Japan's economy enjoyed unprecedented rapid growth during the Showa era but it has stagnated since entering the Heisei era (1989-present), the most striking illustration of the fall of the two times is the decline of Japan's home appliance industry, once sweeping the globe, and Once the 'home appliance overlord' Panasonic confused 30 years.
'Now give you intubation, please bear with you', to hear the words of the attending doctor, the extremely weak old man with elaborate gossip voice laboriously said: 'No, it should be I ask you to be.' This is his stay The last word in the world.
The old man was Matsushita's assistant who founded Panasonic, the home appliance empire, and was hailed as the god of business by a generation's efforts. A few days later, he finished 94 years of life.
Matsushita Fortune's death on April 27, 1989, from the beginning of the Showa Emperor's death, the Japanese name changed to not long after the Heisei just in the funeral held in May, when the United States then President Bush and Japan's Prime Minister Takehiro Takeshi also made Matsushita, President of Panasonic at the time, mobilized all employees and said: 'As long as we keep in mind the basic business principles (left by the founder), our company will continue to prosper.'
However, it is hard to say that this sentence has really come true. The death of the great founder seems to be a signal that Panasonic, which grew rapidly during the Showa era, began to plunge into peace after entering.
Matsushita no longer made the best-selling products sweeping the globe and lagged behind other Asian companies led by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Corp. The record high operating profit showing the profitability of the main industry has been set for 1984 by VHS VTRs 575.7 billion yen, more than 30 years has not been able to refresh the Japanese economy was described as 'lost 20 years', while Panasonic is its microcosm.
So, what is the stumbling block to Panasonic's growth? Despite environmental changes such as the appreciation of the yen, this is not the fundamental reason.
Mechanical and electrical industry changes in the past 30 years Mechanical and electrical industry changes in the past 30 years
Nakamura Nakamura, consultant of Panasonic and president of Panasonic who took the helm in 2000, said: 'When I was a president and I was working in the United States, Microsoft introduced Windows 95. I still can not forget the impact of the time. "
For Matsushita, what can be called a company facade is always TV, which is placed in the center of the living room, where other appliances such as video cameras are connected to the TV.
This golden age of "TV protagonist" simulation technology is coming to an end, and another completely different digital technology will lead the world. This is what happened in Nakamura after touching on a personal computer equipped with 'Windows 95' and the Internet that has just become popular Intuition.
However, Panasonic headquarters in Osaka did not attach importance to this.Matsushita's energy consumption is in competition with domestic competitors, the response to external changes is slow.
In addition, Matsushita, which grew up in the field of single-product appliances, knows little about digital technologies and network technologies. Nakamura recalled: 'Frankly speaking, there is absolutely no ability to compete with large-scale IT companies in the United States.'
It was also during this period that Sony Chief Executive Hidetoshi Idei put forward the idea that "the Internet is a meteorite." Just as companies that dominate the Earth's dinosaurs are extinct due to the climate change caused by meteorite impact on the earth and can not adapt to the new environment of the Internet Will decline.
Regrettably, this 'prophecy' has been fulfilled and the competitiveness of the Japanese electronics industry that once dominated the world has weakened, and 21st century best-selling products such as portable music players, smartphones, and current attention-grabbing smartphones are all coming With digital technology and network connectivity as the core, the Japanese presence has been weak.
Not only the products but also the parts business were also affected, with Japan's semiconductor industry growing substantially in the heyday of Japanese appliances such as TVs and video tape recorders, but dominated the hands of companies such as Intel in the computer age .
Christensen, a professor at Harvard University, named the technological innovation that revolutionized both the industrial order as' Disruptive Innovation '. The Internet was the single most devastating innovation in recent years. Japan's electromechanical industry failed to become' Destroying the party, "but settling for the 'destroyed party.'
After a period of rapid economic growth, the domestic output value of civilian electronic equipment in Japan exceeded 1 trillion yen, and then continued to grow, reaching 4.7615 trillion yen in 1985. However, with the development of mass production of Chinese electromechanical enterprises that depend on cheap labor, etc. Japan's electronics industry underwent industrial restructuring, while Matsushita acquired Sanyo Electric as a subsidiary in 2009, forming a large-scale electromechanical enterprise. In addition, external capital quickly entered Japan, including In 2016, Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry acquired Sharp and Midea Group acquired Toshiba's white goods business.
Toyama Kazuhiko, a business consultant and Matsushita external director, said: "Japan's electromechanical industry is now finally entering a stage of recognition of 'defeat.'" Sanyo Electric ceased to exist and Sharp entered the capital of Taiwan and Toshiba in fact collapsed. 100th anniversary of Panasonic also reduced the television and other services, is committed to new areas such as car batteries.Matsushita can build enough to support the next century, 'post-consumer electronics' business model? The challenge will continue.