Idei, Nobuyuki

▪ 2004

      In 2003 Nobuyuki Idei, chairman and CEO of Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp., was in the midst of taking his company through a dramatic transformation. While in the past Sony had earned billions from such stand-alone electronics products as the Walkman and the Camcorder, Idei insisted that the time had come for the company to move firmly into the network age. To that end he had begun shifting Sony's emphasis to the development of an array of interconnected devices and services. A home video recorder that could be programmed from a mobile phone, a Walkman that could download music from the Internet, and a portable flat-screen gadget known as an Airboard that combined the functions of a television and a personal computer were just some of the Sony products new on the market. Idei even unveiled the prototype of a “personal entertainment robot”—the SDR-4X—that used sophisticated microelectronics and sensors to walk, sing, and interact with humans. “This is the end of the 20th-century business model,” the 66-year-old CEO declared in an interview, “and the beginning of the 21st-century model.”

      Idei was born on Nov. 22, 1937, in Tokyo. He earned a B.A. degree in political science and economics from Tokyo's Waseda University in 1960. His father, an economics professor at Waseda, had intended for Idei to follow in his footsteps. Upon graduation, however, Idei instead went to work in Sony's International Division, gaining experience in several of the company's European offices. He helped establish Sony France in 1968. Four years later he was recalled to Japan to work at the company's Tokyo headquarters.

      A steady succession of promotions followed. Idei was named general manager of Sony's Audio Division in 1979, senior general manager of the Home Video Group in 1988, Sony Corp. director in 1989, and managing director of the company in 1994. He was tapped as president and representative director in April 1995. He assumed CEO duties in June 1999 and a year later added chairman to his title.

      Most observers had praised Idei for devoting himself to promoting the digitalization of audio and video electronics and their convergence with information technology, but he was not without his share of critics. Some wondered whether Sony would be able to sell enough of its dazzling but decidedly high-end new products to turn a profit and whether Idei was spreading the company's resources too thin. By 2003 there were some positive signs, though, as Sony's profits had begun to rebound after several down years. Idei himself remained confident that his company was on the right track, arguing that the rapid growth in Internet and mobile-phone connections would only increase the demand for Sony's new products in the future.

Sherman Hollar

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