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Module 7 – M7 Assignment 2
IT Strategy Presentation
An IT strategy should create a relationship between the investment in IT and organizational strategies and objectives. IT systems leverage the value of information for an organization and therefore the strategy should demonstrate how technology provides the organization with a value-added service. In this assignment, you will develop an executive summary to show how your strategy will benefit the business goals and objectives of the organization.
Review the work you completed on your LASA 2 assignment delivered in the previous module.
Create an executive summary of your IT strategy. The presentation should be approximately 10–15 minutes and should include the following:
- An overview, at least one slide for each section of your strategy
- A summary of any main conclusions or recommendations made in your IT strategy report
- Specific details from your IT strategy report to highlight or support the summary
Use the notes feature to include detailed speaker’s notes for your presentation.
Develop a 9–10-slide presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M7_A2.ppt.
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Assignment 2 Grading Criteria |
Maximum Points |
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Summarized the problem/topic, findings, and conclusions/recommendations from your IT strategy report (LASA 2). |
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Organized the presentation to include a cohesive introduction, solid transitions, and conclusions. |
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Styled the presentation in a clear, appropriate, and balanced way between text and other visuals. |
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Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. |
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Total: |
Running head: SONY 1
Sony 2
Sony
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Sony
Executive Summary
Sony being a multinational company needs to pursue better IT strategies and planning so that it can staple its authority in the technological industry. It should also consider diversifying its operations and incorporating an efficient Research and Development strategy to come up with the best and most profound technologies in the market both in its software and hardware components. Studying the risks and challenges, the study views that the market is very competitive and the conclusion should be to incorporate a rigid IT strategy that will repel competition from other big players in the market such as Apple and Samsung but its innovation spirit should remain intact.
Business Goals and Objectives
Sony Corporation, one of the largest Japanese conglomerates that have its headquarters in Tokyo is a diversified business that primarily deals with electronics, entertainment and games and is ranked as one of the leading electronic companies in the world. This study will carry out an explicit analysis on this company with the aim of unearthing the business goals for the company in the next two years and some of the IT infrastructure and strategies that have contributed to its immense success.
Specific business goals for the next two years with an explanation of the business’ rationale for the goal
There has been increasing losses in the company in the recent years and Sony has projected to cut over 10000 jobs in order to thwart and mitigate these loses. 2011 for instance the losses had a sharp increase from $2.7billion to $4.6billion.
There are also plans to reduce the number of TV Screens in the next two years. This will give the company the opportunity to focus on other electronic devices for instance games, mobile electronics and digital cameras (Asakura, 2005). The new president and CEO of the company held a press conference recently and reinstated that the most urgent and vital goal for Sony at the moment was to rebuild and grow the electronic business to escalating heights.
Objectives for each business goal that explain what the company needs to do to achieve its goals
There has been raging debate on whether cutting jobs is the most viable solution for averting the losses that are been experienced today since this move may have some undesired consequences in the future. This has triggered controversy across the business circles with some asserting that it may dwindle the investors’ confidence and would also be nerve cracking for anyone who hears the news. Some business however, feel that this is the best move for the company and that it is a necessity today to avoid more losses in the future since it is a crucial and vital decision that ought to be taken for it to survive.
Many still debate over the viability of this objective and whether it will bring a long lasting solution to the predicaments that are currently facing the Sony Corporation but the company firmly believes that the combination of production and cuts is expected to yield more profits for the company in the next two years.
IT Strategies aligned with business goals and objectives
It is the business goal or objective of almost every company to become a major player in the business circles and with an increase in exports, Sony felt the need to establish flexible and independent offices in foreign countries to handle their operations and sales in those countries (Gershon, 2006). As the business became more experienced in the global market it laid more emphasis on licensing and manufacturing abroad but all the factors mentioned herein could not be possible without a rigid IT strategy.
IT strategies for each business goal
Sony’s first IT strategy and globalization plan was the establishment of an IT operation office in America after the official opening of its US offices in 1960. The next few years saw the opening of similar offices in other countries around the world for instance Netherlands, Sony Switzerland, Sony UK and Sony France. During this time the company achieved another first in innovation and production design and unleashed their first video tape recorder, the integrated radio circuit and the transistor.
Recommended strategies that would enable the business goals and objectives to be achieved
For the business objectives to be achieved the leading players in the business arena feel that Sony must learn from the best for it to become the best in the international market. Apple for instance is the leading player in the entertainment industry and the PC industry and Sony must thus copy a leaf from this vastly successful company.
To begin with, Sony must incorporate a distribution platform that would resemble that of Apple since for it to become the most successful company in the tech world it must generate a considerable amount of interest from the developers, consumers and creators of the content something that has been perfected by Apple. The iTunes Market place for instance would act as rigid starting point for this endeavor.
Despite Sony’s impressive User Interface that resulted from the development of the XrossMediabar or commonly known as the PSX, it should rethink its software and user interface plans for the future. Recent years have seen Sony put more emphasis on a touch-based input but this is not the most important need for every consumer at the moment (Asakura, 2005). The company should develop an interface that can present more information and provide more access to the information that is currently in their User Interface.
There is also an indispensable need to develop a platform for first-party applications. These are applications that ought to be felt by the consumers so that they get the value for the products provided by them by the Sony Corporation. For this strategy to be effective the products must be memorable and unique and by creating an application of super quality, earning the consumers respect and loyalty will ultimately be made easier. Sony also needs to up their hardware components so that they can reach or surpass the quality of their greatest competitors for instance Apple and Samsung.
The other strategy would be to consolidate their platforms and current products. Sony should also aim at combining some of their components for instance tablets, netbooks, and smart phones into a unified system which would give a better opportunity to compete with its greatest rivals namely Apple and Samsung.
Some of the most popular Sony products for instance PlayStation Store, Music Unlimited, Qriosity and Reader Store should be integrated into a unified platform for instance iTunes and it has already started doing this by combining Qriosity and Music Unlimited (Gershon, 2006). In addition to providing their developers with a direct way of dealing with their customers, it would also act as rigid ground where they could base all of their hardware.
After sorting the platforms together, Sony could then embark on a process of creating new products and devices to harness the process mentioned before. In addition, it would also be prudent for the Sony Company to develop a flagship device for every product in the market with the most important device at the moment being the Smartphone. If Sony can make this a possibility, then the company would be better placed to compete with the other leading players in the market for instance Apple notebooks, Televisions, tablets, e-readers, tablets and netbooks.
Another strategy that could help it to achieve its organizational goals and needs would be to withdraw its content from the ecosystem of its competitors. This means withdrawing its artists from the popular Apples iTunes marketplace where it has signed some labels in the company.
Withdrawal would ultimately make the company the best player in the market but it would also need the services of some of these competitors for it to staple its position as the leading player in the company. For instance, Sony would still provide some of their services to Apple by either forcing Apple to accept their terms or allowing access to services that have primarily been purchased by Sony but even if they fail in this endeavor, customers would still flock to Sony’s markets to purchase their contents (Gershon, 2011). Despite the recommendation above posing as one of the best case scenarios, it would still be hard to beat Apple and convince customers that their services rank above those of their competitors. Many customers would still extend their loyalty to Apple and abandoning those services and going for Sony would be a herculean task.
The other strategy would be to win the interest of the developers. For Sony to reach the pinnacle of technological stardom, it must enjoy the support of the third-party developers, lack of which may make their endeavors insignificant since some of their greatest competitors for instance Apple, Google and Microsoft would still enjoy the largest share in the market due to their well known innovation and creativity from their experience in the outside world.
Incorporating the iOS technology would be another profound IT technology since it is one of the latest technological platforms that are aimed at seeing how best this technology would be as it provides an application for almost anything that is needed by the consumer. It must align its business and IT strategy with this developer’s enthusiasm for it to staple its authority in an industry that is highly crowded by some of the most leading competitors in the industry for instance Apple.
The strategies mentioned herein should go a long way in ensuring that the company becomes one of the leading players in the market but dethroning some of the most renowned companies such Apple and Google will ultimately be an intricate task that calls for a massive product development and IT strategy for it to achieve its objective.
Organizational design and culture
The Sony Company is mainly made up of five different sections of operations primarily entertainment, electronics, games and financial services. Its structure and design is slightly different from some of its leading competitors for instance General Electric, Google, Apple and Microsoft. It begins with a CEO and Chairman by the name Howard Stringer. Below Stringer, there is a string of other three people namely Ryoji Chubachi who acts as the Vice Chairman of Sony electronics followed closely by the Executive vice chairman who also acts as the general counsel and goes by the name Nicole Seligman (Hoskisson, 2008). The last member in this list is the executive vice president who also acts as the chief financial officer who is known as Nobuyuki Oneda. The group that made the company to succeed in its endless efforts was mainly the business group system.
Ogha, another key player in the company had initially made plans to develop Sony into one of the most advanced companies in the world. Thereafter, the company saw the emergence of another company within the company with the introduction of nineteen groups that were later restructured into other divisional companies of eight that had their own presidents. They are mandated with the task of overseeing what happens and later report back the profits, losses and manage the cash flows that are to be examined (Gershon, 2011). The key goal of the Sony Company is doing this is to make sure that everything in the company is organized and despite the presence of other eight companies, Sony maintained its position as one of the top management. This means that despite the organization design in Sony being a bit complex compared to some of their competitors, it has proved effective and the results have continued to spring every year and can thus be described as one of the most profound organizational design in the world.
Leadership factors
The organizational design depicted above proves that there is both a transformational and a democratic type of leadership in Sony. It is transformational because the company has delegated smaller tasks to other manager so that they can accomplish their goals fast. By actively interacting with the junior leaders and the subordinates, Sony has demonstrated its willingness to serve their employees in a democratic manner and this can be credited for the immense success that has been received by the company throughout the years since its inception.
Business processes and physical layout
Its business process largely involves entertainment and is mostly famous for the popular Play Station console. It has three main business processes mainly the Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc which is a film and television production unit, the Sony Music Entertainment which ranks as the second-largest company for recording and is currently controlled by its branch in America and the Publishing group for ATV Music which is also a recording label (Mintzberg, 2009). Other business processes include Sony Bank, Sony Assurance and Sony Bank Securities. It has international and virtual locations in China, Brazil, India, Singapore, South Korea, Ireland, Thailand, United States, Malaysia and England.
The IT Infrastructure
Hardware
Some of the current IT hardware infrastructures include consumer electronics and videogame technology for instance Televisions, digital cameras, smart phones, and video games.
Software, Network and IT resources
Digital imaging is one of the most commonly used software that acts as one of the three leading pillars in the business (Hoskisson, 2008). The other software commonly used in Sony includes the gaming and mobile technology software that is used to develop the games and program phones respectively.
The internal and external challenges IT faces in meeting the business needs
Some of the challenges that are currently inhibiting its growth include the one hit walkman that took time to develop during the eighties. Despite the resurgent efforts by the company to market and staple its authority in the international market, Matsushita developed a product that was based on Sony’s technology implying that other companies are able to copy Sony’s technology in the shortest time possible and lower prices for their products which has acted as one of the greatest challenges currently facing Sony. The margin for technological advancement is also diminishing with the rise in competition from other large players in the market for instance Samsung which has continuously led the market in innovation and breathtaking technological advancements.
Other challenges that currently face the company include the production, expenditure costs and the returns on investment where capital has continuously risen throughout the years, triggered by the plant automation that started in 1981 (Mintzberg, 2009). This translates to 10% of all the sales which an astonishingly high number as it lowers the profitably.
The risks IT might face when implementing change
Some of the risks that might affect the company include the apparent lack of strategy in its IT initiatives (Hoskisson, 2008). Sony has a rigid marketing, manufacturing and product development strategy but the lack of a long term direction may pose as an obstacle to the effective implementation of the IT strategy mentioned previously in our study.
In conclusion, the study can therefore argue that for Sony to staple its authority in the international market, it must own the software entertainment which will provide leverage for promoting its business. The development of a videogame, film and music software and hardware systems to deliver these software products is expected to continue in the future but the company must integrate its media moving forward with high speed and intelligent networking system, and the internet is expected to play a pivotal role too in this endeavor. The IT strategy mentioned in this study can also act as a platform where Sony can thrust itself into the pinnacle of technological eminence and staple its authority as one of the leading if not the leading players in the technological arena but it will be a complex endeavor battling the vigorous competition that currently exist in the industry.
References
Asakura, P. R. (2005). Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony Play station and the Visionaries Who Conquered the World of Video Games. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Gershon, H. R. (2006). The Transnational media corporation and the economics of global competition, in Global Communication, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Gershon, A. (2011). The Transnational media corporation: Environmental scanning and strategy formulation. Journal of Media Economics 13, 81-101.
Hoskisson, R. (2008). Strategic Management. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing.
Mintzberg, H. (2009). The Structuring of Organizations: A Synthesis of the Research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
