can be widely seen in the market and most of them argon dominating the market now some of the products areBlue Ray Discs-The blue ray discs by Sony are a popular product and it is now widely used by many people whether it is in movies or games the introduction of blue ray DVDS allowed the users to enjoye d the movies in better qualities and it has more data storage capacity than median(prenominal) DVDs .The introduction of blue ray discs help Sony to captured the market from Toshiba HD TVS and due to that the company Sony was able to shake increased its market share compare to the competitor Toshiba.Sony Vaio-Sony introduces its range of laptops under the name of Sony Vaio which is a stylish laptop and come under many colours, Sony spend lots of its money on the selling of the laptop which like all the other products of Sony became an instant hit and thus far today many people like to prefer Sony Vaio over the laptops of its competitors such as Toshiba and Acer due to the features it provides and also due to its stylish looks.In August 2006 Sony and Dell had to recall many batteries due to being sued by a couple in April over exploding laptop batteries which were result to hot up and overpower. Sony admitted the batteries had some blurs which could result in batteries overhea ting and catching fire it change the reputation of Sony badly and many of the other laptop manufacturers such as Acer and Toshiba had to send back down the batteries they bought from Sony and also figureed to ask for compensation as it was also claimed by a Japanese newspaper that Sony was aware of the flaw in battery and did not do anything to prevent it or to count the problem replete(p)y.Play Station-The first play station was unblock by Sony in 1994 to compete against other gaming console in the market and it provide the gamers an opportunity to enjoy the games at better flavor and better sound and the gamer enjoyed it.In 2006 Sony release play station 2 which was more modifyd and has many better feature than play station 1 it was an attempt to compete with other competitors in the market which were Microsofts Xbox live and Nintendos WII afterwards on the Sony introduced play station 3 with much more fine art and better gaming sleep together for the gamers Sony also h as developed the play station 3 can be used to access internet and to play blue ray movies and fair like Nintendo WII it provide the gamers an interactive experience when playing the games and this has been a huge part of the console success.Mobile Phones-Sony also has its own brand of roving phones which were used widely mainly in Asia and the company also introduced the first mobile phone with 12 mega pixel camera in it beside that Sony also introduce one of its famous walkman mobile phone lines which were W11i and W880i in 2007 and 2008 and they had a music system build in it and were also provide the customers a chance to connect to the internet while listening to their favourite music the product was an instant hit and Sony also spend well plan time on its marketing ladder and use celebrities in their adverts which attract many customers and the Sony Ericson phones were used by many music lovers.Current Strategies Of Sony- afterward discussing the past strategies of Sony it can be seen that the company emphasis on providing the customers with best technologies and marketing its products efficiently but they did had some fail strategy in the past as well it effectuate its reputation.Besides, in inn to regain Sonys combative advantages, they appoint the first immaterial chairman, Howard Stringer to head the company with the aim to secure Sonys main ground and trust that an outsider will assist Sony to think outside the box. As Hamel Prahalad (1994) suggest, sharp leadership are essential to develop industry foresight, anticipating which trends are in all probability to emerge, so it is important to build Sonys new core competence to shape the industry.However, Priem and Butler (2001) take a leak shown that the Resources Based View, as currently constituted, contains a possibleness of sustainability but not a theory of competitive advantage (i.e., hold dear creation).They argue that scarce advising practitioners to obtain rare and valuable res ources in order to achieve competitive advantages and, further that those resources should be hard to imitate and non-substitutable is not very reformatory in providing practical help (Johnson et al, 2005 p155).After all the fail strategies and their affects on Sonys reputation the company now working on developing the reputation for that purpose Sony habituateed chairman from their own realm Japan and also a foreigner chairman to make their strategies work. In the current flunkes of Sony it can be seen that they had problems with their management and leadership styles which were more concern just about getting the tasks done instead of defining the ways for the teams to how to obtain the tasks and what resources should be used.In order to understand the current business strategy of Sony it will be wise to look at their corporate debate which state Our companies are gon for creating products that enrich peoples lives. Through Sony Corporation of America and its operating comp anies Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment we are also use to improving peoples lives. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, funding research to cure devastating diseases, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment and actively encouraging employee volunteerism.(http//www.sony.com/SCA/philanthropy.shtml)After looking at the statement it can be seen that Sony Current strategies are not barely if based on providing the customers with best products but also it include building the reputation back which was affected in the past due to the poor strategic choices made by them.Sony is also working on working on the green environment and providing the customers not only equipments which provide them best musical or gaming experience but also which are environmental friendly to play it part in making the world a green world and being broad the customers the image of the social responsibility of the company and building its reputation back which has been damage due to all the bad strategic choices made by the company management in the past.Sony Future Strategies-Upon looking at the past of Sony it can be seen that the reason of the failure of strategies was that they were not properly be after and implement the resources were not fully utilized by Sony up to their full capacity as for any company it is very important for its susceptibility that the resources should be utlizied up to maximum capacity as Priem and Butler (2001) let shown that the Resources Based View, as currently constituted, contains a theory of sustainability but not a theory of competitive advantage (i.e., value creation).They argue that simply advising practitioners to obtain rare and valuable resources in order to achieve competitive advantages and, further that those resources should be hard to imitate and non-substitutable is no t very helpful in providing practical help (Johnson et al, 2005 p155).The strategies that should be utilized in the future by Sony should be of followingCompetitive Positioning-Sony has a establish brand name in the market which cannot be denied and everyone knows about the brand and products of Sony but the company did not utilized their brand name fully due to miss planning for example when the home theatre system was introduce and became popular many people were using Sonys products but they sell to the new system because Sony did not do anything to develop their own home theatre system for their customers which lead the customers to switch to another company and then the main priority involve is to update their systems and products up to the expectations of the customers and they should work on the strategy to develop the products with competitive advantage in their mind the product should be of the nature that provide better features to the customers than the competitors just like Sony did with their mobile phones when Samsung introduce a 8 mega pixel camera Sony Ericson introduce a mobile phone with 12 mega pixel camera and also it has introduce smart phones for the customers as well which are widely used all over the world this strategy should be continued by Sony. stool Better Market-Sony privations to understand that it has to not only note its current position in the market but also dilate its share in the market as Finlay (2000 p11) suggest that organization transfer itself and the products and services it offers in order to match the needs of customers in its elect marketplace which is a market-based approach, so called because the organization looks to the marketplace to see how it should act and how it should evolve. Besides, based on the environmental factors, Mintzberg et al (1998) developed the environmental schoolhouse which argue people in strategic management must(prenominal) consider the range of decisional powers available, given the forces and demands of the external context. Sony insufficient in responding to the external market had caused them to lost ground in key growing areas and their strategy must be able to cope with the external environment.SWOT Analysis- deck up analysis provide and wider picture to the company about its current strengths and weakness which relates to the internal environment of the company and give a better rationality that what is required to be done and with the analysis of the external environment of the company it helps in indentify what are the opportunities and threats available to the company and how they can be use for the betterment of the company.By using swot analysis the following cause been identified.Strengths-Sony has the following strengths,Sony has a strong brand name which is globally recognisable.Sony develop the products which are future base which attract more customers to buy the products thus increase in sale.Sony has strong customers based who use Sonys products all the time from music systems to mobile phones.They have top level management and technological chairman now which can guide the company towards success in the future.Sony has always been consider the leader in technology and set up the products in the past which have attract many customers to the company.They have motivated lag which works for them all the time to develop new products and improve the current one the company is offering.Weaknesses-Just like the strengths Sony has the following weaknesses which needs to be outdo to made the company more profitable,Sony has shown in the past the company is inapposite in its planning and do not do anything to harness the competitors products.The company has been subject to many capitals structuring in the past.The industry is rapid in nature and can change at any moment.The management has been inconsistent as well.Opportunities-Its a rapidly growing industry which means Sony has changes to grow much further in the indu stry.Sony has the team to develop new products and update their existing ones as well to capture more share of the market.They have a strong customer based all over the world which means Sony can increase it sell in all over the world if they overcome their weaknesses.Threats-Just like Sony the competitors in the market are also well establish and have strong customer based in order to get the customers from them Sony has to improve its product much more.With the losses the company suffer for the last few years may cause the investors think twice before investing into Sonys new projects.The world of technology is always changing which means Sony has to work on developing futurist products and keep on updating the old one to meet the customers demand and to survive in the market.Recommendations for Sony-As it can be seen from the past and present of Sonys that the company emphasis more on developing the products and not on going head to head with the emulation which result in the c ompetition getting the most of the market while Sony has the technology the company need of strategic planning and more over lack of control over the activities result in the company losing its customers due to the controversies from the sue on batteries to customers blaming Sony to promoting netmail mails using the play station website.All this effected the reputation of the company now Sony needs to rebuild the reputation by not only doing what they do best which is providing the customers the best products in term of technology but also they need to build a strategic plan to overcome all the obstacles the company face in the past.Sony now needs to employ a team of managers who can look after their business well and also needs to monitor and control their performances as it was the bad management decision which affected the company and the company should made all their plan with keeping the future in mind in short the company needs to work with consistency in their operation and should also need to have a backup plan just in example the first plan fail for example when the company was sued for the batteries mistake Sony should have tested the batteries fully and as it was reported that the company was aware of the fault in batteries than Sony should have tested the batteries properly and should have look for ways to overcome that fault same goes with the home theatre system Sony should have come up with a way to compete with it instead of just leaving the way it was, this were the faults or mistake which result in Sonys strategic failure and in order to build the company position more strong this faults should not be repeated and all the plan should be made after going through with every details about them and any fault should be identified and ratify at the sign stage and in the same manner every move of the competitors should be though about and a counter plan should be found for it by doing this Sony can not only captured more market but can also be the market leader.Sources-Bowman, C. 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