Great Figures of the World Series | Episode 1: Konosuke Matsushita - Founder of Panasonic and the Man Who Made Home Appliances Accessible to the Masses

If you make good products, they will sell.
The products he made based on that belief did not sell at all.

That was Konosuke Matsushita's first reality.

Konosuke Matsushita
An entrepreneur who built a global company from scratch and shaped the Japanese management model.
He is also known as the "God of Management."
1894–1989 | Founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial

[The Boy Who Lost Everything]

Born in Wakayama in 1894.
His family was originally wealthy, but their life changed completely after his father's business failed.
At age 9, he moved to Osaka and began working as an apprentice.

He had no formal education (dropped out of elementary school).
He was physically weak and collapsed many times.

Even so, he kept working.

If I stop here, nothing will remain.
He knew at least that much.

[The Origin of Business] (Ages 10–15)

Apprenticeship at a bicycle shop.
What he learned here was
more about the sense of business than technical skills.

Trust over sales.
How to view the customer in front of you.

Business is built on trust.
Customers are not just "people to sell to," but "people to engage with."
The answers are found on the front lines.

This experience
would later lead to the construction of his sales network.

[Encounter with Technology] (Ages 15–20)

After that,
he gave up on an industry that had stopped growing and moved into the world of electricity.
He worked as a wireman at Osaka Electric Light,
and eventually became an inspector.

During that time, he felt a sense of discomfort.

It was taken for granted that electrical products were inconvenient.
They were difficult to use, yet no one tried to change them.
They should be able to be made better.
If so, I will do it.

[The Challenge of an Unknown]

1918, age 23.
He went independent.

He had no capital and no backing.
A small job started with a few people in a rented room.

This would become the future "Panasonic."

[Rightness Is Not Immediately Understood]

The first thing he made was an improved electrical socket.

Easy to plug in. Easy to use.
He felt a positive response.
However, it didn't sell.

Even when he went to make sales, he was turned away.

"We have no trouble with the current one."
"There is no reason to go out of our way to change it."

Something right is not accepted.
Only the inventory kept growing.
Funds were dwindling, and only time was passing.

Should I keep going like this?
That thought crossed his mind many times.
The reason he didn't quit, however,
was because he "could not believe it was wrong."

[The Turning Point Came from a Small Connection]

The turning point was an exhibition.

What he brought was a "two-way socket."
One outlet could be used for two things.

It is common now, but it was a rare idea at the time.

Someone stopped in front of it.
They looked at it for a while and said this.

"This is great!"

It wasn't a major event.
But it was different from what had come before.
It was the moment it was first accepted as having value.

From there, the flow began to change little by little.
Orders started coming in.
Trust was born.
What had been on the verge of stopping began to move.

[Things That Accumulate]

Time spent without sales.
Time spent being misunderstood.

What he kept thinking about during that time,
the empathy of one person.

That accumulation changed the flow.

Eventually, the business expanded.
Not just electrical products.

Distribution, finance, housing, education, philosophy...
It spread into life itself.

[The Opponent He Was Fighting]

It was not a competitor.
It was not price or scale.
He was facing only one thing.

"The inconvenience of the user"

Looking back, it has a strange shape.
He did not fight large corporations head-on.
He didn't even stand on the same playing field.

Yet, before anyone knew it, it had spread.

[Was This a 'Strategy'?]

If you look only at the results,
it is the success story of the global company Panasonic.

However, within it,
there is a very strong pattern.

・Avoid head-on competition
・Enter markets that large corporations ignore
・Make luxury goods accessible to the common people
・Prioritize widespread adoption over profit
・Look at life improvement rather than products
・Accumulate small instances of empathy
・Design the distribution system itself
・Systematize everything, including employee training

It is an extremely life-infrastructure-oriented structure.

Matsushita did not simply want to sell electrical appliances.
What he was looking at was,

"How the lives of common people would change."

That is why he connected:
Wiring devices

　↓
Home appliances
　↓
Mass adoption
　↓
Nationwide sales network
　↓
Becoming a life infrastructure
Moreover, he did not fight large corporations head-on.

He entered places the strong ignored,
improved small inconveniences,

lowered prices,
promoted adoption,
and entered into life itself.
In other words, what he was building was
not a home appliance manufacturer.

It was "the standard of Japanese life"
itself.

・Do not collide head-on

・Shift the playing field

・See the essence of value
・Create a flow from small empathy

Whether to see this as a strategy or a result,
that is something we cannot know now.

But one thing is certain:
he found signs within the time when things weren't selling,
and he made good use of them.

[Summary]

In Konosuke Matsushita's life as an entrepreneur,
many of the actions he took
align with the patterns of the "Thirty-Six Stratagems."
Finally, for reference, I will introduce a few of them.

1. The point of avoiding head-on collisions
Structure similar to the Thirty-Six Stratagems: "3rd Stratagem: Borrow a knife to kill" + "6th Stratagem: Make a feint to the east while attacking in the west"

• He did not fight large corporations on price or scale

• He entered from the niche area of "electrical sockets"

• He avoided the main battlefields of the existing market

This was a move that did not collide head-on,
but shifted the very place of battle.
➡"He moved to a playing field where he could win before fighting"


2. The point of shifting the playing field
Elements similar to the Thirty-Six Stratagems: "11th Stratagem: Sacrifice the plum tree to save the peach tree" + "30th Stratagem: Make the host and the guest exchange roles"

• He shifted the axis from "performance competition" to "ease of use"

• He saw not just electrical products, but the "elimination of daily inconveniences"

• Later, he incorporated not only manufacturing but also distribution and finance

This was not merely differentiation, but a move that changed the rules of the game itself.
➡
"Rewrote the definition of the battle"③ The point of changing the flow through empathy


Elements of the Thirty-Six Stratagems: "13th Stratagem: Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake + 27th Stratagem: Feign Madness but Keep Your Balance"

• "Show them first" at exhibitions

• Start with a small empathy (just one person)

• Do not expand all at once, but create a flow

What is particularly important here is that
he did not try to capture the entire market from the beginning.
➡"First moved one person, and created a flow from there"


What Konosuke Matsushita was doing was
"Creating a structure where he could win without fighting, and involving people in it"
He was a rare manager.

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If there are any articles you are interested in, please take a look.

Posted Article Index ★ You can search for articles of interest here
Posted Article Index #2 ★ Explains the benefits of reading each series
Sun Tzu's Art of War Series Table of Contents ※ You can check all 42 episodes
Thirty-Six Stratagems Series Table of Contents
Great Figures of the World Series | Index