Konosuke Matsushita “Take Ownership of Every Job”—Stories Behind Panasonic History Episode 09

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Here, we share episodes about Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of the Panasonic Group, from our company’s historical records. In this episode, we introduce the “employee entrepreneurship” principle that Konosuke emphasized repeatedly to his employees.

In July 1933, Matsushita Electric left its birthplace in Ohiraki cho and moved a new head office in Kadoma, Osaka. The complex included factories, a training institute for employees, and a company dormitory.

Delegate everything

In May 1932, at the age of 38, Konosuke declared the true mission of Matsushita Electric^*1 and set its direction. A year later, he introduced the business division system.

He reorganized the company into three divisions by product segments, and established a new structure so that each division bore comprehensive responsibility for development, manufacturing, selling products, and maintaining profitable operations.

The First Division handled radios, the Second Division was responsible for lamps and dry cells, and the Third Division oversaw electric heaters and wiring devices. At the time, such an organizational structure was rare, and Konosuke’s approach can be regarded as an extremely advanced reform.

In later years, he would reflect on it as follows.

“In 1927, when the Electric Heating Appliance Department was established, I told a senior executive, ‘I want you to take charge,’ and gave him ultimate responsibility for the business. Simply put, I delegated everything to him. This was the beginning of the business division system at Matsushita Electric.”

In 1927, the Electric Heating Appliance Department developed the Super Iron. The division’s efforts to offer high quality products at affordable prices produced results, and the Super Iron became part of every household.

Five years later, in 1933, he explicitly positioned the business division system as his organizational structure. Konosuke stated that its aim was to ensure autonomous management and develop capable managers.

This organizational reform fostered a corporate culture where not only business division managers but every employee approached their work with a manager’s mindset. This became the foundation of Matsushita Electric’s approach to developing people.

Every employee thinks like a manager

As a young entrepreneur, Konosuke (pictured here in 1925) pondered the nature of business and human development.

The business division system soon gained traction, and Konosuke came to believe firmly in this approach.

“The business division system is a framework designed to develop people who can approach any type of work with a managerial mindset.”

On New Year’s Day, 1934, as a “New Year’s gift” to employees, he presented the motto, “Grasping the knack for management is worth a million dollars.” He explained its true meaning as follows.

“It is not enough to faithfully execute the tasks that are assigned to you. In every kind of work, you must apply a management mindset. When you come to understand that every job is a form of management, you will find room for improvement and make appropriate innovations and new discoveries. When the cumulative benefits of such efforts open your eyes to the knack for management, making even tens of millions of dollars is not so difficult.”

Behind these words was Konosuke’s belief that “Management is not solely the preserve of professional managers. Each individual can create value through ingenuity and creativity. I call on everyone to approach your work as though you were a president or proprietor of your own enterprise.”

In later years, Konosuke voiced his unwavering view of management with these words: “It is said that a business is its people, and this is completely true. No matter how well an organization is structured, it is people who bring it to life. The quality of management depends entirely on people.”

In 1931, the company released its first radio, the model R 31 (left). In 1933, under the leadership of Toshio Iue, who had been appointed to manage the First Business Division and would later found Sanyo Electric, the improved model R 48 (right) became a major hit. Moreover, by producing parts in house and adopting resin cases, the company achieved explosive popularity with the model R 11 (center), which was more compact and half the price of the R-48. Market share climbed to No. 1, and “National” (the trademark at the time) became synonymous with radios.

The employee entrepreneur mindset

Konosuke (68) at his villa in Higashiyama, Kyoto (now Matsushita Shinshin-an).

Employee entrepreneurship results when individuals apply the essence of the business division system’s principle of autonomous responsible management to their own work.

At the Annual Management Policy Meeting in January 1963, Konosuke, then 68, made the following appeal.

“Do not simply be content to do the job assigned to you. Take this attitude one step further and evaluate things with the mindset that you are independent managers practicing employee entrepreneurship at Matsushita Electric. If, in whatever you do, you act with the idea that your job is an enterprise, then it will lead you to all kinds of amazing realizations, which will give you great strength.”

These words were based on Konosuke’s experience at Osaka Electric Light Company^*2, which he joined at age 15. He distinguished himself by working diligently, and became the youngest employee in the company to be promoted to the coveted position of inspector. He recalled feeling “as if a paradise of freedom had opened up before me.”

This experience convinced Konosuke that “It is not enough merely to carry out the tasks assigned to you. True fulfillment arises when you apply your own creativity and ingenuity, and that in turn becomes the purpose of life.” In his later years, he wanted Matsushita Electric employees to feel the same way.

Konosuke quite often said, “Entrustment does not equal passing on the entire task. I trust, but I also verify. Ultimate responsibility in an organization rests with the section chief for the section, the department head for the department, and the president alone for the company.” At the same time, he believed that the smallest unit of responsibility was the individual employee.

This is why he often reminded his employees of the importance of adopting a managerial mindset and devoting themselves to employee entrepreneurship.

*1: Today’s Panasonic Holdings Corporation.
*2: A forerunner of Kansai Electric Power Company.

Konosuke Matsushita “Believe in Yourself and Others”—Stories Behind Panasonic History Episode 07

Konosuke Matsushita “With a True Mission, We Can Sustain Our Journey”—Stories Behind Panasonic History Episode 08

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