Understanding and Practice of the Basic Business Philosophy

As a member of the Panasonic Group, what is your understanding of our management philosophy? "That's the Basic Management Objective, Company Creed, and Seven Principles, right?" "It's about the purpose of business being to contribute to society." Perhaps this is as far as your understanding goes.

Since I became Group CEO of Panasonic--in fact, based on my management experience prior to that, in a wide range of challenging businesses--I have felt a strong sense of crisis. I believe the reason Panasonic lost its former strength and was unable to grow, and that some of its businesses found themselves in an extremely difficult situation, was because many of its employees lacked a correct, firm understanding of Panasonic's Basic Business Philosophy.

We want each of you to maximize and demonstrate your abilities and skills, clearly identify your ideal end state, share opinions that need to be shared, make high-quality decisions speedily by integrating different opinions, and be vigilant in pursuing needed improvements, so that we can be unrivalled in contributing to our customers and society. We must always take an honest look at the current situation, and if it conflicts with the direction of society, or if there is a better way, we will not hesitate to choose a new and better path promptly. I believe that when Panasonic was strong, it was full of such workplaces, and in my opinion, this was the source of its strength.

In the Panasonic Group, individual employees are expected to act as their own manager. For Panasonic to regain its brilliance, we have gathered wisdom from numerous individuals, wisdom each of us must maintain firmly as managers, in the form of this reading material. I hope every Panasonic Group employee will refer to it closely and often, and work with superiors, subordinates, colleagues, customers, and business partners to put the Basic Business Philosophy into practice on a daily basis, and build an ideal society with material and spiritual affluence.