Panasonic Electronic is Japan's leading appliance and consumer electronics maker (it's larger than Sony). By a few measures, it's (or was) the world's biggest consumer electronics manufacturer and is one of Japan's biggest and most renowned companies.
Based in Kadoma City, Osaka, it's countless subsidiaries and has produced products that were sold under the names Panasonic, Technics, Quasar, Matsushita, National, and JVC. Panasonic makes Viera televisions, and Lumix cameras are the world's biggest maker of plasma TVs.
Panasonic is currently a major manufacturer of flat screen tv, automotive electronics, and semiconductors. It's one of the few companies to create healthy gains in the horizontal screen television enterprise. In 2010, Panasonic retained its lead to global patent filings with 2,154. ZTE Corp, China's second-biggest maker of mobile network equipment, was No.2.
Panasonic made a group net profit of roughly $850 million in fiscal 2010-2011, contrary to a drop of $1.18 billion the preceding year. The company's robust earnings offset the yen's strength and the effect of the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Panasonic found its net losses narrow in fiscal 2009 and has been back in the black in the interval from April 2010 to December 2010. As of 2011, Panasonic had 380,000 workers. It said at that time it intended to cut 30,000 workers by 2013. It had cut about 10,000 employees in 2010. An amazing model from this company is recommended in Panasonic AC Review.
Konosuke Matsushita
The founder and ex-CEO of Panasonic Corporation, Konosuke Matsushita, is one of Japan's greatest success stories. He began working as an apprentice in a bicycle retailer at age 13 and later got a job using Osaka Electric design lamp parts when he revealed some of his interventions to his boss that he was told that they were unworthy.
In 1917, aging 22, Matsushita quit his job in the Osaka Electric and began his own firm with $50 in savings and $50 in loans in the bigger of two chambers in his rented home. Matsushita worked together with his brother-in-law and the founder of Sanyo, Toshio Iue. Their first product was nothing but a two-way light socket, and it was a big seller.
Known as the "God of Management," Matsushita thought that practical experience was important. He worked at virtually every job in his company--about the assembly lines, at the accounting office--draining garbage cans. He reportedly consulted a fortune teller on significant business decisions.
Matsushita lived in Nishinomiya at Hyogo Prefecture. Situated on a 6,100-square-meter great height, his house had 20 rooms, including shoin-style traditional Japanese rooms along with a Western lounge along with a spacious Japanese garden.
His house construction began in 1937, and it took 1.2 years to assemble. It took pretty long because Matsushita needed it to be a standard Japanese structure built to last 300 decades. Matsushita and his family lived at home mostly before World War II.
Late Zen master Taiki Tachibana, a dominant figure in Buddhist circles at Kyoto, reportedly stated Konosuke Matsushita, the late founder of Panasonic Corp., home appliance giant to his face: "Japan has become a dreadful place Because of you, shedding their compassion and just seeking material gratification. This must be adjusted under your responsibility."
This episode was recounted in the publication "Cha no yu gatari, hito gatari" (tales of tea ceremonies and individuals ) written by subsequently Hakuhodo Inc. President Michitaka Kondo, who was present in the tea ceremony in the autumn of 1975.
In the book, printed by Tankosha Publishing Co., Kondo recalled that Matsushita remained amicable and appeared to be deep in thought following this rebuke. Four decades later, Matsushita founded the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management to nurture human resources with the skills to handle state affairs.
Early History of Matsushita (Panasonic)
In 1918, at age 23, Matsushita founded Matsushita Electric and moved into a two-story home, and converted the three chambers on the floor into a workshop at which his brother-in-law and Matsushita, his wife, made bases and plugs for electric fans. At the end of 1918, the company had 20 employees and was generating 5,000 plugs a month.
In 1923 Matsushita, devised a dry-cell battery for bike lamps which lasted 30 hours, or 10 times more than existing batteries. By the end of the year, the business was selling 5,000 batteries a month. From the end of 1929, it was selling 150,000 bicycle lamps per month in addition to batteries, irons, and other goods.
Matsushita defied conventional wisdom when the Depression of 1929 hit Japan. He didn't lay off any employees or reduce their pay. Instead, he gave them their total salaries for working half a day in their factories and spending the remainder of the day going out and encouraging people to purchase Matsushita products. This strategy worked very well; the workers ended up being so determined salesmen. Within six months, earnings rebounded to normal levels.
Panasonic Grows and Grows
Matsushita began producing radio receivers in 1930. From 1934, it was Japan's largest producer of radios. It also made electrical fixtures, cooking heaters, storage batteries, phonographs, and motors in addition to bicycle batteries and lamps. In 1936, it started producing incandescent light bulbs.
Matsushita Corp., for example, every other firm in Japan, engaged in war efforts during World War II. Konosuke Matsushita was initially assumed to be ousted from the Japanese industry because of his participation in the war but had been taken out of the record after Matsushita employees petitioned the Americans for his removal from the list.
Throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Matsushita enlarged its consumer products branches and began producing transistor radios, televisions, stereos, tape recorders, and microwave ovens, and videotape recorders. In 1952 it created its initial black-and-white tv. In 1960 it generated the first color tv in Japan.
In 1974, it bought Motorola's television performance in the USA and Canada. It sold 100 million TVs by 1985; 200 million in 1998. Further, it sold 300 million in the year 2008. Panasonic was the first tv manufacturer to make 300 million televisions.
From 1976, Matsushita had 83,000 workers and 500 subsidiaries. It had been the world's biggest manufacturer of televisions, the sixth-largest industrial company in Japan, and also the 30th largest industrial business away from the USA.
Panasonic continues to be an Olympic sponsor since 1984 and has since served as the official broadcast equipment provider for many games. In 2008, it provided state-of-the-art digital sound and video gear, such as flat-screen televisions, professional digital video cameras, and DVD recorders such as the Beijing Olympics.
Panasonic Workers
Panasonic prides itself on its own company culture and looking after its own employees. A favorite catchphrase for your business is the fact that it's assembled by people, not only merchandise.
Matsushita has been the first Japanese firm to provide employees a five-day job, provide equal pay for women and produce a corporate religious doctrine. It sponsors courses in flower arrangement and meditation along with other things because of its workers and hosts sporting occasions. Matsushita has had several labor disagreements and never needed a hit.
Matsushita encourages workers to provide suggestions about the best way best to enhance productivity. In 1 year, there were 800,000 tips. In addition, it set up a"self-control area" ensemble with bamboo staves along with a pint of Konosuke Matsushita employees could use to carry their frustrations out. The area also had twisted mirrors to aid workers in relaxing.
Young Panasonic employees and engineers succeed in domestic and global skills competitions in classes like lathe work, machine assembly, and sheet metalworking. From the machine assembly class, competitors produce approximately ten machine components and build them period within seven hours according to a delegated layout. A trade school in Kadoma Osaka trains engineers and workers for these contests.
Changes at Panasonic
Panasonic has had a reputation for being slow to move and accommodate and lacking invention. It rather copied products and designs of opponents and introduced its own variations since the goods became popular.
From the mid-1990s, malfunctions at a collection of Panasonic products prompted the company to inspect and fix 430,0000 defective refrigerators and televisions as issues. At precisely the exact same time, Panasonic was not able to come up with imaginative products. The period opened the company to criticism and placed off soul searching inside the provider.
During the downturn of the 1990s, Panasonic fortunes started to decline, along the organization's long-cherished flaws were changed. The business started moving more and more of its own operations abroad, especially to China, and changing workers to lucrative businesses.
There was a debate of laying workers off, but a fantastic effort was made for workers to change their work habits and update or accept early retirement rather than put them off. There was some discussion that Panasonic could move its headquarters in Osaka to Tokyo.
Panasonic includes a Massive manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in China. Factories there create everything from washing machines to rice cookers, such as markets in China, Japan, and elsewhere.
"Panasonic purchased a controlling stake in Sanyo, Japan's biggest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, in 2008 and made it a wholly-owned firm annually to accelerate its growth in battery companies. Additionally, it united Panasonic Electric Works, making lighting systems, electric wiring fittings, and electronics in 2011.
Panasonic Name Change
In 2008 Matsushita announced it was changing its name and its own National merchandise lineup to Panasonic. The title change was approved by shareholders in June 2008 and moved into effect in October 2008 with a language from the organization's president to"create a fresh start."
In Japan abruptly, the TV was stuffed with Panasonic advertisements which previously would have been for National. From the end of March 2010, each organization's products will take the Panasonic name.
Panasonic spent an estimated $400 million on the title change. Among the largest expenses was shifting all of the indications from National to Panasonic in the 18,000 outlets in Japan that market Panasonic products. The army also insured the cost of altering worker cards and business pins.
Panasonic has employed the name of its creator as well as the newest name National for at least 80 decades. Underneath the title change to Panasonic has been the belief that strengthening its own corporate brand image was crucial to competing effectively in an extremely competitive international marketplace and distancing itself somewhat in the Matsushita manner of accomplishing things.
The transfer was taken as markets in Japan were worsening as well as the upcoming movie than lie in selling goods overseas. Panasonic lags behind Sony in global fame. In a poll by a British market research company, the Panasonic brand title arrived in 78th, considerably lower compared to rivals like Samsung, 21st, and Sony, 25th.
Panasonic Management
After the departure of Konosuske Matsushita, the company founder, in 1989, the Matsushita family required the very best post in the business along with other executive positions that have been assigned to his family folks. The problem caused some friction between the Matsushita household and leading executives with the provider.
In 2000, Kunio Nakamura, known for his company ability and smarts, was chosen as president. Many thought that Masuya Matsushita would be chosen. Nakamura took extreme steps by slashing the workforces and scrapping the"hallowed" branch structure based on Konosuke since Masayuki was largely occupied with the business community in the Osaka region, seen as a signal that ties between the feuding family and direction are stressed.
Nakamura functioned as Panasonic's president from 2000 to 2006. He also implements an aggressive restructuring program which reduced the workforce by 20,000 workers. The business posted substantial reductions in fiscal 2001 but recovered then.
Fumio Otsubo became the new president of Panasonic in June 2006. He's an Osaka native who joined the firm in 1971 and served as senior managing director from June 2003 till he became president. In 2007, Panasonic announced a new program that will allow 30,000 workers to work from home once or twice weekly using Web connections to decrease prices.
In 2008, the home of Konosuke Matsushita company founder) was relocated into the company headquarters for a reminder of their organization's values. Two associates of the Matsushita household were in the upper direction --honorary chairman 95-year-old Masaharu Matsushita and 62-year-old vice president Masayuki Matsushita, Masaharu's eldest son at the moment.
Decline and Recovery at Panasonic
Ear and nose hair trimmer In fiscal 2001-2002, Panasonic declared huge wins of over $1 billion because of slow demand for electronic equipment. It reacted by laying off employees, shutting factories, and overhauling product lines.
Job cuts and greater sales of DVD players and movie cameras aided Panasonic to post again in 2002. Panasonic president Kunio Nakamura has been selected by Forbes magazine as Asian Businessman of the Year 2003, spearheading the organization's recovery and upstaging rival Sony. Panasonic posted impressive sales figures in 2004 because of the requirement for wellness televisions, digital cameras, and DVD recorders.
Panasonic profits climbed almost 30 percent to ¥281 billion in fiscal 2007-2008 amid strong sales of flat-screen televisions and Lumix digital cameras. Panasonic lost $3.8 billion in 2008-2009 fiscal and around $5.3 billion at the April-to-June quarter in 2009 throughout the international financial crisis and reacted by closing13 national and 14 overseas manufacturing bases in 2009 and chopping 15,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2009-2010.
Besides a fall in demand resulting from the financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009, Panasonic also suffered due to competition from the flat screen tv industry and a decrease in sales of the electronic camera and sound gear. Vivendi purchased Panasonic's bet in Universal Studios.
During the financial crisis, Panasonic encouraged its workers to"Purchase Panasonic," with many workers urged to get products valued over $1,000 and supervisors and over buying products valued at $2,000 and over. The organization's top executives required 30 percent pay cuts in fiscal 2009 to take responsibility for the organization's poor performance during the catastrophe.
Back in October 2010, Panasonic, along with also a subsidiary of Whirlpool, agreed to plead guilty and pay over $140 million in criminal penalties in connection with a global price-fixing scheme. The organization had conspired to fix the costs of refrigerant compressors.
In August 2010, Panasonic remembered 365,000 refrigerators in China within a faulty temperature controller element. Panasonic was struck too badly by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 as the majority of its factories were out of harm's way. Operations at their factories struck by the current Japanese earthquake were recovering steadily, but disruptions in its own distribution chain were still impacting output.
Back in April 2011, it announced it was cutting 17,000 jobs across the world to decrease costs. Panasonic Corp. intends to move part of its components procurement and supply functions to Singapore from the first half of fiscal 2012.
Resources stated Panasonic would move about 20 of the 120 workers of its own procurement and supply headquarters in Osaka to Singapore. A foundation in Singapore will act as a center for components procurement overseas.
Panasonic also will lower the number of businesses where it procures components to approximately 10,000, down 40 percent from the present level of approximately 18,000, in fiscal 2012. The business intends to cut annual costs by roughly 60 billion yen through a central purchasing system, as per the sources.
Panasonic Products
Panasonic makes a vast selection of digital products and appliances. However, it has focused on flat-screen televisions and goals to be the world's biggest producer of those products. The business established the world's very first Blue-ray Disc player-recorder in November 2006.
In Europe, Panasonic plans have begun selling goods such as washing machines and refrigerators along with video and audio solutions. The business also intends to drive flat screen LCD television sets around 40 inches.
Panasonic is now making a significant push to market eco items like energy-saving lighting appliances using fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes.
Panasonic has developed a machine that could identify variants in DNA that it expects will help physicians ascertain someone's response to medication, growth of ailments, and other health variables by assessing their own genes. Panasonic intends to spend more than $1 billion in its solar industry over six years between 2010 and 2016.
The business expects its merger with Sanyo can allow it to become one of Japan's best three solar panel manufacturers. Panasonic entered the smartphone market in 2011 with the Google Android program.
Panasonic Batteries
Panasonic introduced Oxyride in June 2005, which it asserted were the greatest advancement in batteries in 40 years. They are priced exactly the same as regular alkaline batters ($4 for four) but last as much as twice as long as superior versions like the Duracell Ultra.
Not only that, but they provide more power. A New York Times journalist set the battery by means of a string test in the home and discovered the claims were true. His flashlight produced milder, and his portable screwdriver and fan spun more quickly with the new batteries. Panasonic hopes these batteries will allow it to maintain a larger share of the U.S. market.
Kyodo reported that Panasonic Corp In September 2011. stated three humanoid robots powered by their own Evolta batteries will stage a triathlon race on a Hawaiian island. At the race that will begin in October, Panasonic aims at enabling the robots to complete the 230-kilometer triathlon in a week by charging their batteries repeatedly.
The three robots, 23 to 51 cm wide and 21 to 26 cm high, will take part in cycling, marathon, and swimming, events respectively. A robot powered by a Panasonic battery has climbed a 530m part of the Grand Canyon with a rope within six hours and 46 minutes also has run for 24 hours on the at France at Le Mans racecourse.
Panasonic is a significant manufacturer of rechargeables. Lithium-ion batteries are used in mobile phones, I-pods, and other mobile electronics. In July 2008, it announced plans to construct a $1 billion plant to produce these batteries in Osaka.
The plant will start in 2009 and from 2011 create 600 million units per year. In August 2007, Nokia exclaimed it would replace 47 million Panasonic-produced batteries in its own cell phones for free due to concern that the batteries could overheat.
In 1996, Panasonic and Toyota formed a joint venture--Panasonic EV Energy--to generate nickel-metal batteries for hybrid vehicles. The company is world's biggest nickel ion batteries producer and is a significant manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for second-generation hybrid automobiles, which is electrically charged at home. In Sendai, in November 2008, Panasonic EV
Energy broke ground on a new plant.
Toyota is among the biggest holders of Panasonic inventory. In December 2009, Panasonic made an announcement that it had developed a more powerful lithium-ion battery that can be utilized in everything from notebooks to electric cars. Additionally, it announced plans to begin promoting a home-use storage mobile in 2010, which will store enough electricity for one year of usage.
Sanyo and Sony are huge producers of rechargeable batteries, Leaders from the lithium battery market. As of 2010, Panasonic had generated 150 billion batteries since it made its very first ones in 1931.
In case these batteries were lined up straight end to end, they'd circle the earth almost 180 times. Panasonic generates batteries in 111 nations such as Thailand, Tanzania, and Poland. In 2010, Panasonic exclaimed it would sell inexpensive ACs in India.
Panasonic Televisions and Flat-Screen Televisions
Mobile blue ray player The TV firm has become the foundation of Panasonic for almost 60 years since the organization started generating TVs in 1952. It now holds an 8% share of the worldwide TV industry.
In 2008, Panasonic reported it might draw from the cathode ray tube (CRT) television industry 2010. In 2001, Panasonic marketed 8.5 million CRT televisions, fabricated at eight factories such as ones in Indonesia, Thailand, and Brazil, but has found earnings dropped off since then.
Panasonic moved quite quickly and aggressively to the flat-screen television marketplace. It marketed ¥600 billion with flat-screen televisions from March 2005 to March 2006. It had expected to increase this amount to ¥1 trillion, but in the past few decades was out-marketed and out-priced by competitions, notable ones in South Korea. Panasonic saw its own share of the North American flat display market fall from 15.4 percent in 2005 to 8.5% in 2009.
Back in September 2004, Panasonic combined Hitachi and Toshiba on a $1 billion deal to generate Liquid Crystal Display panels for flat-screen televisions. The plant had been expected to begin production in September 2006 and create 2.5 million units per year from 2009.
In February 2008, Panasonic declared it would construct a new $3 billion plant in Hyogo Prefecture to generate liquid crystal display panels. Construction started in August and 2007, and the job is anticipated to be completed in January 2010.
The plant will successfully produce 15 million 32-inch LCD panels per year. Panasonic, Hitachi, and Canon are thinking about forming an alliance to create natural, light-emitting display technologies.
Panasonic Plasma and 3-D Televisions
Panasonic is the world's leading seller of plasma televisions, with 26% of the worldwide economy in 2005. It started selling a 65-inch plasma that season for under $10,000. South Korea's LG and Samsung are their own cupboard competitions with 15 and 13 international financial catastrophes in 2008 & 2009 shares respectively. Pioneer, Sony, and Hitachi have less than 10 percent.
Panasonic plans to start selling a 150-inch plasma television--that the world's biggest --in 2009. Displayed in the Consumer Electronics Show in the USA in 2008, it's approximately 2-x-31/2 meters, large enough to show a complete size adult. As of 2008, a 103-inch Panasonic-made plasma screen television, which sells for approximately $50K, was the most significant television available out there.
Panasonic has been increasing its own plasma capability. In January 2007, it announced it would spend $2.3 billion to create the world's largest plasma display factory, largely to provide the horizontal screen television marketplace in Amagasaki in western Japan.
It had been anticipated to be generating at full capacity in May 2009, making 12 million 42-inch panels per year, but these plans were dashed from the worldwide financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009. The dimensions of this mill should provide Panasonic a substantial economy of scale of benefit. The ¥235 billion Hyogo LCD plant was finished in June 2010.
Panasonic planned to launch a 103-inch 3-D, HD plasma TV with a Blue-ray DVD recorder in 2010. It states, "will unfold an entirely new heights of amusement." Panasonic and Samsung are predicted to be the first to launch 3-D televisions from the USA in the spring of 2010.
In the fall, it intends to start advertising the world's biggest 3-D plasma screen television, a 152-inch tv that endeavors stereoscopic pictures on a 1.8 meter-high, 3.4 meter-wide display, big enough to show life-size figures.
Plasma offers better graphics for 3-D than high definition televisions since it produces less afterimage and contains better moving image resolutions. Panasonic is advertising the invention as a way to advertise houses, automobiles, and other expensive products in trade shows and other big occasions. Panasonic also developed a 50-inch, 3-D plasma TV for house usage.
In March 2010, Panasonic started selling 3-D televisions from the USA during its partnership with Best Buy. Retailing for $2,599, the 50-inch 3-D plasma collection has Blue-ray players plus a single set of 3-D eyeglasses. The very same sets were released in Japan the subsequent month. Panasonic is expected to sell 1 million 3-D televisions in 2010.
Back in April 2009, Panasonic introduced the world's first high definition televisions capable of 3-D pictures together with a number of Blue-ray disk players capable of recording and copying, and enjoying 3-D graphics; The TVs have 50" and 54" displays and market for approximately $5K and $6K respectively. Back in July 2010, Panasonic introduced a 3-D camcorder.