PART 1

The selected company for innovation analysis is Sony. Sony operations were based on innovations that supported marketing and its marketing position to great extent. The reason behind the selection of this organization is that we are able to analyze the organization from two perspectives such as innovations that derived the organization to the top and fall of the organization by continue to pursuing the same strategy of innovation. With the passage of time such innovation capability does not supported the company which can be attributed to number of factors. Since now Sony have passed through phases of pinnacle and fall of its strategy and we in this report will also examining organization with reference to other industry ,a more comprehensive analyses can be developed and more clear picture can be drawn of actual strength of business focus as there will be large real time data available. With ground breaking innovations that lifted the company that enabled the company to establish a dominant position but now the company reside very low in innovation list makes it very interesting case to explore.

PART 2
Sony operational activities were always organized with a focus of innovation, with respect to new product development and adopting new business models. A closer examination of Sony product portfolio will highlight in an appropriate manner various methods and innovation techniques exercise by the firm for serving its customers. There are some important characteristics that are very prominent in Sony management practices and innovation strategies exercised by the firm to serve different markets that highlight the nature of firm strategies very effectively. Sony executes its strategies with a strong focus for anticipation with innovation. For example in order to exploit the digital technology market Sony has developed a concept called digital dreams. This enabled the Sony to highlight requirement and needs of the customers and translate then into unique products. Disruptive product innovation strategy factor is very prominent in Sony innovation strategy as many of its products are developed with this focus. This has significantly altered the product to great extent on one hand where as this has also resulted in end of many established market such as elimination of traditional data storages medium and birth of compact disc technologies (Nazrul & Ozcan, 2011). Seamless connection between content, hardware and technology occupies a very prominent position in corporate strategy. Generating support for its innovation initiatives by establishing effective partnerships is also very important aspect of company strategy. For example numbers of business alliances and partnerships with computer and broad casting companies have supported Sony operations to great extent (The Times 100, n.d) .Due to such alliance Sony was able to pioneer the development of digital formats for audio visual products that surface on market landscape with the development of compact disc technology. The products developed by the company should be in line with Sony video audio integrated operations (VAIO) strategy. The main focus of this strategy is that all products that are provided by the company in the market are not only compatible with each other but that in time can become one.Feautre of connectivity was also brought in many different products for this purpose. Feature of connectivity bring a lot more flexibility as compared to traditional stand alone products. For example Sony digital camcorders have interface that enables the user to directly download images into their personal computers for editing and other pruposes.Sony digital screen television sets have been developed with extra programming features for enhancing the potential of television sets, so customers can enjoy one stop entertain shop.

Structure

The organization structure of Sony has witnessed considerable changes with the passage of time .These changes were result of number of restructuring efforts, increase in size of the organization and products its offered . Until year 1983, Sony was operating with a focus of function specific organization with different departments such as development, manufacturing and sales. With the passage of time as number of product and people increased, Sony resorted to business group system in year 1983 (Indu, n.d, p3).The role of the headquarters and individual business group were defined. The rapid change in technological landscape has compelled Sony to bring fundamental changes in its structure .Sony has resorted to horizontal structure as compared to vertical structure. The main reason behind the selection of this structure for to enhance the organization capability to speed up decision making and organization responsiveness. For this purpose Sony has re organized all its individual product units in order to bring them on a common platform with the use of it infrastructure. Sony product are always developed with as focus of innovation, as the company believed that there is large demand for such type of products and did not paid much attention to market research. The organization faced a major setback in year 1975 with respect to its product of Betamax video cassette, that was especially designed to be used in home video cassette recorder.The betamax technology was not able to establish itself in the market ,the company faced serious resistance from VHS ,which was supported by top studios in the Hollywood. This situation was taken very strongly by the company management. The company now was able to understand the technologies in such types of businesses were largely determined by the owner of the content. Thus the company decided to enter the content development business. In year 1988, for this purpose company acquired CBS Records which was latter named as Sony music entertainment, in coming year Sony also acquired Columbia pictures which was also renamed as Sony pictures. Sony ability to respond to emerging markets has been very strong from its beginning. We will analyze this ability from two perspectives in a two different context. The strong ability of the Sony to respond to emerging markets has enabled Sony to gain a significant position in the market. A closer look at Sony product line, highlight a fact that many of the emerging markets were created by Sony itself .For example product such as walkman, compact disc can be quoted in this context. These products acted as a catalyst for triggering demand that resulted in creation of new markets. Since Sony was the one who created these markets it had inherited first mover advantage in these markets resulting in a strong foothold in these markets. There is another perspective and situation in which emerging markets were created by competitors operating in similar and different industrial sectors. For example products such as Apple I phone such new products and markets put Sony ability to respond to emerging market at test. Analysis of these two situations reflects that Sony was able to respond effectively in market

created by the company products itself as compared to emerging markets that was created through competitors products.

PART 3
Sony mission statement We must seek new approaches to transform our ability to achieve both profitability and sustainable growth.

The theory and practice for building an innovative organization at Sony is achieved by exercise of number of policies and procedures. Sony theory for innovation is focused towards not only common users but as well as non users as well. Sony walkman is a product that is developed with a management practice focus of reaching non consumers as well, thus Sony exercise theory of architecture innovation. Effective team working and boundary spanning are important for effective and responsive working of the modern organization. Theirs is no uniform approach adopted by Sony for

establishing team working activities. Both collective and disjointed approaches are used by Sony to organize team working activities (Oldroyd, 2012). The management also plays a very important role in determining the nature of the approach to be used for organization team works. For example in order to cater to the threat posed by Apple I phone to Sony, disjointed approach was used. For this purpose four different teams were organized that were pursuing four different projects. The company in past organized its operations in divisions that worked in isolation from each other. Such isolated division badly affected team working environment and different division began to develop sense of jealously and were not willing to collaborate. For example walkman and home theatre group was not able to obtain co operation from Sony music and movie groups for establishing digital media storages products. Boundary spanning is seen in Sony however the extent to which it is exercised varies from product to product and department to department. Mostly the focus of boundary spanning is towards obtaining intelligence and detection of first hand information from customers. For example in order to exploit the digital technology market Sony has developed a concept called digital dreams (The Times 100, n.d). This enabled the Sony to highlight requirement and needs of the customers and translate then into unique products. Since the company want to identify the dreams and needs of youth and digitally literate generation of consumers and translate them into unique product that helps to realization of dreams as well as fulfilment of their needs.

PART 4 Core capabilities are set of skills that enable an organization to provide a particular benefit to its customers in which it serves. Sony core capabilities are its ability to perform miniaturization which results in compactness and ease of use. For this purpose Sony ensures that technologist, engineers and marketers possess a share understanding of customer needs and technological possibilities sin this context. Effective controls over company core products have also facilitated company core capabilities of Sony. Since in most case it was pioneer in bringing new products to markets, control over compact disc product category enable the company to control the evolution of optic media storage which help the company not only to keep it core capabilities in line with future products as well as give an opportunity company to enhance its capabilities in that area (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990). The resources for innovation were made available to different products departments within the organization through its core capabilities as well as external resources were also utilized for this purpose. With respect to developing resources of innovation from external three important aspects are very prominent alliance, partnership and collaboration. For example numbers of alliances and partnership with computer and broad casting companies have helped company to develop resources for innovation and also enable the company to maintain its stronghold in both of these markets. This has also helped company first mover advantage in number of markets such as development of digital formats for both audio and visuals products, that was initiated with compact disc development.Colloboration was also utilized for organizing resources for innovation. For example Sony support teams have worked in collaboration with Bethesda in order to bring Sky rim Dawn Guard to PS3 gaming console (Conditt, 2012). Such types of alliance and collaboration have largely helped Sony for increasing their resources for innovation to large extent.

PART 5
It is not possible to apply same innovation strategies of an organization to an organization operating in a different industry sector, since dynamics of every industry is different both organizations will not be facing uniform set of variables for managing its operations .However it is possible to analyze a particular product category that is similar to a product category developed by another organization operating in a different industry sector. Sony from its early days of operations was considered to be an icon that developed its product with a most advanced technology, sophistication as well as desirability. Sony still is in a position that enables it to make extra ordinary products, but the company is not able to produce catalyst and waves in the mind of customers to compel them to buy company products, though size of consumer electronic market is growing rapidly. Sony strategy of innovation that pushed company to top is not supporting the organization any more. Examination of an organization that operates in a different industry sector helps to highlight Sony issues as well as it will help to indicate to what extent comparison can be made for different organization. For this purpose the selected organization is Apple. Apple a renowned manufacturer of IT products that address the needs of diverse group of people. Apple I Phone is considered to be an icon in its product category as it delivers everything right which son has done wrong it its product line. Sony current product line is overcrowded and confusing, whereas as Apple I phone comes in one model and in two colours only but is still largely customizable (Vossoughi, 2012). The software provide a lot more experience as compared to hardware ,thus consumers are not using a product that was design for them in fact they are the one that designing the product. The offering itself is very powerful, as individual whenever download an app or song they are enjoying a customized experience. This highlight an important fact that consumers are more focused towards experience then the product is self, which is the basic issue Sony, is unable to understand. Sony is not able to come out of the strategy hat derived the company towards success, whereas other organizations are getting away from this focus. In early eighties making products that delivers technology in useable form was biggest issue and Sony was very well aware of how do it right. The company was very effective in finding and overcoming the technical roadblock that emerges for producing such technological products. In the era of product oriented economy, this strategy of Sony was very effective .Now the organization are working in an experience oriented economy with .Industries on more focused towards experience perspectives that a user gets when he consumes particular product.Stretegy context becomes more important when examining a particular organization strategy in relevance to other industry, since it context or the way it was implemented is important. Same case can be applied to apple a renowned it product manufacturer and Sony a consumer good giant, having similar products lines developed with different product perspectives.

Conclusions
To conclude, innovation remained a significant part of enterprise that served customers market at different times. Sony operational activities were largely organized with a focus of bringing innovation in its products. Innovations were deeply rooted in its products. This focus and strategy provided a considerable advantage to company for number of years. This strategy can adequately meet the demand of that time in which operations were organized with a product oriented perspective. With the passage of time industry dynamics have changed very rapidly and it was not possible for a firm to operate solely with a single focus such as innovations, a fact that was completely ignored by sony.Now the whole marketing mix have gained a significant importance and have largely altered the orientation with which firm operates. Sony was very effective in finding markets and customers who were still un served, but Sony was not able to develop products that enhances the experiences of users which was very extensively pursued by its competitors. Thus inability of the Sony to shift away from a product oriented focus towards experience oriented products became the main reason for large setback in markets in which it served with such comprehensive ability to bring innovations in products.

References
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