Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic

Nowadays, the progress of globalization is speeding up, the science and technology is booming, the adjustment of industrial structure is drastic, and the international competition is going into fierceness, in the final analysis, this competition is the competition of human resource. Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of famous Japanese Panasonic, has a worldwide reputation for his management; he believes that progress and development can be realized only through the combined efforts and cooperation of each employee, thus distinctive human resources are Panasonic’s core competencies.
This report focuses on Konosuke Matsushita’s essential factors in his approach to management, it firstly identify 3 examples of interpersonal skills and value, and then provides an overview of standard managerial action to critically assess each of these factors, finally, for each factor, it details 2 examples of other managers using similar or different approaches in similar situations.
The human resources of an organization represent one of the largest investments, and the management of human resource is fundamental to effective operation of organizations, consequently sufficient attention must be given to managerial performance and effectiveness. Panasonic, founded in 1918 by Konosuke Matsushita, is one of the largest electronic product manufacturers in the world, and such a great accomplishment that Panasonic has achieved, as it were, relies on Konosuke’s methodical approach to management.

Konosuke was born poor in 1894, he did not have a good education, a magnificent build, a splendid longevity and abundant capital, but he still came to the top depending on his effective and efficient human resource management, and he had made a national name as “the God of management” in Japan.
This report will clarify Konosuke’s essential factors of approach to managing people in recruitment, training and development and empowerment, and will then go on to compare his managerial techniques with related management theories to explore the success of these techniques, the final part of the report will respectively offer two other manager’s approaches in dealing with similar situation. Konosuke Matsushita is faithful to the principle, “The basis of management is people” (Zhang, 2006), and in his essential managerial method, talent recruitment, training and development and empowerment is distinctive and referential.
Unlike other managers seeking the best talents, Konosuke prefers to hire middling people, namely to select the person who just gets 70% score in one field or one position, (Matsushita, 1997) he considers that the best talents are more likely to get above themselves, they may be dissatisfactory with the working environment, the position or the treatment, such a psychology will encumber their performance, however, the middling people are humble, and are bound to try their best for the company.
(Wang, 2000) In management theories, recruitment involves “seeking and attracting a pool of people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen” (Byars ; Rue, 2004), and recruiting the right person for the job is top priority.
The recruiters should firstly analyze the nature of specific jobs and the characteristics of its most successful predecessor to identify the traits needed, and then hire the person who meets the requirements, rather than the best talents, furthermore, employers should be committed to equality of opportunity and positive action to promote equality of opportunity, it helps to ensure that there is no discrimination in the recruitment, accordingly only assigning jobs according to people’s abilities will produce a persistent and effective human resource effect. (Zeng, 2003)