This study focuses on the organizational structure of the Sony Company and aims to identify, analyze, and evaluate this structure properly. This study gathers information from different academic sources such as journals, books, and business reports, among others. This report includes information that is assisted by proper documentation and proper referencing. Its main objective is to discuss the internal structure of the company and how they execute it. We have detected that this company pursues a particular structural method to exempt itself from the other contemporary global companies and how they have achieved success. This report is going to discuss the technique in detail.
Organizational structure is the most significant factor in accelerating a company’s economic growth. Adopting a specific and unique construction has been Sony’s marketing strategy for the years. Sony has implemented multiple structure methods dividing it among several sectors. While sticking to only one organizing plan would not have contributed much to this company. It has diverged into various segments, and it is most certain business sectors are entertainment, electronics, and the financial industries. Sony maintains only one structure as a whole for the internal section, which is the “hierarchical structure.” Sony’s substantial geographical, functional, and manufacturing factors invest in following this structure. Despite maintaining only one internal structure, Sony supports distinct structures for each of the individual business segments (Munir, 2018).
Sony pursues a typical divisional structure in the electronic segment. The electronic sector consists of various subordinate industries, and as a consequence, it has to follow different other structures. Each of the junior divisions develops individual strategies while the loss in a particular segment will not hamper the profit of the other sector. In the entertainment section, Sony observes the same pattern of the structure as the entertainment section is also a grand one diving into music, audiovisual entertainment, and play station. Again the geographical divisions have impacted applying this type of complex structure. Sony imitates the Matrix structure in the sector of financial services. All the employees of this sector are divided into various teams accordingly. They all are supposed to report to their managers rather than reporting to the central authority (Sony and Naik, 2019). Whatever structure it has adopted, some studies say that Sony now lacks the uniqueness in following a particular structure. It is less flexible while choosing a new structure resulting in being monotonous and losing its market recognition.
Sony is one of the largest South Asian companies that have been leading the global markets while dealing with many products. They deal with entertainment, technology, play stations, audiovisual products, and electronic products. It all started with minimal businesses, and gradually with the help of the founder and the other management personnel, it has now grown into a large company that is known worldwide. The company has faced several crises and challenges, including natural calamities and financial crisis which has left it with a considerable amount of loss. Due to its vast fields of business sectors, this company has stood firm and has attained its target in every critical circumstance. Sony stands out for its unique structure, innovating concepts, and supplying quality products to the customers. Sony has a goal to provide people with different stirring products and stays confident while inducing and as well as fulfilling the dreams of the consumers (Oliinyk et al., 2018).
Leading the global market for more than 60 years, Sony is considered as one of the most promising business companies in the world. The company all started their career with the successful launch of a tape recorder. With the passing of years, it overgrew with the association of the team members. Now it is one of the most renowned companies internationally. It deals with various sectors such as electronic equipment, entertainment, online business, financial industries, and music.
With time, Sony has changed and as well as upgraded the organizational structure to keep pace with the changing world. Internal and external transformation in the formation of a particular company influences it in a manifold way. Sony imitates the most applied structure, the hierarchical structure in its internal organization. In a hierarchical structure, there are some particular groups, and all the employees have only one manager who supervises all of them. This structure works in a top to bottom way. The senior manager decides the solution to every severe issue and then passes the instructions among the subordinate employees. Even personnel from the bottom position can also suggest something which the manager needs to approve first before the implementation. Sony imitates this type of structure in case of a smaller quantity of products that needs to sell in a more significant amount (Strese, 2016).
This way, Sony provides career opportunities to the employees as they can promote to the higher management sectors by hardworking. The decision making is more comfortable as there is only one supreme leader to command. Sony adopts the divisional structure in the entertainment and electronic sectors. This type of structure correlates to functional and geographical factors. Sony’s entertainment and electronic industries have been vast sectors since the beginning, and hence Sony decided to divide them into various smaller units to control smoothly. Now, these sectors are more controllable, contributing to the company’s growth. These sectors have different subordinate areas that make their products with the same brand’s name. Sony has achieved flexibility by dividing these sectors into separate units (Steenkamp, 2017).
Every group has become smaller and is controlled in a more justified way. In these sectors, the demand and supply cycle is higher than anything else. Sony has grouped the employees in various teams, providing them with different responsibilities of product management. Correlation among the groups has helped in achieving the desired result for Sony. However, this divisional structure does not entertain any centralization as most of the issues in the lower levels are solved by the employees of those levels only rather than following the same command of the highest authority (Kodama, 2018).
(Fig.1: Sony Corporation: multi-business strategy, divisional organization structure Source: Sony Group Annual Report 2012)
Sony imitates the matrix structure in the department of financial and insurance. With this mentioned structure, Sony has classified the commercial segment into two or more sub-sectors, such as Sony insurance, Sony banking, and Sony life assurance. The purpose of this classification is to achieve a focused target. This criterion leads this company to respond more simultaneously. It is quite an improved structure which most of the significant business companies follow. Following this structure, Sony has gained more experts in each segment. There is a scope for spreading valuable information among all the levels of the created group. The employees are more prone to accumulate knowledge of the products and thus can develop enhanced coordination with the experts. Maintaining this structure, Sony has delivered high-quality financial services and achieved satisfied customers in the field (Hong, 2018).
Apart from the above mentioned organizational structures, Sony maintains different types of values and principles. Satisfying consumers is one of their most important priorities. The corporate cultures of this company also impact positively in all its entertainment, electronics, and financial sectors. Sony has high competition in the contemporary market and to stand distinguished; Sony has started renovating the structures. Sony claims to enhance its profit margin as put a more improved focus on the sector of electronics. Whenever it decides to innovate a new construction, its prime focus remains on the adaptability of its employees. So, it deliberately merges the organizational structure with the corporate strategies to improve its services and acceptability.
Sony’s capability to distinguish their products from contemporary brands and present them as trustworthy products among the consumers has led to its strength. Sony has shifted its attention mainly to the electronic segment in recent years. The advantage is that the company can stay focused on an individual sector and gain profit from it. Sony’s present strategy is to exclude the weaker segments from the list while focusing on the profitable ones. Moreover, Sony has decentralized the employees in the business sectors. Each employee has received the opportunity to suggest something and thus leading to better strategic plans in the industries. Data from the Sony official source says that even the higher-level manager of the company believes in a stable interaction between the managers and the employees. Sony always believes in investing the right quality products. It also highlights on the promotion and advertisement through online providers. Hence the organizational structure of each of its segments is different from that of the other. However, the success of the structures depends entirely on teamwork (Roukanas and Karakostas, 2019).
Electronics, entertainment, financial services, and in several other segments, Sony has become a renowned company in recent years. The company is striving continuously to improve its skills and technology while renovating the organizational structures. Sony’s focus has remained only on providing superb and trustworthy products and uninterruptable services among its consumers. The company invests much money in the promotion and also in the training session of the employees. Moreover, concentrating on globalization, Sony has applied particular strategies to conserve the environment too. Is has experienced a high fluctuation in the economy, but the deviated marketing plans and approach have helped Sony to turn around. The organizational structure plays a pivotal role in a company’s growth. The distinct structures that Sony has enabled not only enhance the capability of its employees but also invest in their profitability. Sony is a trustworthy brand and to pursue their brand popularity in the upcoming years; they have to come up with more innovative structural plans.
Hong, S., 2018. Financial Situation Assessment of the Sony Corporation.
Kodama, M., 2018. Apple versus Sony: strategy transformation by capabilities congruence through asset orchestration: Driving Congruence in Capabilities. In Sustainable Growth Through Strategic Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Munir, H., Linåker, J., Wnuk, K., Runeson, P., and Regnell, B., 2018. Open innovation using open source tools: A case study at Sony Mobile. Empirical Software Engineering, 23(1), pp.186-223.
Oliinyk, V., Kuzmenko, O., Wiebe, I. and Kuzmenko, S., 2018. Optimal control over the process of innovative product diffusion: the case of Sony Corporation. Economics & Sociology, 11(3), pp.265-285.
Roukanas, S. and Karakostas, E., 2019. Is Japan a Pioneer in High Technology Exports?. Romanian Economic Journal, (73).
Sony, M. and Naik, S., 2019. Key ingredients for evaluating Industry 4.0 readiness for organizations: a literature review. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Steenkamp, J.B., 2017. Global Brand Management. In Global Brand Strategy (pp. 181-208). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Stress, S., Meuer, M.W., Flatten, T.C. and Brettel, M., 2016. Organizational antecedents of cross-functional coopetition: The impact of leadership and organizational structure on cross-functional coopetition. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, pp.42-55.
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