Chapter 13 Chapter 12 Atami Conference: Regaining Power and Turning the World

Konosuke Matsushita lived a quiet life in the villa after resigning from the chairmanship, drinking tea from his wife Umeyuki Iue and reading books every day, but this retired life did not bring him long-term peace. In the second half of 1964, Matsushita Electric's business shrank. The reason was that Japan's economy had reached its peak after World War II, and the momentum of rapid economic development declined sharply.The investment of Japanese enterprises lacks the necessary control, the supply of products exceeds the demand, and the sales stagnate.In this environment, Panasonic cannot avoid the bad luck of inventory backlog and stagnant sales.Konosuke Matsushita returned to the Panasonic Electric where he became famous and established a business with his old and weak body.

In July 1964, Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. held a meeting with the presidents of Matsushita Electric’s national sales companies and agents at the Atami New Fujiya Hotel in Izu to discuss countermeasures.After Konosuke Matsushita resigned from the position of chairman, he basically did not participate in similar meetings. This visit is to deepen his understanding of the market. The speeches of the participants shocked Konosuke Matsushita: There was a sales company with a capital of only 5 million yuan, but a loss of 150 million yuan. The loss was a full 30 times of the capital, and it was already operating in debt.The credit of this company has been zero, but they still pick up goods from Panasonic. However, their president was not happy, and he said angrily: "It doesn't make money at all!"

The presidents said one by one: "My parents' generation started selling Panasonic products, but now we are not only not making money, we are still losing money. Mr. Matsushita, what do you think we should do?" "There's a lot of competition and we don't make money. The checks pile up every day, and there are always a few that don't cash." Konosuke Matsushita realized that the presidents were all complaining about "not making money" and "no way to do it", so he asked: "Is anyone here making money? Please raise your hand." Among the participants, more than 30 people raised their hands. The remaining 170 people are all suffering from deficits.

Seeing that there are still companies that are making profits in the downturn, Konosuke Matsushita feels a little comforted, "Today, I am here to help everyone and find a prescription to tide over the difficulties. Please speak freely and don't hesitate. If Panasonic Electric If there is something that needs to be improved, I will correct it immediately. I hope everyone can tell the truth." Hearing what Konosuke Matsushita said, those who were hesitant to speak just now also began to speak enthusiastically.The seller with a loss of 150 million asked step by step: "What should we do with so many losses? Our company has been doing what Panasonic said, investing all our money and energy in selling Panasonic's products, but making no money. Isn't it you responsibility?"

Because there were too many presidents who complained, the meeting lasted for three days. At this time, the complaints about Panasonic Electric still did not stop. Matsushita Konosuke realized intuitively that the problems reflected in the "Atami Meeting" indicated that Panasonic had encountered a war. After the Second Great Crisis.He recorded the speech that day in his autobiography, and here are two excerpts: Konosuke Matsushita's frank speech made the smell of gunpowder disappear.He is a vigorous person. Not long after the "Atami Conference" was held, on August 1, Konosuke Matsushita announced that he would replace Yokun Yaskawa, who was recuperating, as the chairman of the board of directors, and stand on the front line of sales. , set out to carry out sales reform.

Konosuke Matsushita returned to the front line of sales, supervised the employees, straightened out the relationship directly, and restored the harmonious relationship between production and sales, which played a vital role in stabilizing the order. One month after he took office, although the sales volume It has not returned to normal levels, but the downward trend has been curbed.During this period, Konosuke Matsushita gradually figured out the situation, and proposed an emergency solution to change the sales decline, which is to reform the installment payment system. The installment payment system used to be an effective means of selling home appliances for Panasonic Corporation. The consignment stores and agency stores purchased goods from Panasonic Electric Corporation, sold them to customers in the form of monthly installment payments, and then settled the sales in monthly installments. The payment shall be returned to Panasonic Corporation.In the case of economic prosperity, this method is very feasible, but in the case of oversupply of products and weak market, it is the direct cause of loss of agency stores and agency stores.On the one hand, they paid the purchase price to buy back electrical appliances from Panasonic, on the other hand, there was a backlog of products that could not be sold, or they failed to recover the customer's payment in time after they were sold.The installment payment system puts all the operating risks on the consignment stores and agency stores. No wonder the presidents of the "Atami Conference" complained a lot.

After Konosuke Matsushita grasped the direct cause of the loss of agency stores and agency stores, he prescribes the right medicine and allocates special funds to prepare for the establishment of "Instalment Sales Co., Ltd."The consignment stores and agency stores still purchase goods from Panasonic in the form of installment payment, but the new company buys the bonds of customers from the consignment stores and agency stores in cash, and directly collects the payment from customers.In this way, the consignment stores and agency stores only focus on sales without collecting accounts, and their capital turnover problems are easily solved.However, this move was met with dissatisfaction in the middle and upper links of commodity circulation, and no one was willing to take over the bad debts that might appear at any time. In view of this, Matsushita Konosuke personally visited the general wholesaler and general agent, and asked them to cooperate and do a good job for the company's plans. Partial sacrifice.

In this way, after more than half a year of hard work, according to statistics in November 1965, sales began to rebound steadily.In the critical moment, Konosuke Matsushita stepped forward and successfully resolved the second major economic crisis of Matsushita after World War II with his fighting spirit and superb business wisdom.