Panasonic shaping up for post-TV future

Ahead of taking up his new post, Tsuga toured the factories and offices of a company that even by corporate Japan’s conservative standards is bound by tradition - from a collective early morning calisthenics work-out to singing the company anthem and working in offices where a picture of founder Konosuke Matsushita is never far away.

Yup, all that and a 250-year business plan will definitely help Panasonic turn it around.

a collective early morning calisthenics work-out to singing the company anthem and working in offices where a picture of founder Konosuke Matsushita is never far away.

Yup, all that and a 250-year business plan will definitely help Panasonic turn it around.

Ho ho.

I am scared that Tsuga, with his experience 'charming' Western car manufacturers is one of those many Japanese enamoured with Western ways and will bring in Western style planning, goal setting (and all the red tape) and so further destroy that which was a highly profitable Japanese company. I doubt that (self made multi-millionaire and business philosopher) Matsushita's writing was a "business plan" in any Western sense, and should have been, if they had continued the way that they were working, something that they could have creatively interpretted. But instead of their winning formula which included morning calisthenics and the pictures of their leader, I fear that they are instead going the way of the West and they are gong to be unhappy and not very good at it. It is not that Japan is any sense behind the West that it is going down the tubes, but I think rather because they have spent far to long imitating us. It is quite horrible and very sad.

early morning calisthenics and company anthems arent panasonic's problem. its the problem hitting all tech giants- being out-manouvered by Apple and Samsung. They are just completely tapped into what consumers want at the moment, and everyone else is catching up after years of malaise.