At the Corporate Strategy Meeting held in the first fiscal year I became President, I discussed management with a long-term view, a lesson I learned from one of our founders, Akio Morita, who would have been 100 years old this year.
Looking back over the past three years, my most important achievement has been to define Sony's reason for being, or our Purpose, and to ensure that it has become a part of our corporate culture. I think Sonyʼs 110,000 employees have realized the social significance of filling the world with emotion (or Kando), especially during the COVID-19 pandemic which has persisted since last year.
Today, I will discuss our corporate strategy as a creative entertainment company around the axis of our Purpose. But first, please watch this video that introduces our Purpose and our diverse businesses.
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Today, I will talk about these three things.
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1. Review of History
The axis of Sonyʼs management is Kando and the subject of Kando is people. There have been no changes to these since 2012, when my predecessor, Kazuo Hirai, established the 1st Mid-Range Plan.
I want to look back on the past nine years during which Sony has been operating with Kando as our axis.
When I reflect on the important steps we took since 2012, I think the following three are the most important, and were undertaken in the order I will introduce them. It was in December 2013, when I returned to Sony from So-net Corporation with CFO Totoki.
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First, in our branded hardware business, we implemented structural reform that liberated us from a loss-making paradigm, and we focused on premium products without pursuing scale.
Structural reform was carried out at headquarters at the same time, and the actions we took in 2014 were a turning point. Suspending Sonyʼs payment of dividends to our shareholders accelerated structural reform at headquarters and increased the conviction of the employees involved in the structural reform of electronics. The speed of information flow and decision-making has increased since headquarters has slimmed down.
As the results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 show, branded hardware business has become a business that generates stable cash flow. Nevertheless, the operating environment is changing quickly, and it is important that our management of this business constantly evolve with it.
In that sense, the recording of a profit in the mobile business, with its wireless communication technologies such as 5G, is an achievement that will have implications for the future.
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Sony Group Corporation published this content on 26 May 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 26 May 2021 02:04:05 UTC.
Sony Group Corporation (formerly Sony Corporation) is a world leader in designing, manufacturing, and selling electronics and entertainment products. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- game sales (28.9%): game consoles, softwares and consumables;
- sale of multimedia products (21.1%): televisions (37.3% of sales), mobile telecommunications equipment (18.8%), still and video cameras (17.7%), audio and video equipment (16.5%) and other (9.7%);
- music production and distribution (10.3%; Sony Music Entertainment);
- sale of imaging and sensing solutions (10.4%);
- cinematography production and distribution and TV broadcasting (8.4%): operating primarily on behalf of Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures;
- other (2.4%).
The remaining sales (18.5%) are from financial services.
Net sales break down geographically as follows: Japan (32.9%), China (8.5%), Asia/Pacific (9.6%), the United States (23.9%), Europe (20.2%) and other (4.9%).
SONY GROUP CORPORATION 
