On June 7, according to Jiji News Agency, Bloomberg and other news quoted by Jiemian, Sony Corporation issued a statement via email that Nobuyuki Idei, the former CEO of Sony Group, died of liver failure on June 2 at the age of 84.
Nobuyuki Idei is a legendary figure in the Japanese business world, as well as a controversial figure.He was not only named Asia's most powerful manager by Fortune magazine, but also the worst manager by Business Week.
He served as CEO of Sony from April 1995 to June 2005, and once led 160,000 Sony employees to create a turnover of 7.5 trillion yen, which once brought the glory of the Sony empire to its peak.In the later period of his tenure, Sony fell into a crisis due to decision-making mistakes, which triggered a sell-off in the stocks of Japanese high-tech companies. Therefore, some people believe that Nobuyuki Idei is mainly responsible for the subsequent decline of Sony.
Even so, Idei Nobuyuki's management approach still has something to learn from.In a statement, current Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said: "I personally worked under Mr. Nobuyuki Idei as General Manager of the CEO Strategy Office for two years from 1998. The experience and learning there was a turning point in my career and life. In many ways it is directly related to my management of Sony today."
In October 2018, President Wu Ting, the founder of Guest Business School, led the students of Guest Business School to travel east to Japan to learn the ideas and gameplay of new retail and new business from Japanese companies.During the trip to Japan, President Wu Ting had a dialogue with Mr. Nobuyuki Idei on business-related topics.
No matter what kind of controversy Mr. Idei has endured, for us, he and Sony are the most direct witnesses of Japan's "lost 30 years", and their experiences and experiences are worth learning from.The deceased has passed away. We republish this old dialogue 4 years ago to commemorate Mr. Nobuyuki Idei, and hope that Mr. Nobuyuki Idei's business thinking can be passed down to bring inspiration and help to future generations.
1. China is facing the same problems that Japan once faced
Wu Ting:Looking back at the history of China, Japan, and South Korea in East Asia, we have many similar development lines. From the current point of view, there are also similarities in the Chinese and Japanese economies in recent decades. How do you view the comparison between the two?
Nobuyuki Idei:From 1639 to 1854, we were in the Edo period, a time when Japan was once closed to the country.Although it is closed to the world, it only has certain exchanges with China and South Korea.
After the Meiji Restoration, the era of lock-down came to an end.After the post-war period of economic growth, until the age of security information.From 200 years, 100 years, and 50 years, the time for paradigm shift and change is getting shorter and shorter.China will definitely be faster, probably around 1.5 times the speed.
Wu Ting:From the current point of view, is there anything that Japan has experienced in China's economic situation?
Nobuyuki Idei:Sony has also experienced the trade war between Japan and the United States. China may be experiencing this now. From 1970 to 1980, Japan achieved a leap-forward development. For example, there is a book like "Japan is the first".After Sony bought Columbia Pictures, there was talk of Japan encroaching on Hollywood.
From 1970 to 1980, the United States felt that it imported too much from Japan, which is very similar to the relationship between China and the United States now.Then the United States began to promote the appreciation of the yen. At the beginning, 1 US dollar could be exchanged for 380 yen, and later it became 1 US dollar to be exchanged for 100 yen.Whether the United States can take the same measures against China is uncertain.
2. Japan missed the huge opportunity of the Internet
Wu Ting:In addition to the external environment, is there anything that can inspire China from the subsequent development of Japan's economy?
Nobuyuki Idei:Since 1990, it has been called Japan's lost 20 years. Maybe we have to say it lost 30 years now.Instead, China has had an industrial revolution, digitization, and the Internet since 1990, all three revolutions going on at the same time.The same is true for the United States. In the past 25 years or so, both the United States and China have achieved great development.
Before I became the president of Sony, I felt the development of the Internet in the United States in 1994, and I reported to Sony internally that if Sony did not make changes, the company might not be able to do it.I once said that theInternet is a giant meteorite that fell to the earth.Meteorites fell, dinosaurs went extinct, and mammals appeared.
It now appears that 1995 saw the emergence of very large companies through the digital revolution, and many of them in the United States and China.There are China's Alibaba and Tencent, which are all companies that have grown up using the Internet.The world has changed a lot like this.Through the emergence of the Internet, the fastest growing enterprises may be the platform companies.
Wu Ting:What core advantages do Chinese companies have established in this Internet revolution?
Nobuyuki Idei:Companies like Alibaba can obtain data among customers, and then do BtoB. It is a company that acts as a catalyst among customers.
Between customers, and then go to the platform to obtain data, the United States has companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, and then China is mainly Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu.Japan lacks such companies.
Wu Ting:You mentioned just now that the development is accelerating. In the past few years, under the strong development momentum of the Internet, the emergence of unicorns has indeed been very fast. From your perspective, which field will see relatively big changes next?
Nobuyuki Idei:I just mentioned that personal information in China is now controlled by networks such as Alibaba and Tencent, and not only information, but also capital flows.If you use Alibaba now, you may not need a bank, and even the Chinese don’t need cash anymore.
The biggest headache in this process should be the bank, and now the most likely change in China is the banking and finance industry.But there are still many variables. For example, we still don’t know what role these giant companies will play in the future, and what will be changed by the emergence of blockchain. Banks are state-owned enterprises. What kind of restrictions to make.
3. Chinese enterprises need to be three-dimensional rather than diversified
Wu Ting:You served as the president of Sony from 1995 to 2005. In the past ten years, you implemented a diversified strategy. Sony entered a period of rapid development. Now some people have different views on this step of Sony. You are now Do you think diversity has any effect on the business?
Nobuyuki Idei:After I joined Sony, Sony has grown about 1,000 times.The main reasons for such a big development are these three, one is the development of semiconductors, the other is the global acquisition of some American companies, and the third is the diversification of business.
Many people may think that Sony is a company that produces hardware for TVs and Walkmans. In fact, they only account for less than 40% of Sony's (sales), so Sony itself has achieved a big change.
For these changes,the word I actually want to use is not diversification, but three-dimensionalization. If you buy a business that is completely unrelated to you, then the company will become a financial company if you are not careful, and it will become a company invested by a fund. .
Wu Ting:Three-dimensionalization and diversification, can you elaborate on the difference between these two concepts?
Nobuyuki Idei:This may have something to do with the company's vision.For example, Sony, when it makes audio, listens to it with the ears, then makes display products, sees it with the eyes, and then makes entertainment, it is experienced and experienced with the heart.Sony is actually such a company that makes people's lives more interesting. Sony's corporate vision, in fact, has remained consistent from the past to the present.
Wu Ting:I would like to ask Mr. Nobuyuki Idei how he thinks about diversity and focus?What stage of a company's development is more suitable for diversification, and what stage should it focus on?
Nobuyuki Idei:Taking Sony as an example, it changed its name to SONY. In fact, its initial opportunity was to achieve internationalization.For example, it bought some movie companies and some music companies in the United States because it felt that if it only made hardware, it would definitely not keep up with the trend of the times in the future, so it just saw its own future, so it decided to go do such a development.
No matter how big or small a company is, it has its own vision and social contribution it wants to make. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively consider these aspects, not from its scale, when it should achieve three-dimensional diversification.
