Sony vs. Apple

Sony vs. Apple Strategic Leadership Analysis in the Context of Vicere's Stages

Vicere's stages of strategic leadership are: 1) prophet (visionary, emerging stage), 2) crusader/barbarian (relentless) stage, 3) explorer/builder (textbook management), 4) administration (centralization of decision making), 5) bureaucracy (no longer innovative but only reactive to threats in the marketplace), 6) aristocracy (senior leadership struggles to retain power and survive, and is detached from reality). With that in mind, one can see that Sony showed innovation with its launch of the Walkman in 1979. The company foresaw a market for portable music players and capitalized on it. Its dominance in the portable music player market for nearly 25 years can be attributed to its crusader/barbarian stage of relentless pursuit of innovation and market leadership. Over the years, Sony made incremental improvements to the Walkman, applying textbook management strategies to maintain its

Their decision-making likely became centralized, and aristocratic executives likely were more reactive than proactive. Thus, is is entirely likely that by the time the iPod overtook the Walkman in sales, Sony's senior leadership was struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing market dynamics.

Apple's introduction of the iPod was a completely visionary approach. Apple saw an opportunity to redefine the portable music player experience and did so. Its aggressive marketing and integration of the iPod...

…for Apple to maintain its dominance is the Creative Factory Concept (Galanikis, 2006). This is because Apple's strength is its ability to create ecosystems for its new products. The 'Creative Factory' concept consists of subsystems like Knowledge Creation, New Product Design & Development (NPDD), and Product Success in the marketplace, and it aligns well with Apple's approach. With it, Apple can maintain its edge and dominance.

Innovation applies to product development but also to how one can see and understand the market. Strategic leaders know how to wield both technological advancements and ecosystems for long-term goals. Sony had the technological power, but it failed to realize the change in the market. Apple combined technology with market understanding and gave consumers something…