Matsushita Kōnosuke: People-First Philosophy & Legacy

A Century of Matsushita Kōnosuke and His People-First Philosophy | Nippon.com
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A Century of Matsushita Kō nosuke and His People-First Philosophy
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March 2018 marks 100 years since the foundation of Panasonic. The ideas of
the company’s founder, Matsushita K ō nosuke, go far beyond business
management to touch on the philosophy of life. Eguchi Katsuhiko, a close aide
and advisor to the late Mr. Matsushita, sheds light on the “god of
management” and the philosophy that enabled him to turn his company into
a global phenomenon.
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A Childhood Marked by Loss and Trauma
If we define philosophy as an attempt to think about the self and seek a clearer
understanding of human nature, then Matsushita K ō nosuke (1894–1989) was a
philosopher. Just like the ancient Greeks, he devoted his life to an investigation of
human nature, and reached his own conclusions about the meaning of life.
What drove him to spend so much of his life reflecting on human nature and the
meaning of life? I suspect the reason may have lain in his early years, which were
marked by tragedy and loss.
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A Century of Matsushita Kōnosuke and His People-First Philosophy | Nippon.com
Matsushita came from a large family—he was one of eight children born to an
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affluent landowning family in an agricultural region of modern Wakayama. When
K ō nosuke was four years old, his father made a series of unsuccessful speculations
on the rice markets and went bankrupt. As a result, he lost all his land and the
family home itself. The family was torn apart and the children had to scramble to
make a living however they could. K ō nosuke left home at the age of nine to look for
work in the Senba area of Osaka, a famous commercial center.
In this new environment, he quickly learned about trade and commerce, how to do
business, and about human life and the emotions. But this early experience alone,
tough as it was, would not have been enough to transform him into a philosopher.
When he was still an adolescent, he lost both his parents and all his siblings apart
from one older sister in the space of a decade, as one family member after another
died of tuberculosis. Twice the family held two funerals in the space of a single year.
Faced with these almost annual deaths in the family, it is not hard to imagine why
he might have come to ponder the fundamental questions of life, death, and the
meaning of human existence.
For a young man who had never completed elementary school, these questions
went beyond mere self-examination. It is fair to say, I think, that the fundamental
question of what it means to be human continued to trouble him for the rest of his
life as a kind of trauma.
Responsibility and Respect for Others
The conclusion he eventually reached was that all human life is precious. “Human
beings are the monarchs of all living things,” to use his expression. People who are
interested in learning more about the details of Matsushita’s philosophy of life can
read about it in his own words in books like Ningen o kangaeru: Atarashii
ningenkan no teishō (trans. Thoughts on Man), several of which have been
translated into English.
This view of life should not be dismissed as arrogantly human-centric or
disrespectful of other living things. He also emphasized that human beings have a
responsibility commensurate with their special status. Responsibility is
proportionate to role and position. Some philosophers and religious thinkers argue
that human beings are insignificant, sinful beings who are ultimately no more
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one argues that the responsibilities of the president are the same as those of his
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important than monkeys. For these people, logically it should be impossible to
expect humans to exert any great responsibility either. Think of it like this: The
president is a human being, and so are all the ordinary citizens around him. But no
Matsushita K ō nosuke argued that this tendency of human beings to think of one
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from this belief that other people are no more important than monkeys. Once we
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come to see that every human being has an innate dignity that must not be
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another as insignificant or unimportant is what ultimately causes wars and many of
the other evils that beset our societies. Murders and bullying also arise, he believed,
violated, we will come to feel a sense of responsibility and respect toward other
people, and these tragedies can be avoided.
Today, many of us are shackled by the popular belief that human beings are sinful
and unimportant, and is rare for anyone to expect or allow other people to shoulder
anything more than a small responsibility. This is one of the great tragedies of
modern human life.
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More in this series
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A Century of Matsushita Kōnosuke and His People-First Philosophy | Nippon.com
Matsushita once summarized his own philosophy as follows: “We should value
people and regard them as important.” These words encapsulate his view of human
life.
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People should respect and value one another, and love humanity without
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discrimination. People should behave with responsibility. And because humans are
important, they should also respect all other living things, allowing them to fulfill
their own roles and maintain their own position in the wider world.
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Matsushita K ō nosuke’s life as a manager began in 1918. At the age of 23, he came
up with an idea for an improved electric socket. This project was the beginning of
Matushita Denki, today’s Panasonic. For the rest of his life, the philosophy of respect
for people was at the heart of all his business projects.
His approach to management set a high value on human beings, regarding them
as important and worthy of admiration. He valued his employees as important
individuals worthy of respect and admiration. And he valued his customers in the
same way. The same respect went out to everyone, whether they were customers
or not. People were valuable and admirable in their own right, and worthy of
respect and admiration.
Matsushita’s maxim about his mission as an entrepreneur has become well known.
His job, he said, was to produce and offer “good products that are cheap and in
plentiful supply.” Many people believe that the main objective of a business owner
should be to increase profits. But Matsushita was different. A profit-first approach to
management and sales will certainly see profits rise. And the company may do well
as a result. But that is not why Matsushita believed in the importance of products
that were high in quality, affordable in price, and produced in volume. He believed
that to offer anything less than the best quality was disrespectful toward the people
who were his customers.
The same thinking determined his ideas on price. He would never sell anything
below cost price. Nor was he driven by greed for wild profits. Instead, his prices
were set at an appropriate level, from three important perspectives: good for the
customer, good for the company, and good for society. He believed that any other
kind of price would be an insult to the precious people who were so important to
the company and society. The volume of production also needed to be just right—if
the volume was insufficient or excessive, it would be impossible to set an
appropriate price.
Naturally, Matsushita always treated employees with respect and consideration,
almost never carrying out layoffs or dismissals of workers. Instead, he used his
wisdom and experience to avoid situations that would make this necessary. Strange
as it may seem, boosting the company profits was only of secondary significance in
Matsushita’s business management philosophy. More than anything else, he
prioritized the happiness and satisfaction of his employees. He always encouraged
his employees and wanted them to take pride in their work. This attitude of
gratitude and respect eventually brought him results that were greater than he had
ever imagined.
Despite starting literally from nothing, during a 70-year career as a manager, which
ended only with his death at the age of 94, he built his company into a major
international corporation worth ¥7 trillion. This great achievement was the direct
result of his business management philosophy.
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An Ordinary Man with Extraordinary Talent
Matsushita K ō nosuke always thought of himself as an ordinary person. He never
finished school or attended university. He had a weak and sickly constitution. He
had no family and no home to return to. When he looked at himself he can hardly
have thought of himself as anything special. Whenever he met someone, he always
felt they were much better informed and more intelligent than he was himself.
But one of the wonderful things about him was that he never had an inferiority
complex and never put himself down. He saw reality for what it was and thought
hard about how he could make the most of his abilities as an ordinary person to
make his life a fulfilling one. And he had an extraordinary talent for carrying this
out.
Because he believed that all people deserved respect and admiration, he listened
carefully to the opinions and experiences of people around him. He then used this
information to lift himself up—something he could do precisely because he knew
that he was just an ordinary person and was not afraid to admit as much.
Throughout his life, Matsushita K ō nosuke thought of himself as an ordinary person,
and built a view of humanity based on the idea that all people were important and
worthy of respect. This was the what drove all his ideas and creativity. It would be
fair to say that this philosophy ultimately allowed him to achieve far greater things
as a manager and as a person that he himself could ever have imagined.
(Originally written in Japanese. Banner photo: Matsushita Kō nosuke during his
time as president of the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd, photographed
during an interview in Osaka in 1959. © Aflo.)
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Born 1940. A former director of Matsushita Electric Industrial
Co., Ltd., where he worked alongside the company’s founder
day and night for 23 years.
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