Details

Synopsis

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Konosuke Matsushita started his company in 1918 by making electric light bulb sockets. His company transformed into the hugely successful, leading consumer electronics company in Japan. However, they suffered from the so called "Big company disease" resulting in over 4 billion dollars of debt. This book is the story of Matsushita's sixth CEO and 21st century savior, Kunio Nakamura. His ingenious strategies eliminated the traditional organizational structure, such as the operating division system, and also many subsidiary companies. He switched from "mass production" for "mass consumption" to "cell production" and "vertical start-up." His revolution produced a "V-shape" recovery in two years. Find out exactly how he did it. Can he keep to the founder's philosophy of "making people's lives better by providing good products at a decent price"? Can he achieve the goal of 10% operating profit as a Global Excellence Company? The authors also identify problems and challenges that lie ahead. Many big companies have their own survival stories and a key person who changed something and made it possible. The world is always moving and the market and competitors are always changing. Never stop moving forward, this is only the beginning.

Category Level

Business
Management

Editorial Review

It is such a scary world where a big company like Matsushita had such huge losses. They made billions, they lost billions. How could it be turned around? However, what a stunning recovery they made. I believe that Nakamura's revolution exerted a huge influence on the whole of Japanese business. Many Japanese companies had respected traditional ways such as seniority, inside company bank, obeying your boss no matter what he says. Somebody had to change, in order to survive in the current world. This book reminded me, and hopefully many other people, that you must have an open mind and always be willing to change things for the better.

Table of contents

• Chapter 1: How could Matsushita Electric drastically recover from their massive losses?
• Chapter 2: How could CEO Nakamura succeed in restructuring, something previous CEOs had NOT done?
• Chapter 3: Did CEO Nakamura betray the business philosophy of the founder Konosuke?
• Chapter 4: When will Matsushita Electric step forward as a 100 billion-dollar company?
• Chapter 5: Strengths and weaknesses compared with SONY, Toyota and Nissan
• Chapter 6: Invisible issues occurring at the front line of a recovered Matsushita

About the Author

Kazumasa Takeuchi: Completed University of Tokushima graduate school. North Western University honorary member researcher. Joined Matsushita Electric. After working for Apple Computer and Japan Gateway, became CEO at Media Ring. He is currently in charge of the business consultant office "Office K".

Kenny Takeda: A Japanese-American Journalist. After working for a software company and a consulting firm, he became an independent journalist. Now engaged in Japanese, U.S. and Western company analysis, Takeda studies the corporate business model. He is mainly active in Silicon Valley and is particularly familiar with Japan-U.S. high technology and IT circumstances.