Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 313: He Who Eats Alone Will Die
Lin Yuan was somewhat surprised by Idei Nobuyuki's intense reaction.

I'm just asking what you think about the LCD screen market, why such a big reaction?

The reason why Lin Yuan raised this question is that Sony's two biggest mistakes in the early 21st century under the leadership of Nobuyuki Idei were: missing out on the display screen and digital music player markets.

This led to Sony's more than ten years of decline.

In the field of digital music, Sony was obsessed with its past glory and clung to CDs and Walkmans. As a result, it was defeated by Apple's iPod.

From a future perspective, isn't this inevitable?
The trend of digital audio files defeating physical playback media is irreversible.

Therefore, there is a saying: How successful Apple is, how unsuccessful Sony is.

Apple has thrived entirely on the heels of Sony's fallen empire.

But for Sony in 2003, its vested interests in CDs and Walkmans were too great. If it wanted to abandon these and switch to MP3s, it would have to cut its own flesh first.

This is really difficult for a business.

Compared with the loss of MP3, the mistake in the dispute over the display screen route is even greater.

Some older people may still remember that the TVs and monitors in the past all had a long "butt". This was the absolute ruler of that era: CRT monitor (cathode ray picture tube).

As a technological pioneer and a vested interest holder, Sony was too obsessed with the past achievements of Trinitron - CRT, so that its technological iteration lagged behind other competitors.

At that time, Sony was too confident and believed that even if it started later, it could still surpass its competitors with its efficiency in technology research and development.

So, under the leadership of Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's display department embarked on a wrong path: plasma panels and their image processing chips.

Sony has invested more than $50 billion in this technology route and has indeed achieved brilliant technological returns.

The entire technical route is densely occupied by Sony.

Any company that wants to enter the plasma display field has to bow to Sony because it cannot bypass Sony's patent protection.

To be honest, judging from the performance of the screen alone, Sony's plasma screen is definitely stronger than the LCD screen that later dominated the market.

Even many years later, there was still a popular saying: "The layman looks at LCD, the expert looks at plasma."

But what was the result? The plasma screen alliance, led by Sony, was completely defeated, taking its allies Panasonic, Hitachi, and Pioneer with it.

The so-called plasma technology route is more expensive than LCD and the claim that it cannot reduce costs and ultimately leads to failure is not without reason.

But it is not the root cause.

The real reason is: Sony has eaten up all the meat in the technology route, what will others eat?
Do all industries work for you?
Can your market in Japan alone support the entire product supply chain?

We in North America, Europe, China and South Korea have decided not to play with you anymore. We will take another technical route!
Because we have the market, even if the technology is a little worse at the beginning, with the positive feedback support from the market, the speed of technology iteration will only get faster and faster.

The final result is that liquid crystal displays, represented by LCD, have completely defeated plasma displays, even those with better picture quality.

The major failure in the display field is the fundamental reason for Sony's downturn.

After 2000, the IT era arrived, and demand for display screens exploded. Whether it was the replacement of traditional "large-bottom" TVs, the huge demand for monitors brought about by the popularization of personal computers, or handheld screen devices such as MP4s and PSPs, a large number of electronic display screens were needed.

If we miss the opportunities of this era, we will naturally slide into the abyss and be surpassed by those who come after us.

The mistakes made by Sony seem to be Nobuyuki Idei's personal fault.

This is actually an old tradition of Japanese companies.

Japanese companies have always liked to use technological barriers to gain a monopoly, and they have tasted the sweetness of "collecting tolls" in industries such as white goods and DVD players.

So I never get tired of it.

But we forget that technology cannot determine everything, sometimes the market is more important.

If you expect to block everyone's way with one technological route, the result will often be that countries with huge markets will choose to bypass this technology and independently develop a new technological route.

In the subsequent new energy vehicle wars, Japanese car companies also tried their best to block the path of hydrogen energy. As a result, China, Europe and the United States chose to go the lithium battery route.

The narrow-minded Japanese national character makes them overemphasize competition and monopoly, and they lack the wisdom that "money is stable only when everyone makes money."

What can be done then?

Only the one who eats alone will die!
If Lin Yuan wants to gradually dominate Sony, he cannot just watch Sony fall into this pit.

But as soon as he opened his mouth and tried to guide Nobuyuki Idei's thoughts, he immediately touched his sensitive nerves.

So Lin Yuan said, "I'm just curious, so I'm asking."

"There are quite a few people in the company who oppose my plasma display line. I just thought Mr. Lin was hired by them as a lobbyist. I will not back down on this point. I have staked my career on it, so I will only move forward and never retreat," said Nobuyuki Idei.
Alas~ It turns out that he has already gambled on the fate of the country (company), and now the sunk cost is too high, so even if he has vague worries in his heart, he must not waver.

Faced with this situation, Lin Yuan tentatively asked, "When the company makes decisions, it might be better if there were some hedging measures. I can offer some help. Would President Dejing consider it?"

Hearing that Lin Yuan did not want him to give up the current route, but to provide an alternative hedging plan, Nobuyuki Idei was somewhat tempted.

After all, he was also worried about what would happen if he lost the bet?
Judging from the information currently coming back from all sides, it seems that the situation ahead is not very promising.

So he asked, "Mr. Lin, do you have any good suggestions?"

"I have a good relationship with Samsung Group. Ms. Lee Boo-jin of Samsung Group is interested in cooperating with Sony on LCD display technology. Do you want to consider trying another route?" Lin Yuan asked with a smile.

"What kind of cooperation will it be?" asked Nobuyuki Idei.

When he heard this question, Lin Yuan laughed.

As long as he doesn't reject it outright, it means he is really attracted to you.

Before coming to Japan, he spoke with the eldest daughter of Samsung Group on the phone. The other party was really interested in cooperating with Sony, so Lin Yuan volunteered to be the middleman.

"Samsung Group's idea is to establish a joint venture, with Sony providing the technology and R&D team, and Samsung providing the funding. Both parties will jointly capture this market share. I think this plan is quite feasible."

(End of this chapter)