Upbeat sony boss sees yet more growth

Taisuke Nakanishi, managing director of Sony Thailand, is a man on a mission: he wants to make the Thai operation Sony's best sales and marketing network in the world.

"My mission for the next three years is to make Sony Thailand the number one company and the best Sony sales and marketing company in the world," Nakanishi, who has been in Thailand for about six months, said.

"We want to be number one in terms of market share, customer satisfaction and the company that people want to work for," he said.

The mission could be achieved with the launch of competitive and innovative products, and value-added marketing activities, Nakanishi said.

"We don't want to be just box movers; we have to add value so that customers enjoy using the products. We need to provide excellent customer services and supports," he said.

He said Sony was committed to being a good corporate citizen.

"Due to strong support from Thai customers, we have grown our business. So, we should contribute to Thai society, and corporate social responsibility is a very important factor for us," Nakanishi said.

He also strongly believes in three mottos he learned 20 years ago from his boss when he was appointed by the company to work overseas. They are: be positive, open, and professional.

"The three mottos can be perfectly applied to every country. They will help you adjust very well to those particular markets by listening to others and being positive and professional," said Nakanishi.

For instance, he said he was quite optimistic about the current economic and political situation in Thailand. Japan's political situation is worse than in Thailand while the high oil prices have hit all countries, he said.

Nakanishi said that his first impression of working here was that the Sony brand image was very high in this country. He said though the brand was also very popular in Spain and Italy, the brand awareness is still lower than in Thailand.

Nakanishi said the market was very competitive with lots of rival brands and price competition is very tough. For example, a 32-inch flat-panel TV set in Thailand costs between Bt20,000 and Bt25,000, against Bt30,000 and Bt35,000 in Japan.

Nakanishi admitted that Sony Thai has some weaknesses. The first lies in the media players. Though quite strong in the segment with its Walkman brand, the company was too complacent and late in adjusting to changes in media technology.

"We need to work very hard to regain our strong position, not just in Thailand but anywhere in the world," he said.

Yoji Higashida, Sony Thailand general manager, consumer marketing group, said a Thai-font Walkman would be launched later this year with major improvement in design and specification.

The new Walkman and its headphone system will come out with noise reduction technology.

Sony also sees potential in the digital still camera market, the business it started just three years ago. About four new models had been launched in the Thai market since October last year.

The market itself had grown very rapidly.

"We expect market growth will continue as consumers want to buy new cameras with upgraded features," he said.