The key to success in business, science, technology and, in fact, everything, is never to follow others.

Innovation has been the cornerstone of Japanese legend Masaru Ibuka’s business philosophy. Starting from a small radio-repair unit in a bombed-out store in post-war Tokyo, he and his lifelong business partner Akio Morita built a staggering business empire straddling all seven continents.

Right from its early days, Sony, as the company came to be called, continued to shock and surprise the world by coming out with one innovative product after the other: commercially successful transistor radio when even the inventors of the transistor didn’t think of its use beyond creating hearing aids; a colour TV that redefined entertainment; the ‘Walkman’, a new market phenomenon, that got the young generation all excited and revved up. All these in addition to a vast variety of products that became the gold standard for the industry!

Drawing on the vision of the founders, Sony has fortified their business unimaginably—with gaming PlayStations, blockbuster Hollywood movies, hit music albums and critical components for futuristic technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence.



This book is as much a tribute to the Sony founders, as it is to the dynamism and spiritedness of their successors who are proud to carry their legacy and innovations forward.