5. Sony in HQ

5. Sony in HQ

VideoCom Products Group

I was transferred to newly created VideoCom Products Group as a department

manager of product planning and strategy. This group was trying to enter

telecommunications market with a very limited technologies and inexperienced

engineers. The target customers are telecom operators and their users but

Sony does not have any sales channel, personal contact, know-how etc.

However, we had a number of prototyped products which we can demonstrate the concept　of the system to telecom operators.

So, we have decided to carry the demo units around the world, such as European telecom operators such as British telecom, Telefonica, Italtel etc, North American telecom operators　such as Pacific Telesys, Ninex, Bell South etc. While we visited these customers we also visited our New York office to demonstrate its capabilities for US top management.

We have learned a lot from these demos and recognized that Sony should look for not only standalone products but to offer them with total solution systems.

I felt that we do not have enough experiences and know-how on Telecommunications industry so we should start area we feel we can produce and slowly expand the business.