Chapter 2 of Sony's story

Management Article 2

Chapter 2

If you leave all the things that require brains to the management personnel, a company will not succeed. Everyone in the company must make their own contributions, while the contribution of grassroots employees is not only manual work. We insist on making all employees contribute their own wisdom. At present, each employee in our company provides an average of eight suggestions a year, most of which are related to reducing their labor or improving reliability and efficiency. Some people in the west laugh at this suggestion system, saying it is forcing employees to repeat some obvious things or demonstrating a lack of managers. This attitude shows that they lack understanding. We didn't force employees to make suggestions. We took these suggestions seriously and put the best of them into practice. Because most of the suggestions are directly related to the work of employees, we find these suggestions are very appropriate and useful. In short, in addition to those who do these jobs, who can give us better advice to organize these jobs?
I think of the dispute between me and chairman Tian Dao over different opinions and conflicts. If we do what our superiors do, there will be no progress in the world. I always tell employees that they don't have to worry too much about their superiors. I said, "Don't wait for the above command to move forward ." I told managers that it is an important factor to mobilize lower-level abilities and creativity. Young people are flexible and creative, so managers should not impose their opinions on them in advance, because in this way, their creative buds may be ruined before they are open.
In Japan, it takes a long time for the workers to create a self-motivated environment, where young people play a real role. When managers know that the company's common business is completed by energetic and enthusiastic young employees, they can devote all their time to planning the future of the company. With this in mind, it is unwise and unnecessary to assign personal responsibilities too clearly, because we educate everyone to be ready to do what they need, just like their families. If something is wrong and the manager wants to hold people accountable, it will be terrible. This method seems stupid or dangerous, but we think it makes sense. From my point of view, it is important not to find the responsible person for the error, but to find the cause of the error.
The American director of a joint venture in Tokyo once complained to me that he could not find the person in charge of the accident in their company. He asked me, no matter how hard he works, he cannot find anyone who is doing bad things. I explained to him that their company's achievements are based on the fact that everyone acknowledges their responsibility for the accident, therefore, putting the responsibility on a person may damage the morale of all people. We all may make mistakes. Jing Shen and I have made mistakes. We made a loss on the chromatron imaging system and failed on large wide-Boxed recording tapes, even though it was more fidelity than the 1st/2nd standard tape on the market. We should have sought more companies to join our "family" to support the Betamax standard. Our opponent did this in terms of the VHS standard. As a result, more companies have adopted their standard, although our quality is better. (Since then, we have won the approval of many large companies for our new 8mm video tapes and 3.5 inch high-density computer floppy disk standards at home and abroad .) As I said earlier, the decision to withdraw from the calculator industry slowed down our development in digital technology.
However, it should be pointed out that these errors and miscalculation are normal behaviors of people. From a long-term perspective, they do not harm the company. I don't care about taking responsibility for every management decision I make. If a person is marked for making a mistake and then driven out of the "sequence of years" (a Japanese wage-based system-the translator ), he will lose his initiative in other jobs, which will lead to the loss of the company's possible achievements in the future. On the other hand, if you find out the cause of the error and publish it to the public, the person who makes the mistake will not forget it, and others will not make the same mistake again. I always say to our people, "move forward and do what you think is right. If you make a mistake, you can learn the lesson. Just don't make the same mistake again ."
I told my American friend that even if you find someone responsible for the mistake, this person has been working in the company for a while, if you replace this person with someone else, it will not be able to compensate for his loss of knowledge and experience. I also said that if this person is a newbie, it should not be dismissed for the negligence of a child. What's more important is how to identify the cause of the error and avoid further troubles in the future. If we explain in advance the cause of the error does not affect the future of the individual, but aims to give everyone a warning, the result will become a valuable lesson, not a loss. During my years in business, I remember that I rarely dismissed my employees due to negligence.
We urgently needed a large number of people to establish a sales organization shortly after the establishment of an American company, because the business was doing well and the development was very fast. Some of the new employees are good, but some of them, we realized we shouldn't have recruited them. I was annoyed by a person who had made a lot of trouble and was always worried about him. Finally, I spoke to my American colleague about him and asked, "What about this guy ?" They all looked at me, as if I had a mental problem. They said, "of course, I fired him ." I was shocked by this idea. I have never fired anyone, but I have never thought of this person. However, the US system uses dismissal to solve such problems. This looks clear, straightforward, and logical. I started to think that the United States is really a paradise for managers. You can do whatever you want. A few months later, I saw the other side of the incident.
We have a regional sales manager who looks very promising, So that I want him to expand his scope, go to Tokyo to get to know colleagues in the Department, and get familiar with our business philosophy and organizational spirit. He worked very well and impressed everyone in Tokyo. When he returned to the United States, he continued to work and everyone was happy with him. One day, without prior notice, he went to my office and said, "Mr. shengtian, thank you very much for your cultivation, but I am leaving." I can't believe my ears. But this is not a joke. A competitor offered two or three times the salary, and he felt he could not refuse. I realized that this was the American way. I was embarrassed and sad about it. To be honest, I really didn't know how to do it well. A few months later, I attended an electronic exhibition and the traitor stood at the booth of our competitor. I think we should shy away from each other, but he didn't hide from me. Instead, he ran to say hello to me and talked with me. It seemed that there was no shame at all. He enthusiastically introduced me to people around him and showed me his new products, as if we had never had any problem with loyalty. At that time, I realized that under the U.S. system, he had no fault with our market information and company secrets. Obviously, such things happen every day, so it is far from a management paradise. I swear that our company must do everything we can to avoid such American management skills.
I also found that it was shocking to cut workers when Western managers were in a slump, because in Japan, we would not do this unless we were exhausted. Due to the oil embargo, and our crude oil was completely dependent on imports, Japan was once affected. From 1973 to 1974, the inflation rate was as high as 25%. Some companies could not continue to operate, so they had to let their employees go home. But these people don't want to see their company in trouble, but they sit at home, so they gradually return to the company, clean, trim the grass, and do some chores with their obligation. An electrical product company has employees go to a local electrical store to help retailers who encounter difficulties and act as free salesmen. This kind of thing is not from managers, but from the consciousness of the workers who closely connect their work with the fate of the company. I have also heard of such a story. a cut-down worker in Osaka told reporters that his wife was ashamed of him when he returned to the factory. She said: "How can you sit at home and have nothing to do with your company's troubles."
Of course not always. In the Meiji Era, financial valves were the country's economic rulers, and any attempt by a Labor Organization was regarded as radical or even worse. Communism was illegal at the time. There is no real democracy before the war. Coal Miners and factory workers are exploited. The permanent employment at that time was only a one-way street, that is, requiring the workers to be loyal and obey a master. However, the employer can fire any worker at will. Some people will be fired on the spot. There is also a notorious apprenticeship system, which is little known among young people today. When an apprentice acts for the boss, he has to work for several years first. This is called "courtesy service ". They need to work for 10 to 12 hours a day, with an average of only one to two days of rest in a month. The war has just ended and the new free labor law has taken effect. Many bosses worry that this law will destroy Japanese industry. Although the failure to expel employees seems dangerous, Japanese operators have improved the situation through a period of effort. They have taken a way to promote the concept of family. They have made innovations in turning bad things into good things. These things are novel and persistent. The management method has also changed. Now there is no money valve, and the family property has actually been eliminated, and everyone has become a worker.
In any case, we are lucky that after the war, the new concept of workers has been imposed on us, western countries have not fully learned this concept after decades of exploitation and debate on workers.
Of course, in the past difficult times, not all the bosses were scammers. However, the old style of parental style is different from the equality system currently in the same boat. I really don't understand the benefits of expelling people. If the operator assumes risks and responsibilities when hiring people, he must continue to take charge of making these people continue to work. In this decision, employees do not assume their initial responsibilities. Why should they be dismissed by the operator in the event of a slump? As a result, we are very cautious about increasing our staff when we are thriving. Once we hire new people, we always try to make them understand the concept of working together in the same boat and let them know that in a downturn, the company would rather sacrifice profits than lay off employees. Their wages and bonuses must also be sacrificed, because we have to work together. They also know that managers have not swallowed a large amount of bonuses. In our system, only workers have bonuses. As I have said before, managers cannot enjoy the compensation for the withdrawal of their jobs, however, we can only get a permanent guarantee of lifetime employment and constructive work. When the company encounters troubles, the top managers deduct their salaries first than the lower-level employees.
I do not like to make my managers think that they are special characters God has chosen to lead fools to accomplish miracles. Business Affairs have their own characteristics. For example, in the world of art, if you are not an outstanding person, you will not be considered an artist. No one would listen to them playing the piano if haroviz, kenpuff and sekin were not good performers. It is no exaggeration to say that the same is true for people or high-altitude performers who walk steel wires in the tech troupe. They all have long-term hard training, so they are very skilled. Most importantly, they know that any mistakes are exposed to the audience and may destroy their careers. This is a matter of life and death for the acrobatics.
However, there is one thing worth noting in management. A manager can make mistakes year after year, but no one knows. That is to say, management can be a vague task. Harvard Business School and others have done a lot of work, and there are more and more people getting a Higher Diploma in Business Management. However, even so, management is still an unpredictable industry, it cannot be determined by the bottom line of the next quarter. When the bottom line is reached, managers can still be calm, but at the same time, the company collapsed due to the inability to invest in the future. When measuring a manager, I want to see whether the manager can organize a large number of employees, how to make full use of the role of each person, and how to make them cooperate with each other. This is management. No matter which line you create, it does not start from the bottom line of the black and red line on the balance sheet. Recently, I said to my managers, "don't tell employees that you are an artist. You can perform wonderful shows on a high wire by yourself. To show them how you try to attract a large number of people to follow you with sincerity and enthusiastically contribute to the success of the company ." If you can do this, you don't have to worry about the bottom line.
The management style is diversified. Some people work well on their own but cannot adapt to other methods. For example, from 1972 to 1978, Sony's US company was led by Harvey schönne. Due to his management, our business in the United States was booming. His method is not Japanese-style, but is built on the true, hard-working, straightforward, and clear logic. I negotiated with him to establish a CBS (CBS radio-translator)-Sony joint venture, and was impressed with him at the time, this is probably because of his style. However, in a logical game, there is little room for human factors.
Despite Tom. watson adopted the same people-oriented approach as ours to make IBM grow into an industrial giant, but our old-fashioned family companies are still few in the United States, and they are all small firms. Xie does not believe that this management approach will help extend Sony's U.S. company. We have discussed this for many times and he was approved by me to reform the company. I think this is a meaningful and reasonable attempt. He has done a great job in the United States. He adopted the old and new changes to the upper-level leadership team, and established a budget system to strictly control each project's finance. He even took the economy class on a plane trip in China. As long as it is related to profit, he has to consider expenses for everything. No one can compare it with him.
In 1975, we are preparing to launch the betamax video series, which is expected to become our cash tree. I have imagined a huge domestic advertising campaign and promotion campaigns that will be put into practice at any cost. I feel like this. The Home Box recorder that debuted for the first time needs to be introduced to users through a grand promotion campaign because it is a brand new product, let people see that they can use this product in their daily lives. It can become an asset, not just a toy. However, the president of Sony's U.S. company (Sonam) frowned upon the huge overhead. He said that if he spent so much money on promotion and the result was not sold, the loss would be too great. I told him over and over again: "Harvey, you have to consider the benefits you will receive over the next five or even ten years, not just the immediate benefits ." He has his own launch method. They also think they are satisfied, but I am not.
As the launch date approaches, I began to worry about what the launch activities will look like and how much influence it will have? The more I know about the situation, the more worried I am. This launch method is not impressive enough for a brand new product of pioneering nature. I lived in a light villa with my family that summer, but I couldn't worry about Betamax's launch. I hope it will become a refreshing launch activity and seize the imagination of Americans to show them how this machine will change their lives, as I know it can do. I lost my sleep that night, and I couldn't sleep when I was in bed.
Finally, I couldn't help it anymore. In the middle of the night, I called Harvey. He is in a meeting in New York. I called him out and shouted to him: "If you don't spend $1 millions or 2 millions for Betamax promotions in the next two months, I will fire you !" I have never had such a bad temper before, and he has never heard of me shouting like this. I feel a little relaxed.
He spent the money and Betamax was able to roll out smoothly. However, I found that the Sonam people used the method of digging the east wall to make up the west wall. They borrowed other expenses, so the total advertising fee remains unchanged. They cut sales promotion fees for the popular audio and TV products.
If the promotion fee is not reduced because of the launch of Betamax, these products may be more prosperous, but who knows?
In the early days, under Harvey's leadership, the problem with the US Management Mode in Sonam operations was that it was always profit-oriented. I don't think profits are always high, because in Japanese companies, shareholders don't want To immediately pay dividends, and they want to see long-term growth and value-added. We can get reliable preferential rate loans from banks. Of course, we need to make profits, but we must make long-term profits, rather than short-term profits. That is to say, we must keep investing in research, development, and services, sony has been using 6% of sales in these areas.
It is often said that the service is a mess. Once this theory stops, the service quality will seriously decline. The inventory of parts means that the inventory increases, that is, the loss of interest. According to the logic of Harvard Business School, what measures should be taken to reduce the inventory of service parts. When we plan to open a large service center in Kansas City and build a complete service network, I spent a lot of effort to explain this is a good idea and necessary measure to Sonam managers. I have been arguing with other people over and over again. My argument is this: if you save your money, instead of making another investment, you can earn profits in the short term, but in fact, this is just to redeem cash from the assets created in the past. Profit acquisition is important, but investment must be made again to create new assets for profit in the future.
Everything in today's electronic industry is changing rapidly. In fact, there is only one thing we dare to affirm, that is, this industry will never stagnate. Competition among Japanese companies is fierce. We have moved from tape recorders to tape recorders and CDs, from electronic tubes to transistors, semiconductors, integrated circuits, and ultra-large integrated circuits. In the future, we want to develop biochips. One day, this rapid technological advances will allow people to possess advanced equipment that they cannot imagine at home. The future is encouraging.
It sounds a little strange, but I understand this truth. If your sales organization has too much power, they may become the enemy of this kind of innovation, because such sales organizations tend to fill in cold water for innovation. To produce innovative new products, sales personnel must be re-trained for new products so that they can educate the public and sell new products to them. This is expensive, and it means investing enough money in research, design, new devices, advertising, and promotions. The negative attitude of the sales organization may also turn some popular and profitable products into waste, because the product can obtain the maximum profit only when the development cost can be paid back and the salesman is easy to sell.
However, if you are just a profit fan, you will not be able to see any opportunities in the future. When compensation and profits are bundled together, for example, in most companies in the United States, managers often say, "Do I have to sacrifice the existing profits to take over from me in a few years?" In the United States and Europe, managers often give up promising products because development costs seem too high. This is short-sighted and results in the loss of the company's competitiveness.
Sometimes sales people should leave in front of the public rather than guide them. When we first launched the U-matic black and white video recorder, we almost immediately got orders for 5000 units from a distributor in the United States. I told him that according to the current market situation, this order seems too big. There are not many people who are prepared to buy such machines. I said that a lot of education is needed to deal with innovative products like U-matic. Before you want to succeed in the market, you must do a good job in the customer base. One of the prestigious Japanese gardening technologies is that before transplanting a tree, you must bend its roots slowly, carefully, and at in a period of time, prepare for a big change in the tree. This process is called "Qu gen", which consumes both time and patience. But if it is done well, a healthy transplanting tree can be obtained. It is equally important to advertise and promote a brand new and creative product. Since the early U-matic video recorder had little effort and the American public did not know about the new product, retailers could not sell it. Next, out of frustration during the failure, the distributor adopted what we think is the worst: discount sale. This method reduces our value.
It is often said that I am too impatient and impatient. My colleagues in the New York office gave me a red-colored fire helmet because they said I was always so worried. But I will also use the sixth sense to deal with people and products that may violate the logic. There are some signs that I am right about the immature market for a large number of portable recorders. Advertisements and promotions cannot maintain a bad or out-of-date product for a long time. Home video recorders are the right products and proven to be time-tested products, but their times will come soon.
If I sometimes feel like a product, I believe that I feel the same way to people. I think there are more innovative employees than mediocre ones. They don't always agree with me. Of course this is good. One of the best examples is he dianxiong, who was a young music student in 1947. He raised many bold questions to our sales staff, finally, they brought him to the company to discuss with engineers.
Prior to joining Sony, he offered us consultation on music. He recorded the first tape for us from the Tokyo University of art, the whole symphony orchestra. He personally played a Male Solo in blems's "German ansoul. I tried to win him to join Sony, but he was reluctant. When he was a student, he first came to Sony and argued with me. At that time, he did not know my identity and position. The employees were surprised at his rudeness. When I left the room, he asked them about me. They said: "He is Mr. shengtian, founder of Tokyo Communications Engineering Company ." He later said that he was embarrassed at the time and I was skeptical about it. This will certainly not change his style. He went to Germany to study abroad. We asked him to write a letter to us about the development of the electronics industry. I sent him one of our first battery transistor radios to show off our achievements. We kept in touch while he was studying in Germany, where he played his favorite role, wollum in the "tanning Workshop", "Tang. the title of gvvani, the Earl of armavi at Figaro's wedding. He finally went back to Japan and got married. He held a concert with his wife and pianist Songyuan green. In 1959, I invited him to go to Europe with me to find a new transistor radio agent. The trip was pleasant, but I never talked about it until we boarded a ship from Southampton to New York, I integrated him into a four-day, ten-hour trap, and then I integrated my plan.
During that trip, we walked, SAT, exercised, and talked. Dahe is a burly tall man. His chest is like a beer bucket. His voice is loud. He criticized Sony in a beautiful tone. I am very interested in the problems he pointed out. "Your company is full of engineers," he said without any disguise. "from his tone, I knew his words were not a compliment. "Because these engineers started the company, it is correct from their point of view to continue to manage the company. In the eyes of any outsider, the company is outdated and not well managed ." This is a new point of view, and it is amazing because we still think we are bold and innovative managers. We cannot observe the company from the outside as he does. Maybe we are stuck and will be eliminated ten years after the control. After a long time, he finally said, "Well, you should join our company and become a manager ." I think he fell into my trap. However, he still does not want to leave his job. He said that he needs the freedom of the artist and does not want to be a wage earners. I said he could do his best to work for us, but he could still hold concerts. We had a good discussion about it.
After we went back to Japan, my wife and I went to see his wife, Song Yuan, and asked her to help persuade him to join us. Song Yuan Green is a senior high school student of Liangzi. I really don't know who convinced me that he joined our company and served as the general manager of the professional product department. A year and a half later, he began to take charge of all the operations of home recorders. In 1964, five years after entering the company, he was only 34 years old, but he has become a director, which is unknown in traditional Japanese companies. Despite its criticism of the company, Sony is not stuck in the tradition. At the beginning of his work, he did a lot of nontraditional things, including digging about 40 employees from other companies.
At that time, Sony was very small. We could dig people from other companies, and it had nothing to do. Now we are already a big company, but we are still looking for human resources. On the other hand, this approach makes the original staff of the company lose the opportunity to promote, it will damage their loyalty. When I founded Sony, I found many people from my classmates. This is a traditional way to find people. I even called elementary school students because I knew these people and their families. But a long time ago, my human resources were exhausted and I had to build a new path. When I was working for us in the early days, I also checked the graduate registration forms issued by various schools and marked them on the names of people we might hire.