The order was worth more than Sony's entire company. Morita said no anyway.
It was 1955. The radio was the TR-55, and the Sony name was a few months old. The buyer was the Bulova Watch Company, one of the biggest names in American retail. Their purchasing agent saw the radio, loved it, and placed an order for 100,000 units on the spot. One condition: the case would carry the Bulova name, not Sony.
His partner Ibuka and the Tokyo board wanted to take it. They were right to want it. The check was bigger than what the whole company was worth.
Morita walked. He told the stunned agent that fifty years ago nobody knew the Bulova name either, that this was year one of Sony's own fifty years, and that in fifty years the Sony name would be as known as Bulova's was that day.
He later called it the best business decision of his career. The math says he was being modest.
In 2008, a Japanese watchmaker named Citizen bought the Bulova Watch Company for $250 million. The brand that once told Morita nobody would buy a radio with the Sony name on it is now owned out of Tokyo.
キャリア孔明 (@career_koumei)
ソニー創業者の盛田昭夫さんが、アメリカで営業してた頃の話。
ある大手バイヤーが言った。
｢10万個発注するよ。ただし、SONYのロゴを消してくれ。うちのブランド名で売りたい｣
当時のソニーは小さい会社で、10万個の注文は命綱みたいな金額だった。社内は全員｢受けよう｣だった。
盛田さんは断った。
｢SONYの名前を消すくらいなら、この注文はいりません｣
社員は震えただろう。目の前の金を捨てたんだから。
でも盛田さんはこう言ったらしい。
｢
— https://nitter.net/career_koumei/status/2070990570588422466#m