Sony’s Morita to Step Down as Chief Executive

Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony Corp. and Japan’s best known business executive, has stepped down as chief executive of the giant Tokyo electronics firm.

The silver-haired Morita, 68, however, continues as chairman of the company. Norio Ohga, 59, assumes the duties of chief executive and continues as president.

Sony announced the executive changes after its annual meeting in Tokyo last week.

Morita has always been the guiding light of Sony, which he co-founded in 1946 and built from a small transistor radio company into a worldwide company with annual revenue of $16 billion. He established Sony Corp. of America in New York in 1960 and became chief executive--a position unfamiliar to Japanese companies--of the parent company 13 years ago.

But recently, Morita, who also is vice chairman of Keidaren, the Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations, has been devoting much of his time and effort to issues relating to U.S.-Japan relations and trade friction.

“It’s rather a mistake for people to think that Mr. Morita is retiring from this world,” said Chris Wada, senior vice president for governmental affairs at Sony Corp. of America. “Rather the opposite is true, he will spend more time on U.S.-Japan relations.”

In disclosing the executive changes, Sony also announced the election of the first foreign members to Sony’s board of directors: Michael Schulhof, vice chairman of Sony Corp. of America in New York, and Jack Schmuckli, president of Sony Europe. In other appointments, Ken Iwaki, 52, and Nobuo Kanoi, 58, were both promoted to the posts of deputy president from senior managing directors at Sony Corp. in Japan.

Ohga is Morita’s handpicked successor. The two met more than 35 years ago when Ohga, then a student of opera at the Tokyo Institute of Arts, wrote letters to Sony complaining about the sound of the company’s tape recorders. Ohga signed on as a consultant to Sony before he went off to study voice in Berlin.

Ohga sang opera baritone for the NHK network symphony orchestra before joining Sony in 1959. He worked his way through the ranks from the tape recorder division to head the CBS-Sony joint venture in 1968 to produce and market records in Japan. During his 14-year tenure as president of the joint venture, it became Japan’s No. 1 recording business and he learned American-style cost-management.

He was named president of the parent company in 1982 and has been credited with installing a system of profit centers to reign in Sony’s freewheeling management style. Ohga played a major role in Sony’s recent purchase of the CBS’ U.S. record business and is now chairman of CBS Records Inc., another unit of Sony.

Morita built Sony on a reputation of innovation and quality. He delivered a series of new consumer electronics, including transistor radios, Walkman radio and audio cassette player, the Trinitron TV system, Beta videocassette recorders, compact disc players and Watchman portable TVs. Sony’s nonconsumer business includes broadcast equipment, floppy disks, disk drives and semiconductors.

Morita was the first Japanese manufacturer to establish a plant in the United States when Sony opened a TV production facility in San Diego in 1972.