14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that the company is aggressively seeking the next big thing, with a newly established units created by Shinji Odajima inviting ideas and applications from all Sony employees.
The publication says that the response from company employees has been overwhelming so far, with the call for auditions reportedly receiving over 800 replies.
"There are still plenty of employees in Sony looking for a challenge. Renewal is supremely important for Sony," Odajima said in an interview translated by Engadget.
The unit is so far composed of around 200 people, most of them young and eager to be at the forefront of Sony's development efforts.
The initiative was sparked by the fact that, over the course of the last decades, the company has declined from its position as a global leader of innovation and modernity, devolving into a mere consumer electronics brand like the others.
This however is due to the fact that technology is constantly accelerating and the field is becoming increasingly crowded by more and more ferocious competitors like Apple. The advent of the digital world saw many new competitors rising, while Sony was content to bank on the success of its ground-breaking ideas, like the Walkman and PlayStation.
The founding of the division was made necessary by the fact that although many of Sony's employees have a lot of creative ideas, there is currently no streamlined process to analyze them and nobody to evaluate their potential.
Odajima is currently screening the first batch of ideas to see which of the innovations will go forward into research and development, although for the time being the company is being very tight-lipped regarding what exactly those ideas are.
Although things have been tougher for Sony in recent years, the company's latest iteration of its popular computer entertainment system, the PlayStation 4, proved to be one of the fastest-selling new systems yet.
The Japanese corporation announced earlier this month at Gamescom, the massive European game industry trade show, that the PS4 went over the 10 million units sold mark.
"Renewal is supremely important for Sony. If we don't challenge, engage with our youngest..." Odajime trailed off ominously.
The department has so far held idea auditions once every three months, and it offers employees a chance to get their ideas scrutinized without getting bogged down by the disheartening bureaucracy that a company on the scale of Sony entails.
Sony has so far put down unsuccessful business initiatives, like its PC and e-reader divisions, but it's starkly aware of the need to be at least part of the next big thing, if not leading the charge in innovation.