When was panasonic established

He worked at almost every job in his companyon the assembly lines, in the accounting officeeven emptying trash cans. He also reportedly consulted a fortune teller on important business decisions. Matsushita lived in Nishinomiya in Hyogo Prefecture. Located on a 6,square-meter lot, his house had 20 rooms, including shoin-style traditional Japanese rooms and a Western lounge in addition to a spacious Japanese garden.

The house was started in and took 1. It took so long because Matsushita wanted it to be a typical Japanese structure built to last years. Matsushita and his family lived in the house mainly before World War II. Late Zen master Taiki Tachibana, a prominent figure in Buddhist circles in Kyoto, reportedly told Konosuke Matsushita, the late founder of home appliance giant Panasonic Corp.

This must be corrected under your responsibility. This episode was recounted in the book "Cha no yu gatari, hito gatari" stories of tea ceremonies and people written by then Hakuhodo Inc.

President Michitaka Kondo, who was present at the tea ceremony in the autumn of In the book, published by Tankosha Publishing Co. Four years later, Matsushita founded the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management to nurture human resources with the skills to manage state affairs. By the end of , the company had 20 employees and was producing 5, plugs a month. In Matsushita, invented a dry-cell battery for bicycles lamps that lasted 30 hours, or 10 times longer than existing batteries.

By the end of that year the company was selling 5, batteries a month. By the end of , it was selling , bicycle lamps a month as well as batteries, irons and other products. He didn't lay off any workers or reduce their pay.

Instead he gave them their full salaries for working a half day in their factories and spending the rest of the day going out and encouraging people to buy Matsushita products.

The strategy worked, The workers ended up being very determined salesmen. Within half a year sales rebounded to normal levels. Matsushita began producing radio receivers in By , it was Japan's largest producer of radios. It also made electric fixtures, cooking heaters, storage batteries, phonographs and motors as well as bicycle lamps and batteries. In , it began producing incandescent light bulbs. Matsushita Corp. Konosuke Matsushita was originally supposed to be ousted from Japanese industry for his involvement in the war but was removed from the list after Matsushita employees petitioned the Americans for his removal from the list.

During the s, 60s and 70s, Matsushita expanded its consumer products divisions and began making transistor radios, televisions, stereos, tape recorders, microwave ovens and video tape recorders. In it made its first black-and-white television. In it produced the first color television in Japan. In , it purchased Motorola's television operation in the United States and Canada. It sold million televisions by ; million in and million in Panasonic was the first television maker to produce million televisions.

By , Matsushita had 83, employees and subsidiaries. It was the world's largest producer of televisions, the sixth largest industrial corporation in Japan and the 30th largest industrial corporation outside the United States. Panasonic has been an Olympic sponsor since and has served as the official broadcast equipment supplier for several games.

In , it supplied state-of-the-art digital audio and video equipment, including flat-screen televisions, professional digital video cameras, and DVD recorders for the Beijing Olympics,. Matsushita words of wisdom Panasonic prides itself on its corporate culture and looking after its employees.

A favorite catch phrase for the company is that it has built people not just products. Matsushita was the first Japanese company to give workers a five-day work week, provide equal pay for women and develop a corporate spiritual philosophy. It sponsors classes in flower arrangement and meditation and other things for its employees and hosts sporting events. Matsushita has had few labor disputes and never had a strike.

Matsushita encourages employees to offer suggestions on how to improve productivity. In one year there were , suggestions. It also set up a "self-control room" outfit with bamboo staves and a dummy of Konosuke Matsushita workers could use to take out their frustrations.

The room also had distorted mirrors to help employees to relax. Young Panasonic workers and engineers do well in national and international skills competitions in categories such as lathe work, machine assembly and sheet metal working.

By the end of , the company employed 20 people. The fixtures were initially sold through a single wholesale outlet, but this arrangement broke down when sales fell due to heavy price cutting by other manufacturers. However, as Matsushita began dealing directly with other wholesalers, sales grew and the company found itself on firm footing. An improved attachment plug was the very first product manufactured and put on the market upon the establishment of Matsushita Electric in The plug was made from a resin, and the design was quite new and unique in those days.

Ideas, such as recycling the metal screw-in sections of used light bulbs, were put into practice to facilitate the production of high precision products. They even sold off some of their most valuable possessions to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Matsushita diversified his product offerings, eventually fulfilling an order for electric fan insulation plates. This gave the trio the means to move into a bigger house, and Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works was born.

The former recycled the metal screws from used light bulbs. By the end of , the company had grown to 20 employees. Matsushita was ahead of his time as far as his management approach. Another unconventional leadership tactic Matsushita spearheaded was transparency.

In the early s, worker retention was a major problem in Japan, first due to competition among firms, then because of economic downturn. By the end of , the company had 50 employees and a new factory. Late in that decade, inventory began to pile up. We will continue to pay the same wages they are getting now, but there will be no holidays. All employees should do their best to sell inventory. Around this time, the company began producing irons and radios.

Matsushita laid out more of his business philosophies. Ever the long-term visionary, he also proposed a year plan for the company, divided into 10 year periods that would be further divided into a year construction phase, a year active phase and a five-year fulfillment phase. This might make Matsushita sound like a top-down manager, but he was actually quite egalitarian. He also suffered from a range of health problems and delegated work to managers.

As the decades went on, Panasonic produced more and more new products. Matsushita makes his first visit to the United States. Agitator-type Washing Machine. Technical cooperation agreement with Philips lnked. Sales and finance companies established. Construction of the Central Research Laboratory. Beginning of the home appliance era. Overseas manufacturing rapidly built-up. Company organized with Konosuke Matsushita as chairman and Masaharu Matsushita as president.

Reorganization of the sales and distribution network. Establishment of the five-day work week. Fully-automated Component Insertion Machine "Panasert". Panasonic meets the consumer movement.

Konosuke Matsushita retires to the position of executive adviser. The company builds a new management team with Toshihiko Yamashita as president and Masaharu Matsushita as chairman.

Joint venture company with Beijing established. Death of company founder Konosuke Matsushita.