23 Facts About Konosuke Matsushita

Konosuke Matsushita was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic, the largest Japanese consumer electronics company.

Konosuke Matsushita was born on 27 November 1894 in Wakayama Prefecture.

Konosuke Matsushita's father was an affluent landlord in the farming village of Wasa and was one of the wealthiest men of his community.

Shortly after Konosuke Matsushita left school, he was sent away to Osaka to become an apprentice for a hibachi store.

Konosuke Matsushita then applied for a job with the Osaka Electric Light Company, an electrical utility company.

Related searches

In 1917, Konosuke Matsushita left Osaka Electric Light Company to set up his own company.

Konosuke Matsushita attempted to peddle the samples to wholesalers but was unsuccessful because he did not offer more than one product.

Konosuke Matsushita's assistants left his company and he was left with only his wife and brother-in-law, Toshio Iue, who proved to be a capable salesman and manager.

Konosuke Matsushita's products were originally marketed under the name brand of "National" and later moved on to the more recognizable names of Panasonic, Quasar and Technics.

Konosuke Matsushita created an oval lamp that used a battery for power and a lightbulb for illumination.

Konosuke Matsushita had to personally market his products to retail bicycle shops.

Konosuke Matsushita learned a very important lesson in terms of growing a company while he was trying to introduce his bicycle lamp to wholesalers.

Konosuke Matsushita realized that even if he had a product that was superior to anything out in the market it would not matter if he could not sell the product.

Konosuke Matsushita was structured as a parent company and branches of divisions that specialized in a particular product were created.

In 1947, Konosuke Matsushita lent his brother-in-law Toshio to an underused manufacturing plant to manufacture bicycle lamps, a business that eventually became Sanyo Electric.

From 1950 to 1973, Konosuke Matsushita's company became one of the world's largest manufacturers of electrical goods, sold under well-known trademarks including Panasonic and Technics.

Konosuke Matsushita stepped down as President of Panasonic in 1961 and was succeeded as president by his son-in-law, Masaharu Konosuke Matsushita.

Konosuke Matsushita's two grandsons are Masayuki Matsushita, who is the current vice-chairman of Panasonic, and Hiro Matsushita, who is a former driver in the Champ Car series and owns Swift Engineering, an aerospace firm and race car constructing company which he bought in 1991.

Hiro Konosuke Matsushita is the chairman of Swift Xi, which located in Kobe, Japan.

Konosuke Matsushita remained active in Panasonic's operations until his complete retirement in 1973.

Since 1954, Konosuke Matsushita gained a significant shareholding in manufacturer JVC by forming an alliance.

In retirement, Konosuke Matsushita focused on developing and explaining his social and commercial philosophies and wrote 44 published books.

Konosuke Matsushita was honoured at Stanford University by endowing a Professorship in International Strategy and Management.