Great Figures of the World Series | Episode 7: Masaru Ibuka - Sony Co-founder and the Man Who Led Japan to Become a World-Leading Technological Powerhouse

There are many excellent engineers in the world.
However,
there are few who could see
"how human life would change because of that technology."

There are people who build machines.
There are people who improve performance.

But there are extremely few people who imagined "the future of life itself" first,
and then arranged technology to fit that vision.
He was one of them.

Masaru Ibuka
is often spoken of as a "founding engineer,"
but in reality, he was not just an engineer.
He was a person closer to a:
- Philosopher
- Futurist
- Product thinker
- Lifestyle editor
1908-1997 | Sony co-founder.

[He was a "Future Designer," not just an engineer]

At the time, many engineers
were thinking about "what can be made."

But Ibuka was different.
What he was thinking about was,
"How will humans live from now on?"

He did not start from technology.
First,

he imagined:
- Lifestyle
- Emotions

- Behavioral changes
Based on that,
he arranged the necessary technology.

This is extremely important.
That is why he

was not moved by
high performance,
high functionality,

or high durability alone.
Rather,

he valued things that were:
- Small
- Portable
- Moving
- New

- Tactile
This was quite unusual
for a Japanese company at the time.

[A small company in the ruins]

After the war, Japan was a scorched field.

There were no supplies.
There was no money.
The future was invisible.

Normally, one would first think about survival.
But in such an era, Ibuka
was thinking about a "company that would go out into the world."

In 1946, he founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo.
This would later become Sony.

It didn't even have a name yet.
There was no capital.
There were few employees.

But they had a strange fervor.

Creating the future.

That was the feeling.

[Relationship with Akio Morita]

Ibuka and Akio Morita are often categorized as:

Ibuka for technology,
Morita for sales.

But in reality, it was more complex.
Certainly, Ibuka had a deep understanding of technology.

However, he was not just an engineer.
Rather, he was looking at "how humanity would change from here on."

On the other hand, Akio Morita
had the power to translate that future into the market.

That is why Sony was strong.
Ibuka looked at the future.
Morita expanded it to the world.

Their roles were not machine and sales.
They were future and market.

[It was a company like an "alien"]

Japanese manufacturers at the time were very conservative.

Hard to break.
High performance.
Strong in price competition.

That was the royal road.
But Sony was different.

- Why is it so small?
- Why is it this shape?
- Why is this function necessary?

There were many products that were not understood by those around them.
Ibuka found meaning in that.

A new lifestyle
is not understood at first.

That is what he believed.

[The first big failure]

In the early days of Sony,
Ibuka and his team developed an electric rice cooker.

It may seem surprising now,
but at the time, "home electrification itself"
was a new era.

I want to change housework.
I want to change life.

Ibuka had a strong interest in that.
But the result was a big failure.

It was a quite bold structure
where electrodes were placed in a wooden bucket
to cook rice with electric current, but

- Undercooked rice
- Burnt rice
- Mushy rice

occurred frequently.
It couldn't cook properly.
In the end, it never reached commercialization.

Normally, one would become cautious here.
But Ibuka was different.

A company that doesn't fail
is not challenging itself.

That is what he thought.

In other words, to him, failure
was not a shame.

It was on the way to the future.

This philosophy
created Sony's later culture of challenge.

That is why Sony, without fearing failure,
was able to take on unknown products one after another.

[The secret story of the Walkman]

The Sony Walkman
was quite opposed within the company.
The reason was simple.

"It won't sell because it can't record."

At the time, cassette equipment
was something for recording.

In other words, by common sense,
a playback-only device looked half-baked.
But Ibuka and Morita were looking at something else.

People want to carry music around.

That was it.
They were not looking at "machine functions,"
but at "human behavioral changes."
This is extremely important.

Products that change the future
are hard to be born from "performance competition."
They are born from human behavioral changes.

[He saw through the democratization of video]

In the 1970s and 80s,
video was still for professionals.
Video cameras were for TV stations.
Video production was a special skill.
It was that kind of era.

But Ibuka repeatedly said:
From now on,
it will be an era where anyone can shoot video.
For the time,
it was a quite strange idea.

But he

strongly foresaw:
- Miniaturization
- Personalization

- Democratization of video
He thought,
"Video will no longer be just for a few professionals."
This philosophy later
leads to:

- Handycam
- Digital cameras
- Smartphone video
- YouTube culture

Ibuka was not just an inventor.

He was looking at "human behavioral changes."

[The eternal boy]

Masaru Ibuka was,
rather than a science genius,
a very human person.
What is famous is his curiosity like a child's.

When he saw a new product,
he wanted to touch it himself.
He wanted to take it apart.
He wanted to try it until late at night.

He was called an "eternal boy"
by those around him.
This was not just a personality trait.
He never lost his curiosity.

That became the driving force of Sony.

[He allowed failure to an extraordinary degree]

In its early days, Sony was full of failures.

Rice cooker failure
Defective products
Accidents
Deficits

However, Ibuka did not fear failure excessively.
Rather,
A company that does not fail is not taking on challenges.
That was his belief.

For a Japanese company at the time,
this was quite unorthodox.
Usually, people dislike being penalized.

But Ibuka,
disliked the idea of challenges coming to a halt.
That is why Sony was a strange company.
And because it was strange, it was able to move toward the future.

[Curiosity over Academic Background]

Ibuka disliked the obsession with academic credentials.
Of course, he looked at ability.
But what he truly valued was

"curiosity"

.

Can they find things interesting?
Can they get absorbed in something?
Do they want to touch and explore?

That is what he looked for.

That is why Sony
became a relatively free company.

They did not bind people too much with management.
They did not stifle individuality.

That is because
"people are moved by curiosity rather than management"
was something he understood.

[The Man Who Was Close to Jobs]

In later years,
Apple's Steve Jobs
is known as a person who transformed technology into human experience.
But in fact, Masaru Ibuka was very similar.

He, too, rather than the machines themselves, valued:
・How people are moved

・How life changes
・How the future looks
That is why Sony

was not just a home appliance manufacturer.
It was a future lifestyle company.

[The Opponent He Was Fighting]

The one Ibuka was fighting against
was not just competing companies.
What he was truly fighting against was

precedent-based thinking,
common sense,
a culture of penalizing mistakes,
management ideology,

and "doing things as they have always been done."
That is why he

made things smaller,
made them portable,
made them free,
and liberated them for the individual.

In other words, what he was creating was
not home appliances, but
"the life of the future."

[Was This a Strategy?]

If you look only at the results, it is a success story of Sony.
However, within it, there is a very strong pattern.

・Seeing the future of life first
・Looking at behavioral changes rather than technology
・Looking at emotional impact rather than performance
・Changing life patterns through miniaturization
・Allowing for failure
・Valuing curiosity
・Valuing freedom over management
・Seeing the future on the opposite side of common sense

It is an extremely future-oriented structure.

Ibuka was not just a technician.
He saw the continuity toward the future, such as:

Small radio
↓
Transistorization
↓
Culture of portability
↓
Walkman
↓
Era of personal electronic devices

What he was looking at was

not "what can be made."

It was "how human life will change from here on."
That is why he

shrank machines,
brought them closer to the individual,

entered into the realm of emotion,
and permeated electronic devices into daily life.
Moreover, what is interesting is
that he did not just engage in performance competition.

What he valued was
surprise,
fun,

excitement,
and a sense of the future.
In other words, what Sony was creating was
not just home appliances.

It was "future life experiences."

[Summary]

Masaru Ibuka was
not just a technician.
What he was looking at was

"how humans will live from now on."

That is why Sony
continued to create products that were:

・Small
・Free
・Emotional
・Portable
・Exciting

These were not just home appliances.
They were proposals for future living.
And now,

we live in an era where we shoot videos with smartphones,
carry music with us,
and individuals broadcast information.
The future Ibuka saw

became reality half a century later.
He was

not just making machines.
He was quietly changing

the very flow of human life.

Next Episode Preview

Great Figures of the World Series | Episode 8: Tokuji Hayakawa
Founder of Hayakawa Electric Industry (now SHARP)

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