Konosuke Matsushita - Japanese Industrialist & Founder of Matsushita
Electric
Konosuke Matsushita (1894-1989) was a Japanese
industrialist, the founder of Matsushita Electric, a company based in the
suburb of Kodoma (on the Keihan line), Osaka in Japan. Matsushita's Early
Life Konosuke Matsushita was born in 1894 in the farming village of Wasa in
Wakayama Prefecture, the son of a landlord. Poor investment decisions by his
father in rice speculation ruined the family's finances, and Matsushita was
sent to Osaka to work. In 1910, at the age of 16, Matsushita was taken on as
a wiring assistant at the Osaka Electric Light Company. Matsushita wanted to
market a new light socket he had invented, and so in 1918, at the age of 23,
he founded Matsushita Electric Appliance Factory. He had three employees,
the equivalent of $50, and a prototype for a new type of electrical socket.
The success of the company however was built on the manufacture and
distribution of a bullet-shaped lamp. He used demand for the lamp to build a
sales network throughout Japan. With countrywide distribution established,
Matsushita used the trademark National・on Matsushita products, and
dropped prices to make his lamp a mass-market product. Matsushita also used
national newspaper advertising, an unusual form of marketing in Japan in the
1920s. Management Practices In 1929, Matsushita implemented ground-breaking
and innovative management practices, under the banner of harmony between
corporate profit and social justice・
In 1933 Matsushita announced his five
guiding principles・ service to the public, fairness and honesty, teamwork
for the common cause, untiring effort for improvement, courtesy and
humility, accord with natural laws, and gratitude for blessings. Matsushita
and the Post-war period In post-war Japan, the company came under severe
restrictions imposed on large Japanese companies by the Allies. Matsushita
was in danger of removal as president, but was saved by a favorable petition
signed by 15,000 employees. From 1950 to 1973, Matsushita presided over a
massive expansion of the company, with a focus on its three
treasures washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. Matsushita's
company became one of the worlds largest manufacturers of electrical goods,
sold under well-known trademarks including Panasonic, Technics, and JVC.
Matsushita retired in 1973. 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. Chronic lung
problems lead to his death of pneumonia on 27 April 1989, at the age of 94.
He died with personal assets worth $3 billion, and left a company with $42
billion in revenue
business.
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