Become a Learning Organization

Sony was founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka (1908-1997) as a small electronics shop in a bomb-damaged department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees. The radios they manufactured at the time were, like most around the world, crafted with vacuum tubes.

The transistor was invented in the early 1950’s. Most electronics makers knew the invention would revolutionize their industry. All knew it would take time to retrofit factories to incorporate the...