Professor Elam

Younger readers, that would be most of you, may be surprised to learn that Sony was once the electronics giant that everyone else benchmarked. Their Trinitron TV used three instead of one electron gun to produce a superior picture in the late 1960s to early 1970s. US importers were even then so taken with Japanese quality that they feared making the popular set in the US would result in a lesser product. Their Walkman was the first portable music player featuring a casette tape in a portable battery powered unit, they followed that up with a CD portable. But, then they bought a movie studio and then Apple checked the Walkman with the iPod, and others started making flat screen tvs and well….

One of the interesting things about life and business is how leaders lose their way, and that was the case with Sony. Was it buying the movie studio?  Whatever, straying from one's core business is always a mistake.