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Kōnosuke Matsushita

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Kōnosuke Matsushita
Native name	松下 幸之助
Born	27 November 1894 Wakayama, Empire of Japan
Died	27 April 1989 (aged 94) Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan
Occupation	Businessman and industrialist
Spouse(s)	Mumeno Iue
Children	Sachiko Matsushita
Relatives	Masaharu Matsushita (son-in-law)  Masayuki Matsushita  (松下正幸) (grandson) Hiroyuki Matsushita (grandson)
Awards	Order of the Sacred Treasure Order of the Rising Sun (29 April 1981) Order of the Paulownia Flowers (29 April 1987) Order of the Defender of the Realm (Panglima Mangku Negara which carries the title "Tan Sri") Medal with Blue Ribbon Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm

Kōnosuke Matsushita (松下 幸之助 Matsushita Kōnosuke, 27 November 1894 – 27 April 1989) was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic, the largest Japanese consumer electronics company. To many Japanese, he is known as "the god of management".^{[citation needed]} A biography of Matsushita's life called Matsushita Leadership was written by American business management specialist John Kotter in 1998.

Contents

• 1Childhood
• 2Teenage years
• 3Matsushita Electric Industrial Company
• 4Expansion
• 5Post-war period
• 6Death
• 7Awards and honours
  • 7.1Foreign honour
• 8Further reading
• 9See also
• 10References
• 11External links

Childhood[edit]

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Kōnosuke Matsushita was born on 27 November 1894 in Wakayama Prefecture. His father was an affluent landlord in the farming village of Wasa which is a part of Wakayama today. His father was one of the richest men of his city. Matsushita was born into a well-to-do family but the family became impoverished because his father made some bad investment decisions, primarily in rice speculation. In 1899, the family's entire fortune was gone and anything of value was sold off. The family was forced to move to a cramped three bedroom city apartment where conditions were less than sanitary.

Teenage years[edit]

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Shortly after Matsushita left school, he was sent away to Osaka to become an apprentice for a hibachi store. Not even a year into his apprenticeship, the hibachi shop failed and Matsushita was left looking for another source of income. Matsushita applied for a job with the Osaka Electric Light Company, an electrical utility company. Over the next couple of years, Matsushita's position rose within the company as he was promoted several times. During this time, Matsushita was introduced to one of his sister's friends, Mumeno Iue, and shortly thereafter he married her. Matsushita was now responsible for a family and this newfound burden was not lost on him.

At the age of 22, he was promoted to the position of electrical inspector. It was during this time that Matsushita attempted to introduce his boss to an invention of a new and improved light socket that he had perfected in his spare time. His boss, however, was not enthusiastic.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Company[edit]

In 1917, Matsushita left Osaka Electric Light Company to set up his own company. Without capital, a formal education, or experience in manufacturing, it would appear the company would fail before it even began. He set up his shop in the basement of his tenement. With his wife, his brother-in-law and several assistants, he began creating several samples of his product. He attempted to peddle the samples to wholesalers but was unsuccessful because he did not offer more than one product.

Matsushita's assistants left his company and he was left with only his wife and brother-in-law, Toshio Iue, who proved to be a capable salesman and manager. Matsushita would have eventually become bankrupt but he was "saved by an unexpected order for a thousand insulator plates for electric fans."^[1] From there, Matsushita was able to continue producing his light sockets. They became popular as wholesalers realized the product was better in quality and less expensive than comparable products in the market. The early years of the company were difficult: He once had to pawn his wife's kimono when he found himself short on money.^{[citation needed]}

Matsushita's products were originally marketed under the name brand of "National" and later moved on to the more recognizable names of Panasonic, Quasar and Technics.^{[citation needed]}

One of Matsushita's best products was his invention of a more efficient battery-powered bicycle lamp. During the 1920s, bicycle lamps were candles or oil-burning lamps. They were highly inefficient as they usually only lasted for three hours. He created an oval lamp that used a battery for power and a lightbulb for illumination. He had to personally market his products to retail bicycle shops.

Expansion[edit]

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Matsushita learned a very important lesson in terms of growing a company while he was trying to introduce his bicycle lamp to wholesalers. He realized that even if he had a product that was superior to anything out in the market it would not matter if he could not sell the product. As a result, Matsushita began devising ways to create sales channels for his products by concentrating less on manufacturing and more on building a sales force, which led to a retail store network and finally placed Matsushita's company on the map in Japan's electrical manufacturing and retail industry.

In 1929, he began setting up a new structure for his company. The company was structured as a parent company and branches of divisions that specialized in a particular product were created. There were three specific products that were being created in Matsushita's company at this time: the bicycle lamp and battery division, the electrical socket division, and the radio division. For each of these products, a national sales department was formed with regional offices established in strategic locations. These regional offices were responsible for the coordination of sales and manufacturing. Products were manufactured based upon the demand for the products. As a result, manufacturing was dependent on sales.

Post-war period[edit]

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During the US occupation of Japan after World War II, General Douglas MacArthur decided to break up the zaibatsu business conglomerates of Japan. Matsushita was in danger of being removed as president, but was saved by a favorable petition signed by 15,000 employees. In 1947, Kōnosuke lent his brother-in-law Toshio an under-utilized manufacturing plant to manufacture bicycle lamps, a business which eventually became Sanyo Electric.

From 1950 to 1973, Matsushita's company became one of the world's largest manufacturers of electrical goods, sold under well-known trademarks including Panasonic and Technics. Matsushita stepped down as President of Panasonic in 1961 and was succeeded as president by his son-in-law, Masaharu Matsushita.^[2] Konosuke Matsushita's two grandsons are Masayuki Matsushita, who is the current Vice Chairman of Panasonic, and Hiro Matsushita, who is a former driver in the Champ Car series and owns Swift Engineering, an aerospace firm and race car constructing company which he bought in 1991. Hiro Matsushita is also the chairman of Swift Xi, which located in Kobe, Japan.

Konosuke Matsushita remained active in Panasonic's operations until his complete retirement in 1973. Since 1954, Matsushita also gained a significant shareholding in manufacturer JVC by forming an alliance. It still retains a 50% share today. In retirement, Matsushita focused on developing and explaining his social and commercial philosophies, and wrote 44 published books. One of his books, entitled “Developing A Road To Peace And Happiness Through Prosperity”, sold over four million copies. In 1979, at the age of 84, he founded the Matsushita School of Government and Management to train the future politicians and businessmen of Japan.

In 1987, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers.^[3]

Death[edit]

Chronic lung problems led to his death from pneumonia on 27 April 1989, at the age of 94. He died with personal assets worth US$3 billion, and left a company with US$42 billion in revenue business.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and honours[edit]

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (29 April 1981)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (29 April 1987)
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (Panglima Mangku Negara which carries the title "Tan Sri")
• Medal with Blue Ribbon
• Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon
• Senior Third Rank (April 27, 1989; posthumous)

Foreign honour[edit]

•  Malaysia : Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (P.M.N.) (1979)^[4]

Further reading[edit]

• Matsushita Leadership by John Paul Kotter, Simon & Schuster (1998)
• Matsushita Konosuke (1894-1989) His Life & His Legacy: A Collection of Essays in Honor of the Centenary of His Birth by Kōnosuke Matsushita, PHP Research Institute (1994)
• The Matsushita Perspective, A Business Philosophy Handbook, Published by PHP Institute, Inc. (1st ed., 1997).
• Jinsei mondō, dialogue with Daisaku Ikeda published in Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), Korean, and Japanese; Published by Ushio Shuppansha, Tōkyō (1st ed., 1975).
• The Matsushita Phenomenon by Rowland Gould published by the Diamond Publishing Company, Japan (1st edition, 1970)

See also[edit]

• Panasonic (bicycles)

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ "Panasonic History: Setting up his own company)". 2009. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
2. Jump up^ Kageyama, Yuri (17 July 2012). "Former Panasonic president Matsushita dies". Associated Press. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
3. Jump up^ Matsushita Memorial Library.
4. Jump up^ "Semakan Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat".

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matsushita Konosuke.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Kōnosuke Matsushita

• The Founder, Konosuke Matsushita
• Konosuke Matsushita Kimdir?, muratsever.com; accessed 6 November 2015. (in Turkish)

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Panasonic

Authority control	WorldCat Identities BIBSYS: 97051729 GND: 120191016 ISNI: 0000 0001 1678 8427 LCCN: n81112426 NDL: 00042592 NLA: 35809093 SELIBR: 342688 VIAF: 79433501

Categories: 

• 1894 births
• 1989 deaths
• Japanese billionaires
• Japanese company founders
• Panasonic
• People from Wakayama, Wakayama
• Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers
• Japanese inventors
• 20th-century Japanese businesspeople
• Honorary Commanders of the Order of the Defender of the Realm

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