Akio Morita Quotes

If you don't want Japan to buy it, don't sell it.

We treat employees as a member of the family. If management take the risk of hiring them, we have to take the responsibility for them.

But make sure you don't make the same mistake twice.

The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake.

I consider it my job to nurture the creativity of the people I work with because at Sony we know that a terrific idea is more likely to happen in an open, free and trusting atmosphere than when everything is calculated, every action analysed and every responsibility assigned by an organisation chart.

My solution to the problem of unleashing creativity is always to set up a target.

The public does not know what is possible. We do.

Curiosity is the key to creativity.

When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for the job, I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him.

An enemy of innovation could be your own sales force.

If we do our best and make efforts, a peaceful and great future will become ours without fail. Whether we succeed or not depends on the strength of our resolve and the amount of our endeavor.

You can be totally rational with a machine. But if you work with people, sometimes logic often has to take a backseat to understanding.

The only sure thing is that in business there are no sure things.

We will try to create conditions where persons could come together in a spirit of teamwork, and exercise to their heart's desire their technological capacity.

To gain profit is important, but you must invest to build up assets that you can cash in in the future.

In the long run, no matter how good or successful you are or how clever or crafty, your business and its future are in the hands of the people you hire.

We don't believe in market research for a new product unknown to the public. So we never do any.

A company will get nowhere if all of the thinking is left to management.

From a management standpoint, it is very important to know how to unleash people's inborn creativity. My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.

America looks 10 minutes ahead; Japan looks 10 years.

All you need is the best product in the world, the most efficient production in the world and global marketing.

Our plan is to lead the public with new products rather than ask them what kind of products they want.

Once you have a staff of prepared, intelligent, and energetic people, the next step is to motivate them to be creative.

Never break another man's rice bowl.

We all learn by imitating, as children, as students, as novices in the world of business. And then we grow up and learn to blend our innate abilities with the rules or principles we have learned.

If you go through life convinced that your way is always best, all the new ideas in the world will pass you by.

I knew we needed a weapon to break through to the US market, and it had to be something different, something that nobody else was making.

There are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing. To have any one of these without the others is self defeating in business.

Americans make money by playing `money games,' namely mergers, acquisitions, by simply moving money back and forth ... instead of creating and producing goods with some actual value.

Japanese people tend to be much better adjusted to the notion of work, any kind of work, as honorable.

Carefully watch how people live, get an intuitive sense as to what they might want and then go with it. Don’t do market research.

If we face recession, we should not lay off employees; the company should sacrifice a profit. It's management's risk and management's responsibility. Employees are not guilty; why should they suffer?

My chief job is to constantly stir or rekindle the curiosity of people that gets driven out by bureaucracy and formal schooling systems.

There is no secret ingredient or hidden formula responsible for the success of the best Japanese companies.