Sony was once the largest electronics company in the world due to innovations like the Walkman personal music player. However, Sony struggled due to a "Not Invented Here" syndrome where it was reluctant to adopt industry standards it did not create itself. This caused products like the Betamax video format to fail against competitors like VHS. Sony also failed to capitalize on new markets like digital music players, allowing Apple to dominate with the iPod. As a result, Sony's market value declined drastically from $100 billion to $18 billion, and it began losing billions of dollars. Sony's insular culture and failure to adapt to new standards and markets caused it to lose its dominance in the consumer electronics industry.

1. SONY
the problem with

2. SONY were once the
biggest electronics
company in the world

3. Sony.
like.no.other

4. with the walkman
Sony OWNED and
INVENTED the personal
music player market

5. Between 1979 and 1999,
Sony sold… 186 million
units of the cassette tape
Walkman, 46 million
units of the CD Walkman,
and 4.6 million units of
the MD Walkman

6. In 2000, the market
value of Sony was
$100 billion

7. But SONY has a
problem in its
corporate culture

8. NOT
INVENTED
HERE”
“

9. Sony was reluctant
to adopt industry
standards they
didn’t invent: Not
Invented Here
(NIH) Syndrome

10. Sony’s standard for the
home video recorder was
Betamax

11. But Betamax failed in the
consumer market – VHS was
preferred - why?

12. In a rare case of
industry
collaboration, Sony
worked with Philips
to introduce the
Compact Disc in
1983

13. But their own
invention, the
MiniDisc was
another market
failure (e.g. only 4.6
million units of the
MiniDisc Walkman sold)

14. SONY also failed
with DAT (digital
audio tape).
Meanwhile, Philips failed
with DCC (digital
compact cassette)

15. While most camera
manufacturers use
SD storage, Sony
cameras use Sony
Memory Sticks,
which are more
expensive

16. Sony was late to
market with DVD
players and flat-
screen TVs -
because of NIH
syndrome

17. In 2001, Apple
introduced the
Tunes and the iPod

18. Sony had introduced its
own digital music players,
but refused to let them
play MP3 files.

19. Instead, Sony tried to foist
ATRAC audio files on users
– which could only be
bought through SONY.

20. This would be like
Sony, in the 70s,
selling a vinyl record
player that would only
play music from ONE
record label.

21. “defective
by design”

22. Sony’s “intelle©tual
property” lawyers in
its re©ord label
division prevented
the ©onsumer
hardware division
from supporting
MP3

23. When a user of the
Aibo, Sony’s robot
dog, wrote
appli©ations that
would allow the Aibo
to dan©e to musi©,
Sony threatened the
man with a lawsuit.

24. By 2010, Apple
had sold 275
million iPods
(Sony had sold 186
million cassette
Walkmans over 20 years)

25. In 2011 alone,
Apple also sold 72
million iPhones
(Since its launch in 2007,
Apple has sold 250
million iPhone units)

26. 250 million phones
275 million iPods
= 525 million music-
players
This “high-end” music
player market had
once belonged to
Sony.

27. In 2011, Sony’s
market value
had fallen to $18
billion

28. In April 2012, Sony
cut its workforce
by 10,000

29. They had just
announced a
financial LOSS of
$6.36 billion

30. In the four years
to 2012, they
lost ¥919 billion
($9.4 billion)

31. In January 2013,
Sony sold its US
HQ building

32. Not Invented Here
cost Sony its
dominance in the
consumer
electronics market.

33. Sony’s profits
allowed it to expand
into entertainment
(music, films). But
then panic over
illegal downloading
destroyed its core
business.