Nurturing Dreams My Path in Life: 夢を育てる?わが歩みし道?

Konosuke Matsushita · 松下幸之助

Jun 2012 · PHP研究所

About this ebook

?The founder of the Panasonic Group was poor, frequently got sick, only a few-year formal schooling, and no real business experience. That was his start of real life except the happy recollection of childhood for a few years. When he began apprenticeship in Osaka, far from his birthplace, there was no bright future, nor a probability of success in business. However, his way of thinking, passion and sincerity worked to his great success.

This book was published by Nikkei, Inc. first in 1989 in book form, and PHP published its edition, adding new photographs in 1998.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One, written at the age of 61, covers Konosuke Matsushita’ life from childhood to the reconstruction of Matsushtia Electric. In the Part Two, the period from the end of the war to his resignation as chairman to assume the post of executive advisor at the age of 78 is covered.

He told in this book, “One way of qualitatively improving management is to view it as a form of art. Art is a highly regarded creative activity, and I believe that management is a creative undertaking that deserves similar social recognition.” His enthusiasm for the work was sublimated in this book.

Part One

1. My Father’s Rice Exchange Failure

2. Apprenticeships

3. The electric Light Company

4. Manufacturing Sockets

5. Founding the Company that Would Become Panasonic

6. The 1927 Financial Panic

7. The Era of Growth

8. Saved by the Labor Union

Part Two

9. A Fresh Start and a Visit to America

10. The Joint Venture with Philips

11. Nakagawa Electric and Victor of Japan

12. The Five-Year Plan to Quadruple Sales

13. Expanding Exports

14. My Years as Chairman

15. Pointing to the Dangers of “Income Doubling”

16. Leading the Company through the Mid-Sixties Slump

17. Dam-Style Management and the Five-Day Workweek

18. Exceeding European Wage Levels and Management as Art

19. The fiftieth Founding Anniversary

20. Promoting Regional Renewal and the Matsushtia Pavilion at Expo ‘70

21. Retirement and New Resolve

*Timeline of Konosuke Matsushtia

*The timeline of his ninety-four years of life is included for reference….The creation process is never-ending.”

*PHP Institute, Inc. has a large collection of books, audios, videos, and other material on Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic and PHP. 【PHP研究所】

About the author

?Konosuke Matsushita (November 27, 1894 ? April 27, 1989), the founder of Panasonic and PHP Institute, Inc., has been recognized as a distinguished entrepreneur over the year, and furthermore as a philosopher, an opinion leader, a publisher.

He was born in 1894 as the youngest of eight children of a wealthy farming family. However, at the age of four, his father lost home and farmland in rice speculation. At nine, he began apprenticeship at a charcoal brazier store in Osaka, left hometown, to support his family. He learned the basics of business as an apprentice, and joined an electric power company at fifteen, sensing the arrival of the age of electricity. He quit the company, began manufacturing and selling sockets and attachment plug, which was the turning point in his career to one of the world’s largest electronics giants.

He created and started a lot of unique things continuously and aggressively until passed away at the age of 94; started “division system” at Panasonic (1933), established Staff Training Institute (1934), concluded technical tie-up with Philips, Holland (1952), instituted “five-day work week system” (1965), published Thoughts on Man (1972), established Matsushita Institute of Government and Management to develop future Japanese leaders (1979), initiated Kyoto Colloquium on Global Change (1983), provided the endowment for the Japan Prize (1982), etc.

Matsushita maintained a keen interest not only in his global industrial empire but also in humanitarian projects. His philosophy of corporate management is highly idealistic as well as pragmatic and is infused with a fervent sense of mission. Always people-centered, it is grounded in his down-to-earth, realistic understanding of human nature.

*One of his famous sayings : The Sunao mind, the “untrapped mind” is open enough to see many possibilities, humble enough to learn from anyone and anything, forbearing enough to gorgive all, perceptive enough to see things as they really are, and reasonable enough to judge their true value. By Konosuke Matsushita

*PHP Institute, Inc.: In 1946 he founded the PHP Institute to promote peace and happiness through prosperity. PHP Institute is a research organization with a humanistic, cultural and social movement, and open to all ideas, past or present, Eastern or Western, scientific or religious, as long as they contribute to our pursuit of better ways to achieve prosperity, peace, and happiness.