Norio Ohga, Who Led Sony Beyond Electronics, Dies at 81

Norio Ohga, one of the leaders of Sony has died. He joined Sony as a full-time employee in 1959.
The cause was multiple organ failure, the company said in a statement.
“Mr. Ohga was the principal architect of Sony’s move beyond its stronghold of sleek consumer electronics gear and into music and movies. The biggest steps came when Sony bought CBS Records for $2 billion in 1988 and, a year later, Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion.”

At the time, when Japan Inc. seemed unstoppable, those acquisitions — along with a Japanese real estate company’s purchase of most of Rockefeller Center — were symbols of Japan’s rising economic power and wealth. There was worried talk of the Japanese commercial “invasion” and the loss of American “cultural assets.”


Mr. Ohga’s vision that drove “Sony’s evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader.” Still, Mr. Ohga wanted to do more than expand Sony’s corporate empire. Linking electronics and entertainment, in his view, would increase the value of each and secure a lucrative future for Sony.



There were good years in Sony’s media because of him. “Sony was a great product company, and Ohga made it better,” said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This is important because without this man and his hard work to Sony many of our modern technologies would not be possible today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/technology/25ohga.html?_r=1&ref=technology