The "God of Management" has become the richest man 10 times, Konosuke Matsushita: How does he run a billion-dollar empire?

As an ordinary person, an enterprise and a leader, Konosuke Matsushita, the most important and only theme in his life is development. When he was young, he had no higher education, was neither rich nor attractive, and lacked communicative skills. But it was from this position that he began, developed, and developed. He was still a young man in his early 20s at the time. He was often mentally ill and in poor health. But at the age of 30, he created a way of doing business that is still used by many of the world's largest companies, 50 years later. At just 40 years old, he became a visionary leader and the founder of Panasonic Electric Company. In the end, Panasonic's revenue exceeded the combined sales of Bethlehem Steel, Colgate, Gillette, Goodrich, Kellogg, Holly, Scott Paper, and Whirlpool.

After World War II, he created a company that could quickly adapt to changes, continue technological innovation and global integration. In the 1970s and 1980s, he developed a passion for other professions, such as writer, philanthropist, educator, social philosopher and politician. Because he had been learning and changing himself over time, he reached the peak of his career in his later years. It was also a few years before his death at the age of 94 in 1989 that the company began to decline. This astonishing development illustrates that his achievements were most closely related to his character, not IQ, charisma, privilege, luck, or the dozen other factors we usually associate with great success. .

In a sense, Konosuke Matsushita accomplished more than his fame as an entrepreneur—he founded a company that earned more in his lifetime than Henry? Ford, Sam? Walton and Ray? However, Crock Company, because they did not develop products like Honda and Ford, because he is not an American who belongs to the American century, and because he never tried to attract the attention of foreign media, so outside of Japan, he is not considered What a celebrity.

His extraordinary achievements created hundreds of millions of wealth, but he did not use this wealth to build villas in France. Instead, he used it to establish a Nobel Prize-style system, establishing an administrative academy to reform Japan's political system and implement many other civilian-related programs. In his later years, he wrote dozens of philosophy books, worked with a research group to study human nature, and called on governments to do more good things for ordinary people.

Some people have more personal wealth than themselves, others have founded their own businesses, or have contributed as much to the country as him. But by all accounts, it would be difficult to find a more accomplished entrepreneur and executive of the 20th century. No one can follow his example and serve as an inspirational role model. Here is his story.

Among eight children, Matsushita Konosuke was born into a middle-class family. Because his father lost money in speculative business, his family was poor and his family was poor. 9-year-old Yukinosuke was sent to a bicycle shop to be an apprentice. Eventually he worked part-time at the Osaka Electric Lighting Company. It was a public power company, and in this company he was promoted to inspector, a respectable position. But then he resigned because his boss was unwilling to accept his offer to build new light bulb sockets. Throughout his life, his willingness to take risks guided him: he decided to make the product himself.

In 1917, with the help of four assistants, including his wife Umeno, Konosuke Matsushita started a business with 100 yen of savings. None of the five men had a secondary school education, and more importantly, none of them knew how to make a light socket.

The Panasonic "factory" is located in his two-room rented home. The total area required for working and living is equivalent to 130 square feet. They had no income and limited funds, so they were eager to create 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 any lack of technical knowledge. Eventually, a colleague who had worked with them at Osaka Electric Lighting Company came to help. His colleagues knew how to insulate the product and explained how to do it. In mid-October 1917, after four months of work, they successfully produced several samples of the new product.

But the attitude of wholesalers towards such products is very cold, if not outright dismissive. This worry is the same one commonly heard among entrepreneurs today: “Wait until you get good results, your business might go bankrupt in a few months, and I can’t deal with you because of that risk.” ” He said: “Having only one product is also a problem. If I only buy one product from each manufacturer, then I have to deal with thousands of suppliers, which is impossible for you to have many products. Come back later."

To obtain urgently needed funds, Matsushita Konosuke and his wife Umeno pawned their clothes and some other personal belongings. They were still working hard despite a depressed business. Konosuke Matsushita tried to improve the design of the plug and tried to design other new products. One wholesaler, who was very fond of these adventurous young men, learned that one of his suppliers was in trouble. Sichuan North Electric Co., Ltd. has used ceramic insulating panels as fan bases in the past, but now plans to use an unbreakable base made of asbestos-like material. The electrical company desperately needed the new base but had no source.

The wholesaler suggested that Panasonic centralize its electrical plug project and produce 1,000 insulating plates. Panasonic agreed without hesitation. The wholesaler told him that if the shipment was fast, he would likely receive another 4,000 to 5,000 orders.

This job is labor-intensive and people get bored after a while. Because Konosuke and his wife Mai worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week, they delivered the goods before the end of December. The company's revenue is 160 yen, and material and mold expenses account for half, so the company's profitability is very good.

In early January, Matsushita Konosuke was told that the managers of Sichuan North liked this product, they liked the quality of the product, and liked the delivery speed. Therefore, Panasonic received a second batch of orders, this time to produce 200,000 insulation panels.

Unusual Strategy

The emphasis on quality and customer satisfaction makes this desperate company invincible. Since then, Matsushita has developed some corporate strategies that set him apart from his competitors: a focus on productivity and low costs (Matsushita knows that ideal new products must be 30% better in quality than other products and cost less than standard costs) 30%). Innovative marketing methods (providing free products for promotion), and after-sales service (increasing sales by reducing customer risks).

By 1922, the company was launching one or two new products almost every month, but none of the products achieved remarkable success, so Matsushita Konosuke began to look for bigger opportunities. In early 1922, he was discovered.

The demand for bicycle lights is huge and growing, but all products on the market have serious flaws. Candle-powered car lights are often blown out by the wind; acetylene car lights are too expensive and require constant refueling; battery-powered car lights can only be used for two or three hours.

Konosuke Matsushita is convinced that battery-powered car lights have a bright future if his company can make some major improvements. He wanted the lights to be simple in structure so they wouldn't break easily and be economical, which meant, look, the battery had to last for more than ten hours. After three or four months, he realized that only by changing the power supply could he design a completely new structure. After testing more than 100 samples, he designed a bicycle light that looks like a bullet and looks particularly cute. A new type of miniature light bulb has appeared on the market, making the future of bicycle lights bright. Matsushita Konosuke later wrote: "Due to this new bulb and the improvement of the battery structure, I found that this kind of car light can last for 30 to 50 hours."

Taking the sample, Matsushita Konosuke personally came to a store A store that once sold electronic products: "I told them the benefits of this new car light, hoping to hear surprises and praise, and then immediately offer to buy it." However, the results were not satisfactory, and the store owner had little interest in the new car. He said the company had been getting a bad reputation and was concerned that consumers might have difficulty purchasing batteries designed for use on bikes when they needed to be replaced.

Although he was surprised, Matsushita Konosuke was not disappointed. He visited other electrical appliance sellers again. To his dismay, the answer was the same everywhere. Panasonic tried another sales system - bicycle sellers. The logic is simple, bike shops should be better at appreciating the value of this new product. But even bike shops are reluctant to sell those disreputable products.

Although there were no orders, production continued as usual because Panasonic was confident in the new product. Not only did Panasonic not cut back on investment, it even decided to invest more in a new marketing strategy. In Osaka, he hired three salesmen to visit every bicycle shop. A salesperson at each store would leave some samples and light a lamp for demonstration at no charge to the store. They tell retailers that they will only collect money after the goods are sold and the store deems the customer satisfied. Interested retailers agree. They've never encountered anything like this before, and they won't risk it.

Difficult Survival

Panasonic bicycle lights have achieved great success, and many people even buy them for daily use, replacing traditional gas lamps. Panasonic began producing desktop lamps called National, a brand that in some parts of the world is as household a name as GE or Coca-Cola. Then the company was hit by the Great Recession. But Matsushita didn't lay off employees because he viewed the company as a family. He simply reduced production, turned factory workers into salespeople, and watched his company grow rapidly.

Consumers were alarmed by the state of the economy and slashed spending on non-essential items. And when electronics sellers see declining sales, they respond by buying fewer or even fewer new products. As a result, Panasonic's business has been increasingly severely affected. By December 1, 1929, the company's sales had dropped by more than half. Warehouses begin to grow because of backlogs of product, and financial disaster may suddenly become a reality.

Many in Panasonic's management believe that the only action that can be taken is to lay off a large number of employees, perhaps as little as half.

Corporate executives believe that only a large number of layoffs can save the company, but this may also bankrupt the company. The development momentum that has been maintained for 12 years will stop, good labor relations will be damaged, and the company's further development plans will also be shelved. And, as Japan's economy continues to deteriorate, the chances of laid-off employees finding work elsewhere are slim to none, leaving large numbers of workers trapped in poverty. Terrified and frustrated, managers asked Konosuke Matsushita what to do.

Matsushita Konosuke's order is like an unusual depression: "Reduce production by half, starting now, but do not lay off any employees. In order to reduce production, we do not lay off workers, but let them ( work in the factory for half a day. I guarantee that their salary will be the same as now, but all holidays will be cancelled. My company requires all employees to do their best to sell the backlog of goods.

Although in Japan. In labor relations, both Confucianism and feudal tradition emphasized a certain degree of patriarchal care, but this specific idea was very new in 1929, and the practice of switching from production staff to sales staff in response to the company's downturn had never occurred. When the company announced the policy to a room full of employees, people cheered and welcomed the idea because one person was spending many hours a week pushing inventory at half the volume of what they used to be, with overstocked merchandise. It disappeared quickly, and employees were soon able to return to normal work.

While thousands of Japanese companies were laying off workers and stagnating, Panasonic retained all employees and created a new business in radio products. , continue to develop the car lighting and battery business. Pay more attention to improving the standards of hiring employees to improve the quality of employees. At this time, Matsushita Konosuke visited the central temple of the Tenri Sect at the request of a customer and accepted the invitation. His intention was not to become a believer, but he left a deep impression on him as a believer who was not motivated by obvious financial gain. This visit sowed the seeds of a new entrepreneurial philosophy that would influence the future path of Matsushita's life.

In the temple, Matsushita Konosuke saw with his own eyes that in this huge institution, people worked with a dedication rarely seen outside of small businesses. "Everything I saw, From all that I saw, from the mountains of donated wood, there is something to be learned from the active dedication of these devotees to the construction of the temple. "If companies could somehow become as meaningful as religion, then their employees would be more satisfied with their jobs and their labor productivity would increase.

Two months later, Matsushita Konosuke 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 Osaka Electric City Club Conference Hall. In his opening remarks, Matsushita Konosuke reviewed. Their collective achievements: In just 15 years, the company has grown from its inception to the current 1,100 employees, annual sales of 3 million yen, 280 registered patents, and factories in 10 regions. Discussing a recent visit to a Tenri temple that inspired him to reexamine his views on the company, he went on to offer a now-widespread manifesto: “The mission of manufacturers should be to defeat poverty. To free the entire society from misfortune and create wealth for it. "Water is an important product that is cheap to produce and sell, so almost everyone can afford it." This is the goal that entrepreneurs and manufacturers should pursue: making all products look like tap water, which saves money. Save money and save money. When this goal is achieved, poverty will disappear from the face of the earth. "If he himself has lacked concern for others for 15 years, then these words will not have much credibility. However, his words are consistent with the company's business methods. This sentence only shows that he is stating his views on the company. At the same time, stand taller and have a broader vision. This new task connects the company's goals with the basic values ??of people.

Matsushita Konosuke asked everyone to gather together every morning and each employee read him aloud. Some people think that this is red tape and they are unwilling to do it, and some people think that it is too artificial and artificial. But Matsushita Konosuke refused to make any compromises until 1932 when Matsushita Konosuke gave a speech. The company already had a dedicated and energetic workforce, partly because of this paternalistic personnel system (employee organizations organized hundreds of cultural, entertainment and sports events in 1920) and partly because of the company's extraordinary communication activities (a company magazine began publishing in 1927), partly due to the credibility and example of the founders. However, in the years after 1933, this group of spiritually motivated and united employees became the company's competitive advantage. The company's main source of strength, despite its growing size, was a chronic failure to support the company. Many people in the company slowly began to believe that they were connected to a noble and just cause. /p>

Starting over

After World War II, Panasonic was once again in trouble as it built warships and aircraft for the Allied occupiers during World War II. The company's performance in the war imposed many extremely severe restrictions on it, and Matsushita Konosuke himself was almost expelled from the company.

But his paternalistic policies showed advantages: a level of loyalty he fostered led his company's union to organize a petition signed by 15,000 employees and ask Konosuke Matsushita to remain president. After World War II, Matsushita developed a highly adaptable corporate culture focused on customers, delivery speed, product quality, cooperative spirit, and delegating power to employees.

After the war, Konosuke Matsushita and his managers began a plan to rebuild the company. They employed business methods and concepts that worked well when the company was founded, but were abandoned during and after World War II. They began to seek more advanced technologies. The company has made a huge move and they are ambitious to expand their business not only in Japan but also around the world.

The company began to implement departmental management in 1933, aiming to enable product lines to quickly respond to the needs of their respective markets to promote the company's development. During the war these markets became increasingly irrelevant and the system was abandoned to focus on centralized management, the development of entire plants and economies of scale. After Konosuke Matsushita returned to power in 1950, he restored department management.

The company established three product groups, led by Konosuke himself, one led by his son-in-law Matsushita Masaharu, and the other led by Takahashi Arataro. First produced radio products, communication equipment, light bulbs, vacuum tubes. Another group produces dry batteries and certain equipment related to electric heaters. The third is to sell batteries and transformers in stock.

After being put into operation, two of the three new groups have achieved break-even, and the third group will not be led by Arataro Takahashi. When he checked Danggaoqiao's labor productivity, product quality, production technology, and workers' technical level, he found that these aspects still needed improvement. But for someone who has worked with Konosuke Matsushita for decades, these factors do not seem to be the core issues. Finally, Takahashi admitted that the division's poor performance had led to the abandonment before the war of important policies and strategies that had made Matsushita successful.

Takahashi called the workers together and told them that he studied why he could not create profits from multiple angles, and then delivered a speech like that of Matsushita Konosuke: "The fundamental reason is that we did not continue to follow the principles of Konosuke Matsushita." As long as we follow these principles and review our work based on these principles, we will succeed. If the product quality is not good and the sales are not good, we will have to stop production and improve the product quality. . If we produce inferior products, we will not contribute to society, which is against our principles.

In the morning, Takahashi revisited Matsushita's creed to let management. The workers re-evaluated their work based on these concepts. Therefore, dozens of working methods were changed. The scrap metal discarded during the war was collected and sold, and the factory was cleaned before starting work. Starting from the beginning, we conducted research on product quality and then made improvements.

In a short period of time, the company returned to its original production track and made improvements in product quality and production efficiency. Improvements were made, customer focus was restored, and worker morale improved. In early 1951, Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. was once again preparing to expand its operations. Until Matsushita's death in 1989, the company's growth rate was alarming.

A timeless example

As we look forward to the 21st century, facing a host of economic and industrial challenges, what potentially important lessons can we learn from the story of Konosuke Matsushita? Konosuke's life seems to be saying, ignore the centralized management, multi-layered, bureaucratic, typical companies of the mid-20th century that only focused on the company itself, with high costs and slow response.

In the next few decades. In a fiercely competitive economy, companies will have to look like Panasonic did in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s to succeed. Customers will be king; labor productivity will continue to improve; and employees will feel empowered and confident. The company's goals are accountable; speed of delivery is highly valued; and product standards are exceptionally high.

Forget about the typical senior manager of the mid-20th century who had to be extremely cautious in order to be successful. Their influence is greatly reduced, and sometimes they can only please their bosses. If senior managers want to succeed in a highly competitive and ever-changing environment, they must have a stronger sense of risk-taking, be more like a leader, and be more like a system maker. They need to be as focused on customers and production costs as Konosuke Matsushita is, be willing to accept optimistic and reasonable goals, spread these views widely, and help other companies conduct themselves to the highest standards.

First, stop thinking about the mid-20th century. If this trend continues, the story of successful people in the coming decades will no longer be about those who were educated between the ages of 5 and 25, and then 40 before retirement. Successful people will be those who are willing and focused on development like Konosuke Matsushita.