The Founder, Konosuke Matsushita
Learn about the founder of Panasonic and how he developed his business into a leading global corporation.
The Beginnings of an Electronics Giant
- Business establishment: 1918
- Designing and selling bullet-shaped, battery-powered bicycle lamps: 1923
- First use of the National brand: 1927
- Launching the "Super-Iron": 1927
- Starting radio production: 1931
- Announcing the company's true mission at the first company foundation meeting: 1932
- Implementing an autonomous management system - Divisional System: 1933
- Establishing a new factory and Head Office in Kadoma, Osaka: 1933
- Establishing an Employee Training Institute: 1934
- The Company Incorporated: 1935
- War in the Pacific Break Out Effort to Produce High Quality Products Continues: 1940
Postwar period to the Electric Application Boom
- Establishing the Labor Union: 1946
- Establishing the PHP Institute: 1946
- Visiting the United States: 1951
- Technical cooperation agreement with Philips: 1952
- Announcing a Five-Year Expansion Plan: 1956
- Electrification boom: late 1950's
- Decorated Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Queen of the Netherlands: 1958
- Establishing Matsushita Electric Corporation of America(MECA): 1959
Dreams Running Unbounded
- Resigning and becoming chairman: 1961
- Featured on the cover of TIME and LIFE magazines: 1962
- Making a speech at the 13th International Management Conference in New York: 1963
- Inviting the presidents of all sales companies and distributors to a three-day conference: 1964
- Announcing 'Dam Management': 1965
- Publishing "Japan at the Brink": 1974
- Visiting China: 1979
- Opening the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management: 1980
- Presenting the First Japan Prize: 1985
- Passes away: 1989