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On November 27, 1894, a baby boy was born in a little village in Japan . The name of the boy was Konosuke Matushita..
His father was a gambler, who gambled away the family's money. And by the time the boy was 4, they were dirt poor. On top of all of that he was sickly.
This was a time in Japan when you had to be well educated, charismatic, even rich, to succeed, and so Konosuke Matsushita seemed destined for a life of struggle.
So he began to work. At the age of nine, he took a job as an apprentice in a bicycle shop just to help the family survive, working for 16 hours.
He was still in that bicycle shop when he entered into his adolescent years after which he quit his bicycle shop job and was hired at another company, the Osaka Light, an electric utility company.
Because of his hard work, Matsushita was quickly promoted and eventually became an inspector.
And then he began to innovate. He created a new type of light socket, meaning a light plug, one that Matsushita thought was better than anything available at the time. Excited about it, Matsushita showed the invention to his boss, but the boss was unimpressed.
Everyone thought he was crazy. His product was unspectacular: a simple electrical socket. But because he believed in his product, he was willing to take a risk. And so in the year 1917 at the age of 23, with no money and no real business experience, he decided to manufacture the light socket himself.
He had four partners . They were unimpressive, consisting of two friends from his old job, his wife and her 14-year-old brother.
But Matsushita forged on. Neither he nor any of his assistants had finished degrees in school. Their combined education amounted to less than a high school education, and none had any experience in manufacturing an electric plug.
But they had drive. They had passion. They had a goal. And they believed in what they were doing. And so in a cramped two-room tenement house, they worked long hours, seven days a week. After several very lean months, they had completed a few samples of the new product.
Did it hit the market with a bang?
No!
In fact, wholesalers generally rejected his new style electric plug.
Yes, they were polite and they told him it was acceptable, even innovative, but that he needed far more than one single item for the large wholesalers and retailers to be interested in his company.
He worked on it again, and again, and again, and gradually over the next three years, people began to buy the plug. They saw that it was better in quality and almost 50% lower in price.
But of course, there was as yet no return on investment. Matsushita kept his business afloat by taking on contracts for other items, such as insulator plates.
By now, he was learning new lessons. One of the lessons he learned was that a new product had to be 30% better and 30% less expensive, than the one already on the market for it to sell.
Four years after he started his company, his firm was introducing new items every month. He was also developing business strategies that made him stand out from his competitors. One of his business strategies was to give away his products. He discovered that by giving his products away, he could eventually sell many more of them. He also pioneered an effective after sale service program.
Another five years later, he produced a bicycle lamp. Why? Bicycles were the means of transportastion in Japan at this time. There were millions of bicycles all ove r Japan and threfore millions of peopole who needed to have a good bicycle lamp. But bicycle lamps had a very bad reputation--they all seemed to just constantly fail. So he designed one.
And now he marketed it under the brand name National.
And we know the rest of the story. It became not just National. It was also Panasonic, Quasar, Technics, JVC all trademarks of the Matsushita Electric Corporation.
But you know everyone says it is not the products he made that made Matsushita a giant in the industry.
It was his heart. . .
It's the way he related to people and did business that made him one of the most respected and loved businessmen of his time.
And his heart is seen in these two stories.
The first story takes place in 1970.
It was the time of the world exposition in Osaka and some 7.6 million people were visiting the Matsushita Pavilion. A few days after the fair opened, the pavilion supervisors watching the television monitors aimed at the entrance area were startled to see the figure of Matushita Konosuke himself standing patiently in the line of visitors waiting to be admitted.
Flustered by this unexpected and unannounced visit by the grand old man of the company, the founder himself, the pavilion's second in command rushed out to greet him, asking in astonished tone, “Mr. Matushita, why are you standing here in the line?”
“Oh, I just thought I'd find out for myself how much time people had to wait before they could get in”?
And that day, Matsuhista handed down two orders: one--that all efforts be made to shorten the time visitors had to wait at the entrance as much as possible; and two-that something be done to shelter waiting visitors from the very hot summer sun.
Promptly the staff devised ways to facilitate the flow through the pavilion and erected large, fixed, traditional style parasols to shade the waiting area. Paper sun visors were also handed to waiting visitors to help them get some shade from the sun.
Now listen to the second story.
The year was 1975. Matsushita was now 80 years old and one of Japan 's and the worlds most successful businessmen. He had already been on the cover of Time magazine. They called him “THE ICON OF JAPAN'S RECOVERY FROM WORLD WAR 2.”
One day, he invited 5 men to lunch. It was a well-known steak restaurant in Osaka.
After greetings and the usual small talk, everyone ordered a steak. Matsushita had been speaking during most of the meal – answering questions about business and the history of the company. When all 6 had finished the main course, Matsushita leaned over to one of his business associates and asked him if he could please do him the favor of finding the chef who had cooked the steaks.
And he was very clear on one point: :”Not the manager, the chef.” At that point, his business associate noticed that Matsushita had only eaten half of his entrée.
Preparing himself for what could be an extremely awkward scene, the business associate found the chef and brought him to the table. The cook arrived looking distressed, for he knew that the customer who had summoned him was Konosuke Matsushita, an exceptionally important person.
“Is there anything wrong?” asked the nervous chef.
“You've gone to all the trouble of broiling the steak,” said the grand old man, “but I could eat only half of it. It is not because it is not good It is quite delicious. But you see, I am 80 years old and my appetite is not what it once was.”
“I asked to talk to you,” Matsushita continued, “because I was afraid you might feel bad if you saw the half eaten steak back in the kitchen.”
The chef and the 5 other participants of the meal were quiet, looking at each other with confused expressions on their faces. It took everyone a few seconds to realize what had just happened.
A great man had just showed his greatness by apologizing to a chef for his inability to eat his steak.
Notice? It's not just the hard work or even the head. It's the heart that makes all the difference.
Business is not a means to enrich only the owner of the shop but all the rest of society. Businessmen should be able to share in creating a society that is spiritually rich and materially affluent. Business is established never for profit but for the betterment of man and society. When a businessman makes profit that is only a vote of confidence from clients that you are doing your job well. ~ KONOSUKE MATSUSHITA