索尼公司一直在不断改变自身形象,这通常是由于它成功地开发了诸如晶体管收音机、Walkman步行者录放机、可携式录相机或playStation-Ⅱ等制作精巧的产品。在这一过程中,它赢得了最具创新精神、最“西化”的日本公司的声誉。但事实上,索尼公司是一家具有典型等级特征和官僚结构的日本公司。它确实具有创新精神,但却并不总是能保持那种应有的灵活性。事实上,在出井伸之出任索尼公司总裁之后的四年里,他逐渐相信,尽管索尼公司很聪明,但它需要进行结构调整,以便能跟上迅速发展的消费电子产品、计算机和互联网融合的世界潮流。因此,去年三月初,出井伸之宣布要对索尼生产消费电子产品的部门进行全面重组。他打算在未来四年中关闭分布在全球各地的15家生产厂,并将公司现在的18万员工裁减十分之二。但出井伸之真正的目标是要将索尼公司整个运作体系组合成更像是一个痴迷互联网的硅 Sony has been constantly changing its image, often because of the successful development of sophisticated products such as transistor radios, Walkman Walkman recorders, camcorders or playStation-II. In the process, it won the reputation of the most innovative and most “westernized” Japanese company. But in fact, Sony is a Japanese company with typical rankings and bureaucratic structures. It is indeed innovative, but it does not always maintain the kind of flexibility it deserves. In fact, in the four years after Shinichi Idei became president of Sony Corporation, he gradually came to believe that although Sony was smart, it needed to restructure so that it could keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of consumer electronics, computers and the internet trend. Therefore, in early March last year, Shinichi Idei announced a complete reorganization of Sony's consumer electronics product division. He plans to shut down 15 manufacturing facilities around the world in the next four years and cut its current 180,000 employees by two-tenths. But Shinichi Imai's real goal is to make Sony's entire operating system more like an Internet-obsessed silicon