PowerPoint Presentation

The Story of Princess Sony

Sony Pictures Sub-companies  •Tri-Star Pictures: Genre and independent films •Screen Gems: Movies priced $20-$50 million •Sony Pictures Classics: Arthouse and lower-budget niche films •Sony Pictures Animation Lionsgate 4% Sony Pictures 7% Paramount Universal 8% 31% 20th Century Fox 13% Warner Buena Bros Vista 18% 19%

Sony’s 2015 Portfolio • James Bond: Spectre • Pixels • Chappie • Ricki and the Flash • Aloha • The Walk • Hotel Transylvania • Sony Pictures Classic films • The Wedding (16 of their 26 Ringer films this year) • The Perfect Guy

Sony has failed to capture synergy like Disney

Tom Rothman’s strategy •Bringing back Sony’s once famous innovative corporate culture •Creating a synergy with the rest of Sony  Playstation properties being made into films, Sony recording artists getting biopics •Micro-managing more  more closely involved in all stages of making a film from production to marketing •Creating more event films  wants to follow success of movies like Lord of the Rings

Sony’s Parenting Fit Matrix •Heartland businesses: Sony Pictures Classic  try not to spend too much on the making of these films, focusing on genres whilst still attracting a larger audience •Edge of heartland businesses: Tristar, Columbia  higher budgets, bigger audiences Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) Columbia Tristar Motion Pictures (CTMP) None Screen Gems (SG)

Parenting Fit Matrix for Sony Pictures. • Ballast Businesses: Sony Pictures Animation- lower budget, reaches wide family audience  however a very competitive environment, hence needs to reach new audiences • Alien Territory Businesses: Not applicable for Sony Pictures • Value Trap Businesses: Screen Gems  mid- priced films that have greater potential to be profitable. However Screen Gem films try to reach for too large of an audience, and should perhaps focus on a niche



Human Resources •Value  employees lack vision to understand market such as Amy Pascal, hence lack of value •Rare  standard employee organisation, not rare •Imitability  due to lack of success competitors are not inclined to imitate their HR processes. Hack has made employee easily available, hence easy to imitate •Organisationally exploited  not utilising employees effectively, hence high turn over of even upper management

Product Development Capability • Valuable  Sony’s Product design capabilities are not taken seriously and thus not considered as valuable as they should be preventing them achieving a SCA. • Dodgy pitches produced by product developers support this. • Rare  Sony’s PDC is weak and is simply just not attracting or attaining the required consumer-base like other competitor’s products do as designs are not rare or unique

Product Development Capability • Imperfectly imitable  All product designs and strategies readily available to been seen by everyone including competitors. • Organisationally exploited  Developers as an organizational resource were not reaching their full potential thus directly resulting in Sony’s Product Design Capabilities not fully exploiting or getting the best out of their available resources due to the poor management directed by Amy Pascal.

Brand image/Reputation Valuable •Amy Pascal forced to step down as co-chairman as a result of leaked emails putting down actors – displaying unprofessional corporate behaviour. •It was also revealed that she developed close personal friendships with producers which influenced her decisions on what movies to invest in.  Unprofessionalism of top management degrades the value of their brand image

Rare/ imperfectly imitable • Leaked films eliminate the company’s sustained competitive advantage, as competitors are able to imitate or improve on Sony’s existing ideas – leaving the company with nothing to prosper with. Organisationally exploited •Sony Pictures lack of defined brand image means they are not exploiting this resource adequately. Internal chaos has meant their brand image is not organised well.

Resource-based Marketing Recommendations •VALUABLE: Employees and managers need better training, need to improve market research and trend sensing abilities •RARE: Sony’s management, notably Amy Pascal was not investing in the most profitable movies for the company as she was negatively influenced by personal relationships. Ensuring that no conflicts of interest arise and better judgements are made, will allow for more preferable films to be produced.

Resource-based Marketing Recommendations •IMPERFICATLY IMITABILITY: Sony needs to focus on introducing a non- generic organisational structure and better aligning it with their environment. •ORGANISATIONAL EXPLOITED: Lower turnover rates need to be achieved at the company. Sony can provide monetary or non-monetary incentives to encourage employees to perform more effectively.

Parenting Theory Recommendations •Heartland: Increase focus and development of the heartland business i.e. Sony Pictures Classic. Here the parent company, Sony Pictures, needs to understand the critical success factors that drive Sony Pictures entertainment. •Ballast: Aim to diversify the ballast business i.e. Sony Pictures Animation. Shift from targeting just children and families to a wider target audience such as adults. This can be done by producing films that are a mixture of animation and non- animation. For example, Life of Pi and Avatar. •.

Parenting Theory Recommendations •Edge of Heartland: i.e. Tri- Star Productions. If no growth is noticed Sony pictures may need to re- evaluate whether or not they continue investing money into Tri-Star Productions. Placing more effort on the profitable Columbia Pictures – Sony’s other edge of heartland business may allow the company to more rapidly transform it into a core, heartland business. • Value Trap: i.e. Sony Gem. Sony Gem’s issue is trying to capture all target markets by focusing on a wide array of genres. Perhaps the company should focus on capturing a niche market that has the potential to create more value

Corporate Strategy Recommendations •An increased focus on diversifying Sony’s portfolio is needed  This can be achieved by better acquiring attractive companies and brands. •By increasing their presence in growth countries i.e. Asia  Sony can increase their overall international audience, which has declined in recent years.

Corporate Strategy Recommendations •Synergy, consistency and a clear overall strategy needs to be adopted to allow all portfolios under Sony Pictures to operate independently as well as complement each other to achieve the core goals of the company. •Rothman has adopted a micro-management leadership approach which can hinder performance and innovation of employees. Employees want to be self-directed and part of a flexible environment that allows them to think freely and work creatively.

The End.