Sony Strives for Original Design
February 22, 2006 | Levent OZLER
Ever since former Chairman and Chief Executive Norio Ohga formed the company's first design team in 1961, Sony has given geeky gadgets -- from robot pets to video-game consoles -- a familiar cutting-edge coolness.
Just pick up any Sony gizmo, and you'll see why the brand has so much cachet worldwide.
But lately the competition has been whittling down Sony's edge.
Plenty of onetime tech upstarts, from Samsung Electronics of Korea to China's Lenovo, have taken note of Sony's success and sought to copy it by setting up their own design shops.
PC heavyweights such as Apple Computer are moving in as well: Since its debut in 2001, the iPod has far outsold Sony's Walkman in Japan, beating the electronics giant at its own game.
These days, Sony designers aren't just eyeing the competition.
They have had to cope with an internal organization in flux ever since last year's management shakeup, which was aimed at reinvigorating Sony's loss-making electronics division.
The task of keeping the creative juices flowing falls partly on Takashi Ashida, 40.
As the Creative Center's top strategist, he keeps tabs on a staff of 400, sprinkled across three continents -- in Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Singapore, and, most recently, Shanghai.
As Ashida puts it, designing is about "being original, not a copy."
more: businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2006/id200602 (239)
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