Read the following case thoroughly and answer the question at the end

The transitions TV transistor radio Walkman and VCR are the stuff of time capsules nowadays, but not along ago they were cutting edge technology. Japan was at pinnacle of the home consumer electronics industry from the 1970s to the 1990s introducing new innovations to the world each year. Now those same Japanese firm are at the pack and straggling to stay in the game. Japanese electronics production has fallen by more than 41 percent, and Japanese global market share of electronics goods and service has decreased by more than half since 2000 Sony, for example hasnt earned a profit since 2008. What happened??

The sample answer is failure to innovate. While firms outside japan pioneered digital technology and con-queried the internet, japan firms stuck to semiconductors and hardware. But the deeper issue is the refusal of Japanese mangers to adapt to the global environment and change their organizations accordingly for instance, Sony mastered the technology needed for a digital music player years before Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, but its engineers resisted the change. Sonys divisions would not cooperate with one another fast enough to compete in this market or in the new market for flat screen TVs. Even now, Sony has not managed to change its organization to reflect current global thinking in the industry. For instance, it and other Japanese firms make a larger number of products than most of their global competitors. Former Sony executive Yoshiaki Saki to said, Sony makes too many models, and for none of them can they say, this contains our best, most cutting-edge technology. Apple on the other hand makes one amazing phone in just two colors and says This is the one

For Japanese electronics companies to survey, they must change. They were once able to structure their organization around abundant, inexpensive labor to keep costs down and price competitive, but thats no longer the case.one complicating factors is that Japan is an ancient country of many traditional, with a low birth rate and an aging population, so there will be an increasing shortage of works. The countrys culture will make even more difficult to realign to globalization. It now must change to foster innovation, which maw involve a cultural as much an organizational transformation.

Questions

1. What made the Japanese electronics initially successful??
2. How does a corporation such as Sony fundamentally differ from one like Apple??

Where might Japanese organizations outsource production to remain competitive in todays markets?