Konosuke Matsushita - Matsushita Electric Industrial Company

Matsushita Electric Industrial Company

In 1917, Matsushita left Osaka Electric Light Company to set up his own company. Without capital, a formal education, and experience in manufacturing, it would appear the company would fail before it even began. However, whatever resources Matsushita lacked, he made up with ambition and determination. Matsushita set up his shop in the basement of his tenement and with his wife, his brother-in-law and several assistants, he began creating several samples of his product. He attempted to peddle his samples to several wholesalers but was unsuccessful because he did not offer more than one product. Eventually, Matsushita's assistants left his company and he was left with only his wife and brother-in-law, Toshio Iue, who proved to be a capable salesman and manager in his own right. Matsushita would have eventually become bankrupt but he was "saved by an unexpected order for a thousand insulator plates for electric fans.". From there, Matsushita was able to continue producing his light sockets and eventually they became popular as wholesalers began realizing the product was better in quality and less expensive than comparable products in the existing market. Matsushita's products were originally marketed under the name brand of "National" and later moved on to the more recognizable names of Panasonic, Quasar and Technics.

One of Matsushita's best products was his invention of a more efficient battery-powered bicycle lamp. During the 1920s, bicycle lamps were either powered by candles or by oil-burning lamps. These types of lamps were highly inefficient as they usually only lasted for three-hours. Matsushita created an oval lamp that used a battery for power and a lightbulb for illumination. At first, Matsushita could not get wholesalers interested in his products as they were skepical of the concept of using a battery-powered lamp. Matsushita took it upon himself to personally market his products to retail bicycle shops. Once the idea caught on, his sales for the battery-powered bicycle lamps took off.