Technology Failure in Business Research Paper Sample

Lack of Technological Innovativeness in Sony Company

The shares of Sony have decreased by a margin of almost 7%. Sony Corporation considerable influenced the history of technologies development a few years ago when the company introduced the Walkman allowing people to listen to music and move at the same time. However, recently, Sony has failed to introduce new products and change the consumer sector in the same way their rivals have done. The company has lost its competitiveness on the market due to the fact that it is not innovative nowadays. Failure manifest itself in three ways: failure of a new technology, failure of the existing technology in an old environment, and, finally, failure of the old technology compared to new one (Gimmon & Levie, 2010). The most severe failure is associated with the introduction of new technology. This paper will investigate the failure of Sony Corporation as a result of the lack of technological innovativeness. It will particularly focus on the laptops Sony has been manufacturing and the difficulties after their production and sale.

Environmental Factors

Sony once was a company that defined the prowess of Japan’s technology. However, recently, the company has been struggling to ensure its existence, which was aggravated by the decline in the industrial economy of Japan. The main reason of this big company being now on the verge of ruin is Sony’s failure to recognize and act with accordance to the technological innovation at the time. The technological advancements include digitalization and a shift towards software as well as the Internet (Kiran, 2012). In every sector, the company’s products were outstripped and defeated by the new technology of its rivals. The company had an opportunity to embrace the fusion of digital and media content, but they decided to opt for their own direction. Due to the technological advancement that Sony, in fact, ignored, the company has been unable to design and develop a successful product that would dominate the market (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002). This is what has caused them to fail in the business industry.

Other factors undermining companies success were environmental and legal restrictions imposed on the business. electronic products of Sony Corporation mainly consist of hundreds of parts that are manufactured from various chemical substances. Therefore, if not handled properly, the impact could be harmful to environment. Thus, Sony Corporation is facing the following challenge: to attempt to establish vital processes in accordance with the European Union Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (Kushner, 2011). Sony ought to consult the Joint Initiative to gather data on various chemical substances that they purchase from their suppliers. The company also faces the challenge of pursuing the survey response tool by the Japanese Green Procurement Survey Standardization Initiative for materials affirmation that comprises of information concerning the parts and intention for use (Kiran, 2012). Sony Corporation also faces a difficult task of abiding by the laws and rules while conducting their business and safeguarding the environment at the same time. Thus, the company should find new ways to change and preserve environment creating other suitable and effective solutions.

Technological Factors

As far as their innovations are concerned, Sony failed to take advantage of the new technology and incorporate it in their own products. This, in turn, resulted in their products lacking what those of their competitors actually possessed and improved and losing their market influence to their competitor’s products. Sony’s early music player, for example, supported the propriety files; however, due to the fast growing technology of the mp3 format, their player was incompatible with it, which led it to their products appearing as archaic, hence losing value on the market (Kushner, 2011). Therefore, in this sense, failure can be defined as the inability of a company to perform as expected. The failure of business that is caused by new technologies may be manifested in the following ways. The firm may be unsuccessful due to the failure of the technology, which it incorporates. However, failure may also be viewed in terms of failure of the business that may, in turn, lead to failure of the technology. Once a firm fails, it may disappear completely (Kiran, 2012). Nevertheless, one important factor to note is that, even though technology may fail, it will still continue being developed and employed.

Organizational Governance

One of the factors that contributed to Sony’s failure was the fact that the organization itself did not embrace the change in technology. When the technological change was introduced, the company failed to realize its potential and use this deFwindvelopment, which, in turn, ensured that their competitors gained the upper hand and started to attract Sony’s clients (Gimmon & Levie, 2010). Therefore, failure is seen as an opportunity in many cases. One of the signs of a working technology is deduced from the existence of start-ups, established firms, and venture capital enterprises, which share a common goal of generating profit. There has been a tendency of the products of Sony not succeeding even at the first stages due to lack of technological advancement. This failure is either practical or commercial. Most of Sony’s unsuccessful products fail due to the reasons that are not related to their flaws (Yeo, 2002).

Introducing technology requires a strong and committed leadership that will be able to oversee the whole process of implementing technology. It is clear that integration of new technology into business is a step-by-step process. This means that in order to ensure that a certain technology is successful, a proper supervision technique needs to be introduced (Yeo, 2002). Therefore, in the case of Sony, the company had a poor governing system since they were not able to recognize the current technological development. The leaders of Sony would have strived to integrate new technology into their products to ensure that they maintained their influence on the market. The leadership of Sony was one of the main reasons for the company’s failure: they should have persuaded their scientists and technicians to find the ways they could integrate the new technology into their already existing products or even to design new products (Kushner, 2011). A business should have a strong governing body that is able to deal with the challenges of introducing new technology and managing the old one.

Business Factors

Risks affect every aspect of the business, and even the technology that is to be introduced to the business faces the risk. Therefore, the management of risks involving the type of technology to use is an essential part of business success. The management of a firm is supposed to understand certain risks that may emerge from the introduction or use of technology. They should also be able to predict potential impact of the technology as well as the probability of it occurring. This in turn safeguards the business from the possibility of failure. Most of the businesses fail due to insufficient or improper analysis of the risks that are associated with using some of the technologies (Gimmon & Levie, 2010).

Products that ae developed on the basis of the new technology are mostly a result of the negotiations that take place between the various internal and external parties of the organization that is sponsoring manufacturing of the products. Technologies always begin with an idea, which then progresses in a series of steps until it becomes a reality (Kiran, 2012). Therefore, when a firm decides to incorporate a new idea, it is imperative that they consider the risks which may arise along the way in order to achieve success. This in turn ensures that the firm is conscious of the risks and developed a plan or technique, which they can use to ensure that they will not be completely unsuccessful if the incorporated technology happens to fail.

In order for the technology to be successful, the issue of finance must also be addressed. The integration process of technology requires funds to be invested in its maintenance. Many businesses ultimately fail miserably since they decide to use technology the maintenance costs of which they are able to afford (Kushner, 2011). Therefore, if the technology is a machine, for example, and this machine breaks down in the process of production, they find themselves facing difficulties in repairing it. This in turn leads to the production process being put on hold causing the firm to experience losses. In the end, it results in the business to cease its existence. Financial obligations of the technologies should also be carefully considered before being integrated by the companies (Chen, Ko, Huang, & Wang, 2013).

In the aforementioned scenario, one may find that the reasons for the situation developing in a particular way are related to the majority of approaches to the operating systems failing. An example of the products failures can be illustrated by Sony PCG-F290 laptop, which was developed and manufactured but and eventually became a premature Sony product (Chen et al., 2013). Sony’s Clients who had purchased the product later complained that the product was shutting down by itself only after a few minutes into the booting sequence. In the end, the problem was discovered to be originated from a set of failing capacitors in the laptops produced by Sony.

Concerning the issue of technology in business, an important concept to consider is the technological prematurity. It presupposes the technology that is integrated in the production process not performing properly and eventually failing in the application, though it was supposed to perform outstandingly. In this case, the concept may be sound, but the technological implementation may not be flawless. On the whole, these issues of prematurity are associated with the situation where the product does not work properly in the chosen area (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002). One disadvantage of this concept is the fact that failure of the technology may be revealed only when the product leaves the controlled environment, such as a lab, for instance, and enters the market. The diesel powered engines, which required twenty years of intensive testing before they could be introduced on the market, can serve as a good example in this case. The developers use the feedback to the earlier developed products to reintroduce the product to the market (Gimmon & Levie, 2010).

Recommendations

One of the main steps that Sony should take is to embrace the technological changes that are occurring nowadays. This will in turn ensure that the clients are able to see the competing advantage. Sony should also consider introducing an innovative product that will become a true success on the market in order for it to redeem the company’s past glory and return the consumer trust that it once had. For this to happen, the leadership should change and ensure that people in power are actually able to insist on the innovations in the company’s workforce.
Sony Corporation should also prioritize Imaging Solutions and products as well as sound and video. The company may target some areas within the market that are believed to experience commoditization by persisting to provide new excellent value-added products, such as sophisticated high-resolution audio devices and mirror-less single-lens reflex cameras. Focusing on the present technological experience and improving it in few areas instead of spending huge investments that later fail to recoup, it will generate its profits. The company should also boost inventory control and optimize fixed costs, thereby recouping their investment.

Concerning generating new business while strengthening the foundational one, Sony must employ its imaging technology capabilities to establish core products that can be used as inputs to create the end products of businesses operating in industries instead of electronics. Therefore, it should engage in the electronic industry, such as mobile, digital imaging, and game, by focusing on the technological resources and investments in these sectors. By improving these areas, it will manage to generate about 70% of its sales and 85% of operating income for the whole business.

Conclusion

Technology is an important part of business. It is crucial for its performance and can cause a venture to succeed or fail. Failure of the technology incorporated by companies, as in the case of Sony, depends on many different factors, such as the risk management, governance, and financial issues. Moreover, failure of the technology may lead to the downfall of an entire business. However, the failure of business does necessarily imply the failure of the technology. This is due to the idea of the technology may be improved by other people. Technology is a crucial part of business that cannot be ignored. In order for a new technology to succeed, there some challenges to overcome, what Sony failed to do. They include competitiveness issues, technological, material, operational, and even environmental factors. On the whole, technologies begin as mere ideas that materialize to become a reality by completing various stages, and only with timely recognition of their necessity a company can succeed.