Learning From Leaders
A Sound Investment Rick Kojan’s threedecades-strong Sony career began with an act of kindness and a show of faith—and he hasn’t forgotten that. WORDS BY JAMIE SORCHER
44 Mobile Electronics August 2021
From the very beginning, Rick Kojan set goals and went after them. A number of early positions included a newspaper route and a grocery store job that helped make one his first major achievements possible: buying a car. “I coveted a black and gold Trans Am from the 1977 movie ‘Smokey and the Bandit,’” he said, adding that he saw it when he was 10 years old. “I bought my Trans Am as a senior in high school. Unlike a lot of other people my age, who wish they would’ve kept this or wish they’d bought that, I still have this car.”
Kojan was into cars, but also car stereo and home hi-fi equipment. The stepping stone into 12-volt came with a job at a traditional retailer, what’s known today as a specialty independent retailer. “They had four stores in Northeast Ohio which is where I lived up in Cleveland. It was called Ohio Sound Stereo.” He took the job as he was heading to college at Kent State. “I had some aspirations of playing college football and soon found out I wasn’t good enough,” he added. “I chose Kent—some folks called it a suitcase
