Management :Konosuke Matsushita

Konosuke Matsushita

In the West, Matsushita was little more than a well-known Japanese conglomerate until John Kotter, a management academic and recognised authority on leadership, wrote a book called “Matsushita Leadership” (Simon & Schuster, 1997), which won the Financial Times global business book of the year award and handed the little-known (and by then dead) founder of the eponymous company, Konosuke Matsushita (1894-1989), the mantle of global leadership greatness.>The opening paragraph of Kotter’s book sets the scene for what Matsushita has come to represent—the corporate leader as anti-hero:

By many standards, he didn’t look like a great leader. Early pictures of Konosuke Matsushita show an unsmiling young man whose ears st ick out like airplane wings. He never grew taller than five feet five inches nor weighed more than 135 pounds. Unlike his rival Akio Morita at Sony, he was neither charismatically handsome nor internationally recognised. Unlike most well-known western politicians, he didn’t excel at public speaking, and in later years his voice grew increasingly frail. He rarely displayed speed-of-light intellectual skills or warmed an audience with hilarious anecdotes. Nevertheless, he did what all great leaders do—motivate large groups of individuals to improve the human condition.

He had none of the attributes of contemporaneous leaders in the West—of macho chauvinists like Jack Welch at General Electric, or of colourful characters like Sir John Harvey-Jones of Britain’s ICI. But still he could inspire large groups of individuals and he was known in Japan as the “god of management”. Kotter’s book set out to explore how he did it, through early hardship and a never-ending thirst for learning.

No matter h ow deep a study you make, what you really have to rely on is your own intuition and, when it comes down to it, you really don’t know what’s going to happen until you do it.

Matsushita

was the son of a landowner who lost all his money, forcing Konosuke to go out to work in Osaka well before he was 16. He started as an electrician at Osaka Electrical Light Company, but then he invented a new sort of light socket and, at the age of 23, set up a company with his brother-in-law, Toshio Iue, to manufacture it. At first he produced his electrical goods under the brand name National, but later he introduced the name Panasonic, for which the company is best-known today. He ruled his companies with a considerable degree of paternalism and offered his wor

kers employment for life.

In his later ye

ars he took to explaining his social philosophy and wrote a number of books. One of them, “Developing a Road to Peace and Happiness through Prosperity”, sold several million copies. Matsushita died at the age of 94, recognised before his death as one of the richest men in the world.

Konosuke Matsushita’s Vision

Since the founding of Matsushita Electric Devices Manufacturing Works (now known worldwide as Panasonic Corporation), in 1918, Panasonic has embraced a commitment to delivering high-quality solutions that make the lives of its customers easier and more productive. As the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, said in his President’s Declaration on May 5, 1932, “The main purpose of production is to manufacture items of good quality for daily use in abundant supply, thereby enriching and improving the quality of life for everyone, and it is to this goal that I am dedicated. Fulfilling this mission will be the ultimate purpose of Matsushita Electric. From this point on, our full powers will be devoted to this, and making progress along this road will be our first priority, it is my fervent hope that all of you, my beloved employees, will understand and join with me in trying to realize this goal.”

Focus on Quality
This focus on quality is clearly seen in Panasonic’s line of Toughbook® mobile computers. Starting in 1996 with the delivery of the industry’s first fully-rugged standard form factor computer, the Toughbook 25, Panasonic has remained dedicated to delivering durable and reliable mobile PCs to government, industrial and commercial users, who need to rely on their computers, wherever their work takes them.

Core Manufacturing
Today, most mobile computing solutions are rebranded versions of products developed by contract manufacturers, most of which build for multiple companies. In contrast, Panasonic remains one of the only core manufacturers in the world. This means the company controls the process of design, manufacture, quality assurance, service and support. The company uses an integrated manufacturing system that extends from printed circuit board (PCB) production to final product assembly – all in its Japanese factory. Unlike most notebook manufacturers, it builds many of the critical components in its notebooks and assembles them at its facilities using Panasonic-built robotics and internally-developed processes.

Designed for User Environments
Mr. Matsushita believed that products should be designed, manufactured and tested to reflect how customers actually use them. Panasonic tests its laptops in its own factories and verifies the results through third party laboratories. In addition, Panasonic publishes its failure rates.

Panasonic’s factory, established in Kobe, Japan in 1990, is an ISO-9001 and ISO-14001 certified facility, employing more than 240 people. As a result of Panasonic’s in-house manufacturing and quality control, Panasonic Toughbook notebooks are known for having the lowest failure rates in the industry and the Toughbook brand is the leading name in rugged and reliable mobile solutions.

Articles on Panasonic’s manufacturing and testing process:

• A PC Magazine article by Tim Bajarin, describes his experience in the Panasonic factory where he was asked to “stand in the shoes of the customer” and throw a Toughbook 30 onto a concrete floor from a height of 4 feet high.
• GCN writer Trudy Walsh explains Panasonic’s assembly and inspection processes in the article, “Toughbook Central” about her trip to Osaka, Japan.
• This Geek.com post provides insight into what goes into making a Toughbook mobile computer.