Mgt 236 Assignment 2

MGT236 Assignment 2 CANNON CA5501640 Part 1

Sony Walkman

In the late 1970s, Sony ingeniously decided to develop the Walkman. They saw the desires of the public to personalize their music playlists because the only personal listening that existed at the time was a portable radio. Those could only pick up radio stations that played songs at their own demand and not the consumer’s which contributed to “lost time” of the consumer. Sony’s decision maker’s decided to take advantage of this opportunity by personalizing the playing device that would allow the consumers to be able to control what they listened to, when they listened to it and in what order they desired to play their favorite songs. In order to do this, the device needed to be small, lightweight and portable, but it also had to be fashionable, marketable by convenience and looks and made available to as many people as possible.

Nobutoshi Kihara was the implementer that created the original device for Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka to listen to his operas while on long plane trips. The marketable version was called Soundabout. It was an immediate hit to thousands of buyers in the US, Sweden and the UK. Sony co-founder Akio Marita hated the name “Walkman” and asked that it be changed, but the junior executive decision makers informed the co-founder decision makers that the promotion campaigners implemented the “Walkman” name and that it would be too expensive to the stakeholder’s profits to change the name. The external forces of public demand cemented the name “Walkman”, and the devices was an enormous success that started a completely new product development.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In October 1962, the Soviet Union deployed ballistic missiles to Cuba as a response to the Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA trained troops in Cuba and the American ballistic missiles that were already placed in Italy and Turkey. When an Air Force U-2 spy plane confirmed through clear photographs that Cuba was making...