Made in Japan

Akio Morita with Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura

Sony shows how a national manufacturing base becomes global cultural power.

Morita built Sony from occupied-Tokyo radio repair into the first Japanese brand the world trusted — and turned down easy licensing money to insist the name Sony appear on every product. The Walkman shipped over the objections of his own market research, which said nobody wanted a player that could not record. The lesson is operational: brand is built by refusing shortcuts, and product conviction outranks surveys.