After World War II, he created a company, which can quickly adapt to development and change, and constantly carry out technological innovation and global integration. In the 197s and 198s, he became enthusiastic about other industries, such as writers, philanthropists, educators, social philosophers and politicians. Because he has been studying and changing himself with time, he reached the peak of his career in his later years, and it was only a few years before his death at the age of 94 in 1989 that the company began to decline. This amazing course of development shows that what is most closely related to his achievements is his personality, not IQ, charm, privilege, luck, or a dozen other factors that we usually associate with great success.
In a sense, Kōnosuke Matsushita has achieved more than his famous entrepreneurs-the company he founded earned more than Henry in his life. Ford, Sam? Wharton and Ray? Crock company, however, because they don't make products like Honda and Ford, because he is not an American belonging to the American century, and because he never tries to attract the attention of foreign media, he is not a celebrity outside Japan.
His extraordinary achievements have created hundreds of millions of wealth, but he did not use these wealth to build villas in France. Instead, he used it to establish a Nobel Prize-winning system, set up an administrative college, reformed Japan's political system, and implemented many other plans related to civilians. In his later years, he wrote dozens of philosophical books, studied human nature with a research group, and called on the government to do more good for the common people.
Some people have more personal wealth than themselves, while others have started their own businesses or contributed as much to the country as he has. But from all aspects, it is difficult to find a person who is more successful than him among entrepreneurs and executives in the 2th century. No one can take him as an example and play an exemplary role in inspiring. The following is his story.
among the eight children, Kōnosuke Matsushita was born in a middle-class family. Because my father lost money in speculation, his family was poor and his family was poor. Nine-year-old Konosuke was sent to a bicycle shop as an apprentice. In the end, he worked in Osaka Electric Company. It is a public power company, in which he was promoted to inspector, which is a respectable position. But later, because the boss was unwilling to accept his proposal to make a new light bulb socket, he resigned. In his life, his adventurous spirit guided him: he decided to make this product himself.
In 1917, with the help of four assistants, including his wife, Mei Nai, Kōnosuke Matsushita started a business with 1 yen savings. None of these five people has a middle school education, and more importantly, none of them knows how to make a light socket.
Panasonic's "factory" is in the home of two rented houses. The total area needed for work and life is equivalent to 13 square feet. They have no income and limited funds, so they are eager to make this new type of socket. Socket insulation technology has become a big problem for them. They work seven days a week to make up for their lack of technical knowledge. Finally, a colleague who once worked with them in Osaka Electric Company gave help. His colleagues know how to insulate the product and explain to them how to do it. In mid-October, 1917, that is, after working for four months, they successfully produced several samples of new products.
but the attitude of wholesalers towards such products is very cold, if not completely dismissive. This kind of worry is the same as what entrepreneurs generally hear today: "When you get good grades, your business may go bankrupt in a few months, because of this risk, I can't deal with you." He said: "Only one product is also a problem. If I buy only one product from each manufacturer, then I have to deal with thousands of suppliers, which is impossible. Come back when you have more kinds of products. "
In order to get much-needed funds, Kōnosuke Matsushita and his wife, Mei Nai, pawned clothes and some other personal items. They are still working hard in a depressed business. Kōnosuke Matsushita tries to improve the design of plugs and try to design other new products. A wholesaler liked these adventurous young people very much. He learned that one of his suppliers was in trouble. In the past, North Sichuan Electric Appliance Company used ceramic insulation board as the fan base, but now it plans to adopt a base similar to asbestos material that is not easy to break. The electric appliance company urgently needs this new base, but there is no source. The wholesaler suggested that Panasonic should concentrate the electric plug project and produce 1 insulation boards. Panasonic agreed without hesitation. The wholesaler told him that if the goods were delivered quickly, he would probably receive another 4, to 5, orders.
This job is labor-intensive, and after a period of time, people will feel bored. Because Konosuke and his wife Mai work 18 hours a day and seven days a week, they delivered the goods before the end of December. The company's income is 16 yen, and the cost of materials and molds accounts for half, so the company's profitability is very good.
in early January, Kōnosuke Matsushita was told that the managers in northern Sichuan liked this product, and they liked the quality of the product and the delivery speed. Therefore, Panasonic won the second order, this time producing 2, insulation boards.
Extraordinary strategy
Emphasis on quality and customer satisfaction make this desperate enterprise invincible. Since then, Kōnosuke Matsushita has developed some corporate strategies that distinguish him from his competitors: focusing on productivity and low cost (Kōnosuke Matsushita knows that the ideal new product quality must be 3% better than other products, and the cost should be 3% lower than the standard cost), innovative marketing methods (providing products for free for promotion), and after-sales service (increasing sales by reducing customers' risks).
By 1922, the company had launched one or two new products almost every month, but none of them had achieved remarkable success, so Kōnosuke Matsushita began to look for greater opportunities. In early 1922, he was discovered.
The demand for bicycle lights is huge and growing, but all products on the market have serious defects. A kind of candle lamp is often blown out by the wind; The price of acetylene lamps is too high, and it is necessary to keep adding fuel; Battery lights can only be used for two or three hours.
Kōnosuke Matsushita is convinced that if his company can make some major improvements, battery-powered headlights will have a bright future. He wants to make the structure of the headlights simple, so that the lights are not easy to be damaged and economical, which means that the battery must last for more than ten hours. Three or four months later, he realized that only by changing the power supply could he design a brand-new structure. After testing more than 1 samples, he designed a bicycle lamp that looks like a bullet, which looks particularly cute. A new type of miniature light bulb appears on the market, which makes the prospect of bicycle lights bright. Kōnosuke Matsushita later wrote: "Because of the improvement of this new light bulb and battery structure, I found that this kind of car light can last for 3 to 5 hours."
Holding the sample, Kōnosuke Matsushita personally went to a store that once sold electronic products: "I told them the benefits of this new car lamp, hoping to hear surprises and admiration, and then immediately offered to buy it." However, the result was not satisfactory, and the store owner was not interested in this new car. He said that the company has always had a bad reputation, and he was worried that it might be difficult for consumers to buy batteries specially used for bicycles when they need to replace them.
Although he was surprised, Kōnosuke Matsushita was not disappointed. He visited other electrical appliance vendors again. To his dismay, the answer is the same everywhere. Panasonic has tried other sales systems-bicycle dealers. The logic is simple. Bicycle shops should be better at appreciating the value of this new product. But even bicycle shops are reluctant to sell those infamous products.
although there is no order, the production goes on as usual, because Panasonic is full of confidence in the new product. Not only did Panasonic not cut its investment, but even decided to invest more money in a new marketing strategy. In Osaka, he hired three salesmen to visit every bicycle shop. Salespeople in each store will leave some samples and light a lamp for demonstration, and they will not charge any fees to the store. They told retailers that the company would only collect money if the store thought the customers were satisfied after the goods were sold. Interested retailers agree with this. They have never encountered such a thing and will not let them take risks.
struggling to survive
Panasonic bicycle lights have achieved great success, and many people even buy them for daily use instead of traditional gas lamps. Panasonic Corporation began to produce the desk lamp called "National", which is a household name in some parts of the world like GE or Coke. Subsequently, the company was hit by the Great Depression. But Panasonic didn't lay off employees, because he regarded the company as a family. He just reduced production, turned factory workers into salesmen, and then watched his company grow rapidly.
consumers were frightened by the economic situation at that time, and they drastically cut down on non-essential expenses. When electronic product sellers see the sales decline, their reaction is to reduce or even stop buying new products. Therefore, the business of Panasonic has been more and more seriously affected. By December 1, 1929, the company's sales had fallen by more than half. The warehouse began to rise because of the backlog of products, and the financial disaster may suddenly become a reality.
many people in the management department of Panasonic believe that the only measure that can be taken is to lay off a large number of employees, perhaps only half of them. The top management of the enterprise believes that only a large number of layoffs can save the company, but it may also bankrupt the company, stop the development momentum that has been maintained for 12 years, destroy the good labor relations, and put the company's further development plan on hold. Moreover, with the continuous deterioration of Japan's economy, it is almost impossible for laid-off employees to find jobs elsewhere, which makes a large number of employees fall into poverty. The manager asked Kōnosuke Matsushita what to do in horror and dismay.
Kōnosuke Matsushita's order is like an unusual depression: "Cut production by half, starting now, but don't fire any employees. In order to reduce production, we don't fire workers, but let them work (in the factory) for half a day. I promise that their salary will be the same as now, but all holidays will be cancelled. Our company requires all employees to try their best to sell the overstocked goods.
Although both Confucian and feudal traditions have emphasized a certain degree of patriarchal concern in Japanese labor relations, this specific idea is very novel. In 1929, in order to cope with the company's depression, the practice of changing from production personnel to sales personnel never appeared. When the company announced the policy to a room full of employees, people cheered and welcomed it. Because a person spends many hours a week selling inventory, and the output is only half of the past, the overstocked goods will soon disappear, and employees will soon be able to return to normal work.
while thousands of Japanese companies are laying off employees and their development is stagnant, Panasonic has retained all its employees, created a new business of radio products, continued to develop the business of car lamps and batteries, and paid more attention to improving the standards for hiring employees to improve the quality of employees. Just then, at the request of a client, Kōnosuke Matsushita visited the central temple of Tenrikyo Sect. Although the purpose of accepting this invitation is not to become a believer, he left a deep impression on him, that is, believers who are not driven by obvious economic interests. This visit has sown the seeds of a new enterprise concept that will affect Kōnosuke Matsushita's future life path.
In the temple, Kōnosuke Matsushita saw with his own eyes that in this huge organization, people are working with a dedication that is rare outside small businesses. "Everything I have seen, from the mountains of donated wood, can be seen that everything I have seen, from the positive dedication of these believers to temple construction, there are some things worth learning." If the enterprise can become as meaningful as religion in some way, then the employees of the enterprise will be more satisfied with their jobs and the labor productivity will be improved.
After two months, Kōnosuke Matsushita decided to hold an unusual meeting to share his new ideas with many employees. On May 5, 1932, 168 employees and senior managers gathered in the conference hall of Osaka Electric Motor City Club. In the opening remarks, Kōnosuke Matsushita reviewed their collective achievements: in just 15 years, the company has 1,1 employees since its inception, with annual sales of 3 million yen, 28 registered patents and factories in 1 regions. When talking about his recent visit to the Temple of Tenrikyo, he was inspired to re-examine his views on this company. Then, he put forward a declaration that has been widely spread now: "The mission of manufacturers should be to overcome poverty, get rid of misfortune and create wealth for the whole society." Water is an important product, and the production and sales costs are very low, so almost everyone can afford it. "This is the goal that entrepreneurs and manufacturers should pursue: to make all products like tap water, saving money as well as money. When this goal is achieved, poverty will disappear from the earth. "If he has been indifferent to others for 15 years, then these words will have little credibility. However, his words are in line with the company's business style. This sentence only shows that he stands higher and has a broader vision when expounding his views on the company. This new task links the company's goals with people's basic values.
Kōnosuke Matsushita asked everyone to get together every morning, and every employee read aloud his corporate principles. Some people thought it was red tape, while others thought it was too pretentious. But Kōnosuke Matsushita refused to make any compromise.
Until Kōnosuke Matsushita gave a speech in 1932, his company had a dedicated and energetic labor force, partly because of this paternalistic personnel system (employees' organizations held hundreds of cultural, entertainment and sports activities in 192), partly because of the company's unusual exchange activities (the company magazine was published in 1927), and partly because of the founder's reputation and leading by example.