• What type of structure did Sony have in the past for their software and hardware employees?
  • What type of structure did Sony Entertainment Divisions have in the past?
  • Describe these types of structures generally and specifically for Sony.

Sony Corporation This activity is important because as a manager. you may work in a large, bureaucratic organization or you may experience growth of your business that makes structural changes necessary. Organizational structure can affect prot and market share. |l.':omple:t conglomerates like Sony. with many independent product lines. can become so diverse and disconnected that there is no common strategy. The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of organizational structure by reading a case about Sonfs restructuring and answering questions. Read the case about Sony and answer the questions that foftow Sony reported a net loss in S of the 3' years between 20GB and 2015. At last. Sony experienced strong gains and net prots for 2016 and zoo. The years of loss are attributed to long-term restructuring efforts aimed at reducing redundancies and focusing on the most protable product lines. Redundancies became a major cost to the company due to "silos" that divided the many businesses. Many of these silos were created by separating workers according to the type of work that they performed. in Sony's past. one of the biggest problems originated from separating hardware engineers from software developers. This strategy worked very well for a long time as Sony developed hardware. like the Sony Walkman. that was smaller and lighter than that offered by its competitors. However. signicant environmental changes required better integration between the hardware engineers and softwme developers. Specically. conaumers began to want their various electronic devices to 'talk to one another" and be easier to use than ever before. Hardware engineers and software developers needed to collaboratesomething that Sony's "silo" approach had lnadvertemly discouraged. Sony grew and developed an incredibly complex organizational structure. Entertainment units were split by geographic regions and operated completely independently of one another. Consumer electronics divisions each had their own marketing departments that often competed for the same customer. These complek structures did allow Sony to nish producing the most advanced gaming system in the world. the PlayStation. However. Sony's annual losses highlighted the company's growing need to synergize its movie, game. music. and consumer electronics divisions. Sony termed its most recent restructuring efforts the "One Sorry\" plan. This multi-year restructuring effort sought to consolidate the management of a company with many separated divisions. In the past. conglomerates like Sony allowed its many businesses to operate independently. such as the battery division treated as its own organization and the gaming division treated as a completely separate organization. Much like the separation of software engineers from hardware engineers in Sony's past, the company has found that it had little control over strategies and was unable to benet from economies of scale. Many global conglomerates have a highly diversied structure of "silo" businesses, but the trend appears to be towmd more consolidation. PepsiCo recently adopted a similar strategy in announcing its I'Power of One\" strategy to bring together its food and beverage businesses. The cost savings in efciency and focus are compelling. projected at up to $1 billion in annual savings