Chapter 117: Sony's Watch
Shinagawa District, Sony Headquarters Building .
After 33 years of development since its establishment, Sony has grown into a multinational company listed in the United States.
Although it is still far from the behemoth of later generations, Sony's name has now become a synonym for Japanese "technology and innovation" companies.
Hiroshi Ogawa hurried into the Sony Building. When greeted , he simply nodded perfunctorily and went straight to the internal research institute.
When he arrived at the floor of his department, Hiroshi Ogawa first found the director of his technical institute, Heitaro Nakajima.
"Mr. Nakajima, have you heard of Flashman?" As soon as they met, Hiroshi Ogawa couldn't wait to get straight to the point.
"Flashman?" Nakajima Heitaro, who was in his fifties and whose hair was beginning to grow straight, asked in confusion.
"Is this the code name of a new product launched within Sony?"
Hiroshi Ogawa, who was originally in a hurry, suddenly felt a little amused. To be honest, if he had not read the magazine, he would have had similar thoughts when he first heard the name.
After all, a name like Flashman is indeed very much in Sony's naming style. Pressman, Watchman... are all Sony products.
"Mr. Nakajima, look." Hiroshi Ogawa handed the magazine in his hand directly to Heitaro Nakajima.
After taking the magazine and looking at the cover, Nakajima Heitaro's expression began to become serious.
Then, as Hiroshi Ogawa waited quietly, Nakajima Heitaro's expression became increasingly cold as he flipped through a magazine, until in the end, only anger remained.
"This is a shameless imitation, Hayakawa, immediately check the background of Shirakawa Electric. How dare they ignore the existence of Sony.
Also, Mr. Ogawa, as far as you know, how is the market performance of this so-called Flashman?"
Someone from the research institute hurried out to check the details of Shirakawa Electric, while Nakajima Heitaro had already started discussing the market performance of Flashman with Hiroshi Ogawa.
"I don't know the details, but the headphones made by Shirakawa Electric are quite creative. As for this Flashman..."
Hiroshi Ogawa smiled disdainfully, "From the design point of view, it is crude and cannot be compared with our walkman at all. I believe consumers will make a wise choice."
At this moment, Hiroshi Ogawa didn't know that the consumers outside had indeed made a wise choice, and Flashman had already begun to usher in the first wave of big buying.
However, his point of view is consistent with Nakajima Heitaro's judgment of Flashman.
As a technical researcher, he knew that this machine, which was similar to a walkman, was low-end just by looking at its appearance.
The reason why he was angry was because of Shirakawa Electric's shameless imitation. He was not worried about the market performance at all, nor did he think that Flashman would pose a threat to Walkman.
He knew what was going on, and when he saw the title of the magazine in his hand, he even laughed.
A rival of Walkman? Do you think that "Flash" can defeat "Walk" just because it is faster than "Walk"?
Naive
If we just compare who has the better name, whoever has it will win.
What are these technical researchers doing? Just go find a naming guru.
With this mentality, Nakajima Heitaro looked at Flashman in the magazine as if he was looking at a clown.
Soon, Hayakawa, who had just gone out, returned to the laboratory with a stack of information.
"Mr. Nakajima, please take a look. This Shirakawa Electric is a little special."
Hayakawa's expression was a little strange at the moment. It was also the first time he had seen such a strange company.
"Oh~ tell me in detail," Nakajima Heitaro asked while taking the information and looking at it.
"Shirakawa Electric is a company that was just established this year. Its scale... its scale is negligible."
Compared to Sony, Shirakawa Electric is indeed negligible.
"But the most interesting thing is the president of this company." Hayakawa used the word "interesting".
"According to the information I found, this Shirakawa Kaede-san is still a college student from a prestigious private school, Meiji University."
After listening to Hayakawa's introduction, not only Ogawa Hiroshi but also Nakajima Heitaro laughed.
Are today's college students so fearless that they actually ignore the existence of Sony? They really have the spirit of Showa men.
However, this information from Meiji University that Shirakawa Kaede received caught the attention of Nakajima Heitaro.
Why?
Because he himself graduated from Meiji Technical College, and later applied to Tokyo Institute of Technology, and finally came to Sony.
If you count it this way, the other party can still be considered as your junior.
Nakajima Heitaro laughed and shook his head again. He handed the information in his hand to Hayakawa and said, "Report to Mr. Ozone Kozo."
Ozone Kozo is the director of the tape stereo recorder business unit, so it is better to leave these matters to him.
However, Hayakawa did not move. He looked at Nakajima Heitaro and said hesitantly, "Nakajima-san, Ozone-san has gone on vacation."
Nakajima Heitaro paused, then he remembered.
Because he led the development of the walkman, Kozo Ozone has made great contributions to Sony this year.
Sony's top management did not treat him unfairly, in addition to various bonuses.
During Christmas, his whole family was given the special treatment of a fully-expenses-paid vacation to Hawaii, USA.
At this moment, Kozo Ozone is enjoying the sunshine, beauties and bikinis on the Hawaiian beach.
There are no mobile phones now, and it is hard to say how much trouble it will take to contact Ozone Yukizo.
And it doesn't seem to be a wise choice to disturb your boss when he is on vacation, even if he is just a boss in name only.
Thinking of this, Nakajima Heitaro prepared to submit the information to Sony's current vice president Norio Ohga.
But he stopped talking before he could finish his words. Ohga Norio was still in the hospital because of a car accident...
Heitaro Nakajima calculated the time and found that most companies had already closed for the year, including Sony.
He looked at Shirakawa Kaede's information again. Meiji University...
Forget it, Nakajima Heitaro shook his head and returned the information to Hayakawa.
“Transfer this information to the legal department and ask them to send a lawyer’s letter to Shirakawa Electric.
They were warned to stop all production and sales of Flashman within three days and to publicly apologize and pay compensation for their infringement in the media.
In addition, from now on, collect more detailed information about Shirakawa Electric.
Especially for the so-called flashman, you must carefully analyze the other party's infringement.
If the other party has any objections, immediately submit the collected information to the Ministry of Law and contact Mr. Ozone."
"Hai" Hayakawa took the order and went out.
These are all things within the authority of Nakajima Heitaro. As for other actions, it is okay for him to do them given his identity.
But he doesn't want to do unnecessary things. The more he does, the more mistakes he makes, and the less he does, the fewer mistakes he makes.
The internal situation of Sony is not as calm as it seems on the surface. There are many factions among the various departments. It is better to be cautious.
But then again, I haven't been to Meiji for many years.
Today's junior students seem to be more courageous than those who joined the Red Army back then.
