Panasonic Global Employees Inspired by Founder’s Wisdom – My Favorite Founder’s Words Campaign

Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, was a renowned business thought-leader and his Words of Wisdom, the collections of his knowledge and insightful words, are still serving as the source of inspiration for Panasonic employees around the world today.

Most recently, Panasonic’s Basic Business Philosophy (BBP), based on the founder’s philosophy, was recently updated by Yuki Kusumi, Group CEO of Panasonic, for the first time in 60 years as the company transitioned to a holding company structure. Since then, Panasonic’s operating companies worldwide are focusing on raising employee’s awareness and deepening their understanding of the BBP as well as helping them to apply these principles in their daily lives.

Along with these internal efforts, Panasonic launched its first “My Favorite Founder’s Words Campaign” to share the Words of Wisdom widely with the next generation. In this campaign, a total of eighteen employees from Japan and India shared their favorite Matsushita Konosuke’s quotes and their personal stories on how those words have inspired and resonated with them.

Their testimonies were converted into a short video which was then shared via Panasonic’s global/regional social media platforms.

At Panasonic Life Solutions India, the founder’s philosophy and the company’s BBP are communicated via various channels, including at chairman’s townhall meetings, monthly morning meetings, BBP handbooks, and internal communications campaigns. In India, Hindi and English versions of the BBP handbook are made accessible online to all employees.

Nine employees from Panasonic Life Solutions India shared their personal episodes related to the founder’s wisdom for this campaign and we are happy to introduce those stories below. 

#1: Courage 

• By Jaishree Aggarwal, Business Chief, Industrial Division
• Quote: “No matter how many times you fail, if you don’t lose the courage to try again, success will surely be yours.”
• My Story:

Being a bright child in academics, I always wanted to finish my post-graduation study at a good business school. I got married at 22 and became a mom at 24. I still tried to study but I could not achieve work/life balance and failed two times by dropping out of the course. After coming across Konosuke Matsushita’s quote, my inner self was triggered again not to lose courage and to try again. Even my mentor and reporting manager motivated me to try again. At the age of 37, I cracked one of the toughest exams and got into the top business school—“Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad.” This year, while passionately working at Panasonic, I have successfully completed my Master’s in Management Studies. Yes! I did it and I feel proud to be working for Panasonic.

#2: Success and Failure

• By Gunjan Sachdev, Business Chief, Panasonic Toughbook
• Quote: “If you keep on trying until you succeed, you won’t fail. The sole result will be success.”
• My Story:

For the last couple of years under COVID-19, we all went through uncertain times as we have seen many organizations closed or partially closed. Under these circumstances, I was inspired by our founder and I felt that we need to face this crisis bravely by continuing to think innovatively and change our approach so that business would not suffer.

At our team, we changed our approach and started reaching out to new verticals for business leads. Leveraging both video conferencing and face-to-face discussions, we continued to approach customers with new proposals. Our customers appreciated our proposals and some of them invited us to do demos and proof of concepts. After a lot of effort, we acquired top 20 customers in a target business field and our Toughbook team reached record sales last year. I would like to thank our founder for his inspiring views and learnings which helped us to not only achieve success in business but also do service to society.

#3: New Perspectives

• By Bhavya Nathawat, Senior Executive, Corporate Strategy
• Quotes: “You can ascend to the summit of Mt. Fuji from either the west slope or the east. If you choose to change your direction, any number of new paths will open up before you.”
• My Story:

The reason why this quote from Mr. Konosuke Matsushita resonates with me is that I have always believed in the fact that it is not what we look at that matters. Instead, what actually matters is how we look at things. We come across certain situations that we are not used to or certain obstacles in our lives which elicit fear, frustration and confusion, preventing us from doing what we actually want to do. But fact of the matter is, it is not the obstacle which holds us back but the way we look at it and perceive it. If we start looking at these obstacles as an opportunity to improve our situation, our mind will automatically start working in that direction. Over the years, I came to understand the fact that if we wish to live a beautiful life, we must learn to see the beauty in life. So rather than being afraid of what can go wrong, we should start getting excited about what can go right.

#4: Education

• By Tejashri Amogh, Assistant Manager, Human Resources
• Quotes: “Be keen on educating people and be humble to be educated in return. Both are essential for developing anything.”
• My Story:

Providing awareness training sessions on POSH (prevention of Sexual Harassment) Act Compliance is an important part of my job and I have completed my 3 months POSH certified professional course from ICSI-New Delhi. Our founder’s quote regarding education has always motivated me to complete my professional course successfully. After getting the certificate, I feel pleasure in applying the learnings from this course into my awareness sessions and teaching employees about the important provisions of the act in a simpler and practical manner. This small yet important contribution is surely helping in building a culture of respect, dignity and self-esteem in the organization. 

The first campaign ended successfully, garnering high engagement across social media platforms. Moving forward, Panasonic is planning to continue to host similar campaigns, inviting its global employees to participate.