May 24, 2012

Autonomous Responsible Management and Employee Entrepreneurship by Konosuke Matsushita

Every year during the memorial week of Panasonic's founder Konosuke Matsushita, a special exhibition is held at Konosuke Matsushita Museum in Osaka. This year's special exhibition under the theme "Autonomous Responsible Management and Employee Entrepreneurship," will be held until ~~June 30, 2012~~ July 14, 2012.¹ The exhibition shares words of wisdom from the founder himself as well as Konosuke Matsushita's ways to explore autonomous responsible management and employee entrepreneurship from the direct experiences of various managers during the time when Konosuke Matsushita lead the company.

Panels of the Words Spoken by Konosuke Matsushita Summarized

In the first section of the exhibition, the words spoken by the founder to new recruits on employee entrepreneurship is summarized in nine different points. In addition, two management meeting videos titled "Conglomerate of Independent Entities" and "The Quest for Autonomous Responsible Management," reveals times when Konosuke Matsushita had to lecture the directors of the company in harsh tones.

In the second section, twelve episodes are introduced to support the concept of autonomous responsible management which Konosuke proposed.

In the panels of the third section, Associate Morimasa Ogawa, the former president of Matsushita Housing Products Co., Ltd. (current Panasonic Appliances Company), talks about his experience on learning autonomous responsible management from Konosuke Matsushita. In particular, Ogawa makes the comment that the founder was "unrelentingly stern on management, but full of love for people"

In the last corner of the exhibition, a video interview with Panasonic's President Fumio Ohtsubo titled "Everyone Must Practice Autonomous Responsible Management with High Aspirations" has Ohtsubo speak of own experiences and actions to practice the founder's examples of autonomous responsible management today.

Aside from the special exhibition, there is a special corner dedicated to the memory of the late Special Corporate Advisor Toshihiko Yamashita, a former president of Panasonic, who passed away on February 28, 2012. On display are photos, along with videos and records of events that occurred at the time when he was president.

About the Special Exhibition

Title	"Autonomous Responsible Management and Employee Entrepreneurship" by Konosuke Matsushita
Date	The exhibition will be available until ~~June 30, 2012~~ July 14, 2012.
Location	Panasonic Konosuke Matsushita Museum 1006 Oaza-Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture 571-8501
Hours of Operation	9:00AM-7:00PM Monday- Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM Saturday Closed Sunday and Japanese Public Holidays
Admission	Free

1. Updated on June 21, 2012.

Previous Special Exhibitions

Panasonic Management Philosophy from "My Way of Life and Thinking"

"My Way of Life and Thinking" is the self-told story of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic Corporation. It was published in 1954, after having been distributed internally as a collection of various articles that had previously been printed in Hoichi-Kai Kaishi, the in-house magazine of the company.

Explore Panasonic Founder Konosuke Matsushita's Global Perspective

Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic Corporation, had always had a long vision and not long after the founding of Panasonic, he had already turned his gaze toward the bustling economy of the world outside of Japan.　

"What Do Consumers Expect from an Electric Age? Product Development Starting with the Customer."

This special exhibition uses actual examples to illustrate how the founder, Konosuke Matsushita, and the various other figures in Panasonic have always listened earnestly to the customers and devoted every effort to developing and promoting products that they genuinely want and need -- right from the company's foundation to the present day.