Matsushita Konosuke

Kōnosuke Matsushita (松下 幸之助, 27 November 1894 – 27 April 1989) was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic, which developed into the largest Japanese consumer electronics company.

Our social mission as a manufacturer is only realized when products reach, are used by, and satisfy the customer... We need to take the customer's skin temperature daily.

Stress is often a by-product of such passive or negative attitudes toward work. Paradoxically as it may sound, love of work can be the best medicine for workaholism.

Recognizing our responsibilities as industrialists, we will devote ourselves to the progress and development of society and the well-being of people through our business activities, thereby enhancing the quality of life throughout the world.

Quotes

• No matter how deep a study you make. What you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you really don't know what's going to happen until you do it.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita in: Cherry blossoms and robotics, 1983; Cited in: John R. Schermerhorn (1993), Management for productivity, p. 170

• When it rains, you put up an umbrella. That is the secret of success in business and management.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita. Not for Bread Alone: A Business Ethos, a Management Ethic, 1984. p. 111

• Our social mission as a manufacturer is only realized when products reach, are used by, and satisfy the customer... We need to take the customer's skin temperature daily.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita in: Nihon Seisansei Honbu (1984), Strategies for productivity: international perspectives, p. 124

• In order to do a good job a person must like what he or she is doing... If you do things just because you have to, then you will never enjoy work. Nor will you do a good job if you do it simply out of a sense of duty. Stress is often a by-product of such passive or negative attitudes toward work. Paradoxically as it may sound, love of work can be the best medicine for workaholism.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita in: The Mirror, (1989), Vol. 25, p. 18

• The untrapped mind is open enough to see many possibilities, humble enough to learn from anyone and anything, forbearing enough to forgive all, perceptive enough to see things as they really are, and reasonable enough to judge their true value.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita (1989) Nurturing Dreams My Path in Life. Quoted in: Tony Kippenberger (2002), Leadership Styles: Leading 08.04. p. 73

• Recognizing our responsibilities as industrialists, we will devote ourselves to the progress and development of society and the well-being of people through our business activities, thereby enhancing the quality of life throughout the world.
  • Kōnosuke Matsushita, quoted in: Philip Kotler (2012). Rethinking Marketing: Sustainable Marketing Enterprise in Asia. p. 82.

Quest for prosperity: the life of a Japanese industrialist. 1988

Kōnosuke Matsushita (1988), Quest for prosperity: the life of a Japanese industrialist.

• It is a kind of law of nature. The goal one aims for can rarely be reached by a direct road.
  • p. 47

• Sometimes the proposals are good; but one must be cautious of tempting offers that may not derive from the best intentions.
  • p. 58

• In business as well, if you are to be successful you must always win. An enterprise will grow in accordance with the amount of effort you plow into it.
  • p. 58

• If it does not grow, even though you are working hard, it is not because of unfavorable circumstances, bad timing, or bad luck. ... of the past has shown, it is during the bad times that the skilled manager lays firm foundations for future growth.
  • p. 58

• I underlined my conviction that running a business and managing an enterprise were not merely a private concern but a public endeavor.
  • p. 232

Quotes about Matsushita Konosuke

• Matsushita Konosuke is known in Japan as the ‘god of management’. From an impoverished background, he founded a small electronics business and built this into a global corporation, becoming Japan’s richest man. His philosophy of management, based around the concept of ‘peace through prosperity’ included such concepts as low-priced, mass-produced consumer goods to enhance the quality of everyday living, mutual support and respect between the corporation and its employees, and close relations with distributors and customers. His ideas were widely admired and imitated in Japan, and in the 1980s became popular in the USA and Europe as well.
  • Morgen Witzel, Fifty key figures in management. Routledge, 2004. p. 200