Chapter 30 Three, Panasonic management secrets

What follows is an excerpt from a chapter of The Art of japanese Management written by two American business management experts.In just 20,000 to 30,000 words, the various factors of Panasonic Kingdom's success are thoroughly analyzed. It is fascinating and instructive to read. In order not to miss such a good article, it is added here. Matsushita Electric Corporation and five other companies in the same industry (GE, Siemens, ITT, Philips, Hitachi) are listed in the list of the world's 50 largest companies.Its products are sold under brand names such as National, Panasonic, Quasar, and Technics.Panasonic's amazing growth has allowed it to achieve such a high ranking, which in itself is very admirable.

When we consider that it can be deliberately developed as a well-organized society and satisfactorily adapted to the culture and values ​​of its country, and its other equally important achievement: a set of advanced efficient system, and is able to continue even after its founders have withdrawn.We can see that it's not just the company's economic success over a short period of time that we admire.Panasonic has become a large company, and its success is not just about making money, but it will continue to grow.Because it has become an organized system that can meet the various needs of society, customers, executives and employees, and it has also been "planned" to adapt to any future changes.This kind of outstanding achievement cannot be accomplished in a few years by a person who aims at short-term financial achievement.Building a large company in any one location takes a long time and involves complex goals that meet the needs of many social groups while respecting their cultural values.We should be pleased that some of the major American corporations have done this, and we shall discuss them later in this book.

Let us now discuss the achievements of Panasonic Corporation. Some of the factors that have contributed to Panasonic's growth and current corporate leadership offer a clear view of the practical Japanese art of management.Panasonic's success cannot be explained only by some old-fashioned views, especially these old-fashioned explanations often give us just an excuse to prevent us from carefully studying the real reasons for the success of Japanese companies.Panasonic's "Consensus decision making" and "Bottom-up communication" have no special value, and it is not a "national company" in Japan.The company has never received support from any chaebol; although it is a consumer goods manufacturing company, it has never been listed as a priority object of assistance by the Japanese government, and the government has never provided it with special protection and economic support.Much of Matsushita's achievements have been achieved using management techniques we think of as "invented" in the West.In fact, Panasonic often beats us with our weapons.These factors make Panasonic a special revelation for Americans.

In 1918, the founder of Matsushita, Konosuke Matsushita, was just a commoner. He initially worked as an apprentice in a bicycle shop with a meager salary of 25 cents a day.When news of Edison's brilliant invention reached Japan, Mr. Matsushita had an idea and thought of the possibility of starting a new business.He quit his secure job to start his own business.His first product was a two-plug converter that he molded in his living room.The product fits into a lamp holder, doubling the power usage of Japanese households that had only one electrical plug—one plug for powering lights and the other for other appliances.Within 10 years, Matsushita Electric Corporation gradually became the leader of the fledgling electrical appliance industry, and the company still retains this leadership today.Konosuke Matsushita, who is 86 years old this year, is still alive, but has lived a retired life most of the time.

Konosuke Matsushita has been violating the rules of strategy adopted by the Japanese business world.He did not use Panasonic as the brand name of his products (Japanese companies are accustomed to using their own company names and product names), but instead adopted "National" (National) as the product name, and advertised with this name; Panasonic did not Using the original sales network of product agents with independent capital (in today's Japan, these agents are still the main body of the Japanese sales network), but to create his own marketing channels and directly trade with retailers; at the same time, he does not Instead of maintaining an estranged relationship with these retailers, provide them with business support and establish an intimate and ongoing partnership.Panasonic pioneered the introduction of installment sales and direct product demonstrations at retail locations for on-site customers.All in all, Panasonic not only took a revolutionary approach in its marketing strategy, but many of its features were almost revolutionary in its time.

The second key point of Panasonic's strategy is that he fully understands the importance of market share.These profits are immediately passed on to customers by lowering the selling price of the product as soon as the production volume of the product is increased enough to reduce the cost.In 1930, people believed that the smartest way was for the producers to lower the production cost and increase the selling price as much as possible, so as to recover the invested capital in the shortest time.Panasonic gained inspiration from Henry Ford's Model 4 car price strategy, deeply grasped the principle of market possession, and actively promoted it, saving costs from manufacturing experience, and lowering the price, so that competitors found it unprofitable , rather than entering the market and competing with Panasonic.In this regard, Panasonic even went one step further than Ford. He regarded this practice as the basic principle of the marketing strategy of all its products, and it has been used to this day.

The third point of Panasonic's business strategy is "from behind".From the very beginning, Panasonic did not intend to lead in new technologies, but emphasized quality and price.His second product, a cannonball-shaped bicycle headlight, was very popular in the market due to its unique shape, quality and price, and became the most popular product of its kind at that time.To this day, Panasonic seldom creates original products, but only strives to reduce production costs and improve quality, and has achieved major achievements as a result.For a prime example of this, we need only look to the battle for the VCR market currently underway.Sony not only took the lead in developing this technology, but also established its leading position in the video recorder market with its Betamax video recording system, which makes people think of video recorders when they mention Betamax.Given Sony's leading position in this market, we might think its position is rock solid.However, based on a pattern that has worked hundreds of times over the past few decades, Panasonic began to find ways to "catch up from behind" to compete.Market research shows that consumers want to have a video tape with a longer show time (4-6 hours), but are dissatisfied with Betamax's only two-hour show length.Therefore, Panasonic designed a more compact VTR system to meet the needs of consumers, and the quality is extremely reliable. At the same time, the price of this product is 10% to 15% lower than that of Betamax.Today, Panasonic produces VCRs under the Panasonic and RCA brands, and one out of every three VCRs sold is a Panasonic product.

At the center of Panasonic's "catch from behind" strategy is the production engineering department. If you've ever paid attention to how Panasonic arranges its talent, the success of their "catch from behind" strategy should come as no surprise, says an RCA executive.They have a total of 23 production and research laboratories with the latest scientific technology and equipment.Their "research and development" concept is to analyze each other's competing products and then work out how to produce better products.Panasonic has been investing 4% of sales in "research and development," most of which goes to production engineering.In 1980, the cost was as high as $400 million.

The belief in Panasonic's basic business strategy is this: profit and growth are inseparable, and those investments that promote growth will eventually be recovered as profits.Panasonic's performance in a wide variety of economic environments reinforces the viability of these beliefs.In the past 20 years, Panasonic's annual growth rate has equaled or even surpassed the sum of all its global competitors.Panasonic and GE once launched a tug-of-war, trying to decide who is the leader among the world's largest companies based on the percentage of profit in sales and "return on asset utilization." In 1979, Panasonic earned a 4.2 percent net profit on sales, the same percentage as GE but twice as much as Siemens or Philips.In the same year, Panasonic sold more than twice as much per employee as any competitor (including GE, Siemens, ITT, Philips, and Hitachi), underscoring the outstanding efficiency of Panasonic's production activities.Today, Panasonic is the world's largest electrical appliance manufacturer.

A second important factor in Panasonic's success is its own organizational structure.The company has been at the forefront of organizational change.Between 1932 and 1936, at the same time that Piere Du Pont was vigorously promoting hierarchical responsible organization in the United States, Konosuke Matsushita and his administrator Arataro Takahashi were developing a similar concept in Japan.Panasonic (which had only 1,600 employees at the time) believed that a hierarchically accountable organization would simplify and corporateize things.During this period, Panasonic was producing radios and other small household appliances.What attracted Panasonic deeply to the hierarchical responsible organization was not only that this system could increase organizational clarity and control (two advantages that attracted DuPont and later Alfred Sloan), but also that this arrangement especially Has the advantage of being "in action".Each department can work independently and exert its own greatest function.The ministers of every department are therefore constantly watching the developments in the market as closely as the captain of a ship must watch the weather.

According to Panasonic, what led to his organizational reform in 1930 was mainly based on the following four factors: First, he wanted to establish independent departments and clear product categories so that he could clearly judge whether their performance was good or bad ; Second, because of this automatic effect, the minister will be forced to establish a strong mentality of paying attention to the wishes of consumers (Panasonic believes that this factor is the key to success); third, he hopes that through this arrangement Reap the advantages of a small company—especially in terms of flexibility; fourth, Matsushita is convinced that these departments will each develop special expertise, and that their ministers will become seasoned more quickly.In this way, this system of hierarchical responsibility will be able to train a group of president talents-this group of talents will be urgently needed when the company grows. Matsushita is also well aware that this system also has its attendant shortcomings.When departments are independent, it is easy for them to escape the control of the central unit, and it is difficult to promote cooperation between departments.Furthermore, highly specialized sectors may not be able to understand the extent and scope of a significant threat to the entire production community.Panasonic therefore proposed its strong reform to this shortcoming of decentralization—centralizing the management of four important functions, which has been maintained to this day.First, the creation of departmental administrators, who would report directly to headquarters, and a fairly centralized system of management accounting; Withdrawals are used for funds and improvements; third, centralized management of personnel rights, Panasonic regards "people" as the company's most important asset (until today, any Panasonic employee with a high school education or above must They can only be hired after being reviewed by the company's central personnel department. All managers' promotions are also carefully reviewed by the company's department); fourth, Panasonic centralizes the management of training. We will also discuss later that all Panasonic employees must accept a A set of basic training, this training system especially emphasizes the values ​​of Panasonic.During the evolution of its organizational structure, Panasonic has continuously increased or decreased company-wide functions, such as research and development centers, and centralized management of production engineering.In 1953, Matsushita organized various departments into production groups. The heads of each department reported directly to the president, and at the same time reported horizontally to the vice president of the production group. These presidents and vice presidents were all experts. All products have a very deep understanding.This two-boss system was hated and cursed by ministers at the time.But Matsushita argues that it's human nature to have to deal with the complications that arise from being supervised by two bosses -- a mother and a father -- as we all grow up.This is the original form of the "matrix" organization. It was not until 10 years later that this kind of organization appeared in the United States and became very popular. At this point, we should point out that Westerners often pride themselves on being the first to make major breakthroughs in managing large companies.Much of this pride is well deserved.We should also admit that these innovative management concepts may have been invented in many places at the same time.We should minimize the East-West opposition, and be aware of how prominent business organizations around the world have coped with both success and failure to achieve success.From this perspective, Matsushita should be regarded as one of the inventors of many major management concepts in the world. Panasonic first noticed that the opposition between the two systems of centralized management and hierarchical responsibility is an unresolvable conflict. Therefore, large companies should have both systems at the same time.Therefore, although its hierarchical responsibility system has excellent efficiency and results, Panasonic is still constantly modifying it to maintain the vitality of the company.Okamoto, an expert who specializes in Panasonic, pointed out: "When we study the overall characteristics of Panasonic's structure, we will find that centralized management and hierarchical responsibility are intertwined and intertwined like a spiral. That is to say, it is not that centralized management replaces Hierarchical responsibility, and then hierarchical responsibility to replace centralized management, but these two organizational forms intertwined at the same time, forming a more complicated marriage relationship.” Okamoto also pointed out that from 1945 to 1952, in order to cope with the war In the aftermath of the chaos and recession, Matsushita specifically abolished his hierarchical responsible organization, put all matters into a strong centralized management, and he was personally responsible for everything.At one point during this time, he personally ran the company's advertising department in addition to being CEO.Why?Because Panasonic believes that in the post-war economic downturn, Panasonic must stimulate consumers' confidence in the future and stimulate consumers' willingness to demand new products through advertising.By the early 1950s, these problems had passed.In 1953-1955, due to increased competition, Matsushita felt that it was necessary to adopt a flexible response to many aspects at the same time.This then led to a period of hierarchical responsibility, when independent production groups were established and individual marketing, administration and research and development departments were added.In the early 1960s, there was another period of depression and stagnation.This time, Panasonic took further decentralization, and he delegated more authority to the field department; for the first time, each production group was given full responsibility for its own marketing and sales activities.This change was carried out until 1973, during which time staff at headquarters were continuously reduced.In the mid-to-late 1970s, due to the oil crisis and the re-emergence of the economic downturn, Panasonic returned to greater centralized management.That said, Panasonic is constantly trying to transform its organizational structure to meet environmental challenges.From this point of view, Panasonic's organizational concept has not always been fixed.He never made his organizational chart rigid, but changed it at any time.For example, his headquarters administrators and other personnel have always been called "coordinators." In order to further grasp the relationship between production and operation departments, he insisted on assigning headquarters managers to the factories they were responsible for—rather than being assigned Placed in the headquarters office, isolated from the factory's production line.Thus, as the company's organization evolved, its founder also prepared for the question of his succession.In 1959, the 65-year-old Matsushita established a three-member executive committee that met daily to handle major decisions.One of the committee members is responsible for short-term business strategy and domestic business; the other committee member (Takahashi Arataro) is responsible for finance, accounting and international business; Matsushita himself is mainly responsible for long-term strategy and reserves the right to make the final decision.For the next 10 years, Matsushita played more or less a role—sometimes, very little, for as long as a year, and then stepped in when a crisis struck.By 1971, he resigned as president, retaining the title of president.He commented: "When a company grows out of the founding generation, there is a danger. Recently, I feel that our management is not going well, and the company has a tendency to rely too much on the founder. I worry that the company is too I depend on one person, so I decided to resign, so that I can cultivate my successor." After becoming the chairman, Matsushita played the role of the old grandfather.But in 1977, due to the bad environment, he once again reorganized the company's senior management personnel, because he believed that the previously appointed president (that is, his adopted son) was not capable of taking up this position, so the Panasonic company's director The founder promoted his son to be president, while he himself took on the title of honorary president.Now 86 years old, he is once again in retirement with little activity.It has been four years since his last major intervention in the company. An organizational structure can at best provide a skeleton for a company.The company's muscles and vital organs are obtained from other sources.We believe that the systems that the minister uses to communicate information, make decisions, and effect change within companies are the most powerful tools management has to express how he wants a company to function and what he wants it to accomplish.There is a so-called "hard copy" system (HardCopy), which involves reports and computerized statements containing text and numbers.In addition, there are some other institutions, such as meetings and some routine affairs, how to share information and intelligence, how to deal with conflicts and disputes, and how to make decisions. The various systems that constitute an important channel of a company include routine procedures as well as some transactional details.Institutions are rarely exciting, but while they aren't trendy or pretty, they are powerful.McKinsey's (McKinsey) President Waterman said: "It is a company's system that directly communicates the opinions of the company's superiors to the bottom, rather than the company's business strategy announced every year and the company's articles of association that are regularly revised." It takes a considerable amount of time to fill up a company's management information system.In this process, the system directly instructs us how to use our time and where to focus our energy. Matsushita pioneered its own set of extremely effective financial management systems and borrowed their planning system from Philips Electric Appliances in the Netherlands.The combination of these two institutions pointed the direction of coherence for his vast empire.The planning system is simple, but powerful.Every 6 months, the company asks the ministers of each department to come up with 3 plans.The first is a long-term 5-year plan, listing the latest technology and related issues that may change the future of the department; the second is a mid-term two-year plan, explaining how the department will turn the long-term strategy into a new factory goal and what new products will be produced. product.These two plans will not be closely scrutinized by the senior staff of the company, but will be given considerable attention by the senior staff of the parallel production group; in the planning process, the third and most important plan proposed by the minister is "the next six plan for the monthly working period".In this plan, each department should list each month's production, sales, profit, inventory count, recycling accounts, personnel requirements, quality control goals and capital investment and other plans.When a change occurs, a special task force is formed immediately by the minister of the department and his semi-independent supervisors to quickly dig deep and discuss the issue.In many companies, operations planning often fails, mainly because the steps in the plan and the stated goals are not robust enough to be measured.In addition, although these goals are clear and correctly measured, if they are not aligned with important strategic goals, many problems will also arise. Panasonic's system does not have either of these drawbacks. A former IBM senior executive commented: "Panasonic's planning system is perfect—at least compared to IBM's. It is detailed and practical. When a minister presents his six-month work plan and says flatly, When he plans to increase production by 8 units a year, and increase sales by 9 yuan, they ask him to detail each step-when does he plan to hire additional salespeople, who needs on-the-job training, and which ones to order? The production equipment, and how much time it takes to correct the line, etc. They rarely make plans out of thin air, they plan very carefully and carefully.” We also recall that Panasonic had a strong desire to foster and sustain a sense of corporate zeal among its various divisions, so one might wonder whether this meticulous approach to planning (and the detailed accounting system responsible for tracking its results) would constitute a serious burden?A senior minister in Matsushita's electronics division offered an interesting response: "It's important to understand that the Japanese are pretty good with numbers—much better than most American businessmen I know. .Our colloquial language is too vague and general. So we pay attention to 'number language' to compensate. Yes, it is a strict system; but, because I think - and my superiors think so - I must I do manage my department, so I regard this management system as a morning jog: although it is very hard exercise, it can make me stronger and stronger." The situation that the minister said, we will be at Panasonic Corporation Constantly witnessing.Panasonic has retained its entrepreneurial spirit through its unique style and values, and the way it teaches its employees.How is this possible?We'll get to that later - and that's what makes the Panasonic different.Panasonic encourages employees to be spontaneous, and strongly stimulates groups and individuals to seek performance.However, while combining various forces to maintain the vitality of the enterprise, Panasonic also tightly controls some things that are easy to change.For example, the planning process—especially the six-month job planning—has received a lot of attention.In the market of each production group, the minister has to exert a lot of influence in order to set a high sales target; the production engineering department-this is one of the foundations of Panasonic's strong strength-desperately requires the minister of the department to Master the efficiency of the factory and set high production and quality control goals.These pressures will not be too much, but focus on the goal and continuously provide strong supervision and encouragement.Everyone understands that the superior will track the progress of the plan every month and strictly check every change.Group and individual performance will be assessed and rewards and rewards will be awarded based on these assessments.A senior minister in the refrigerator department said: "Working here is like being on one of your American football teams. Your teams also have many 'bosses' - field coaches, linebackers coaches, maybe even doctors And the trainers. You also filmed the game with a camera and then screened it after each game to see if there is any incompatibility between the pre-drill and the actual game. Players are in this situation Play like hell because everyone's goal is to win. At Panasonic, we feel the same way. Of course, we sometimes argue, but like your team, when conflicts arise, we adjust and deal with them immediately .As a result, your team is getting better and better, and so are we." The way Panasonic recently purchased a US factory is revelatory.Panasonic bought an old Motorola TV factory for US$50 million in 1974. At that time, many people expected that Panasonic was probably going to create a human miracle.Twelve months after taking office, the new head of the branch finally fully understood the various problems of the factory - a group of old workers, low working mood, poor quality, constant conflicts among managers, and annual Loss of $19 million.His first few actions were predictable.He sent the company's key executives to Japan for training, arranged for Japanese "consultants" to work behind their American colleagues (very skillful at getting everything back on track), held weekly meetings of all departments, formed focus groups, and attempted to address key issues. solution, and at the same time promote the circulation of various materials.Most of what he did was corny, as far as anyone could imagine.He also began to reduce costs, giving all production employees a vacation once a month, forcing early retirement, canceling the increase in living expenses, and dismissing 13 management personnel.A senior Japanese minister in charge said: "Motorola's problems are so serious that we sent a group of American executives to Japan for training, and they came back with some good ideas, knowing that we had to restructure the company and change our strategy. They demand more realistic, we demand better quality control, correct profit analysis, correct control of raw material and finished product inventory. These things do not have to be paid attention to by Japanese people, but no one has done these things well. I think it’s common sense, you all know that. We’ve always wanted advice from the bottom up, that’s our hallmark. But when there’s no advice coming up, we just have to carry orders from the top.” This conversation was published in December 1974. Six years later, the factory's morale was high, quality improved, the factory was making money, and operations were back to normal.But the plant's success was only the result of widespread attention to management issues.We might think that because the Japanese value teamwork, harmony, and relationships, they cannot handle tough situations.But the former employees of the Motorola factory can prove that the Japanese can also fight tough battles.Our perceptions are often not facts, but really just our wishful thinking.In fact, all we have to do is watch professional sports in the US and agree with it: to consistently win, everything has to be right, including teamwork; training and recruiting work, and focus on other disciplines. The entire planning process—particularly the detailed six-month plan—sets goals against which the company can judge performance in all areas.In addition to this procedure, there is another detailed and complex system for monitoring results and identifying difficulties.Soon after founding the company, Mr. Konosuke Matsushita recruited a person who is proficient in finance and accounting to match his work in marketing and general management.This person was Takahashi Arataro, who later became his closest friend.The two worked together to create the world's first profit center - a set of extremely clear management data systems, with more than a dozen important reports on the performance of the department every month.Even before the advent of the computer age, Takahashi had been able to successfully obtain a monthly report on the business results of each department within a few days of the end of each month.This speedy operation enables the head office and various departments to take immediate remedial action when problems are discovered—a fact that has always been possible despite the company's growing organization. A second feature of the Matsushita system is its transfer price approach.This approach allows any department to outsource as long as it can obtain better prices outside.This "Real Market Test" is still an important foundation of Panasonic's financial system to this day.Panasonic wants each division to be self-sufficient within five years and try to avoid subsidizing money-losing businesses.Panasonic requires every self-supporting department to hand over 60% of its pre-tax profits to the head office.These funds are used to pay the expenses of financial administration, production group management, research and development, and production engineering departments. In addition, they can also provide relative investment funds for the head office.Panasonic has always insisted on streamlining the staff of the head office and trying to cooperate with the work of the production line.Today, Panasonic has as many as 200,000 employees (87,000 in Japan, 30,000 overseas, and the rest are scattered in affiliated companies that are not all controlled by Panasonic), but the Panasonic Group head office has only 3,500 experts That's all.The remainder of the profits of each department (approximately 40%) is owned by each department itself, and most of it is used to add the latest equipment or engage in expansion, improvement of production engineering, and "natural renewal", that is, the introduction of new generations of products to replace the old product. An interesting comment was made by an American executive who runs an American subsidiary: "Panasonic's ability to sustain its employees' entrepreneurial enthusiasm over the years has been largely due to its willingness to allow divisions to keep a large share of the profits they make. part, for reinvestment. You can't imagine how hard ministers in various departments work when they know that they can create their own future. In the United States, we have long been dissatisfied with the so-called 'cabinet concept', In this system, some departments make a lot of money, but their income is used by the company to subsidize the "star" department that is considered to have a better future. We believe that this kind of thinking is too simplistic. Of course, Panasonic has the ability to integrate various 60% of the profits handed over by the department are used in the newly developed production business. However, the most criticized point of the 'cabinet concept' is that a department is regarded as an unpopular unit or a 'star' unit, Often it is up to the management to adapt their products to the needs of the market. Panasonic assigns the heavy responsibility for this work to the various departments, and then provides them with a lot of extra assistance, as well as the experts of the production group to impose on them. Pressure, in these ways to stimulate departmental progress." At the forefront of the financial management system are the company's administrators.In Panasonic's more than 100 production departments scattered around the world, each department is assigned an administrator, and only 100 administrators are retained in the head office.These semi-independent administrators are stationed within the department for which they are responsible.It takes a high degree of skill for these administrators to actually handle difficult problems for two bosses.They were taught to try to avoid oppressing ministers with advice, but to provide the ministers with a factual basis for their own judgment.For some parts, the senior management of the head office shared part of the work for them, making their work easier.Because the senior management department of the head office has superb capabilities, can assess the performance of various departments every month, and dig out major problems from some figures. In the training process, administrators have always been regarded as the president, so they are required to develop a business perspective.To further encourage them, administrators are promoted not only on the basis of their own demonstrated talent, but also on the performance of the department to which they are assigned.Therefore, Matsushita carefully selects administrators from among the new recruits every year, and then gives them special training."A steward must have clean hands, a strong will, and a warm heart," said one veteran administrator. Another described his role this way: "We are rarely treated as It's the watchdog—partly because the Panasonic system is very broad and encourages the openness of all activities. There are many things—monthly business reports, peer review meetings with department heads, marketing and production coordinators in the production group office. Participation in the work - Creates a very open environment where everyone knows what is going on in the company. Takahashi's statistics are very effective, so very little is hidden. As a result, administrators are not used as Spy at the head office who monitors who 'leaks' what secrets. Our role is more like a wife in a traditional Japanese family. Like a wife, we mainly handle some internal affairs and do not contact the outside world, but we are always paying attention to the business situation , and tell the department heads the actual situation, and draw their attention to some problems.” (Note that in this conversation, the administrator described herself as a “wife,” which is surprising because在大多数美国公司中，这几乎是令人无法想象的情况。美国人对于性别差异的传统看法，严重影响了我们对事情的看法。我们在后面还将对此加以讨论。） 松下制度的成功，可由松下在1973年以会长身份退休以前的记录获得证明。在第二次世界大战到1973年之间，松下的销售金额以美元来计算，共成长了4000倍，利润增加的比例甚至更大。尽管公司规模获得惊人的扩大，投资项目增加很多，产品更趋复杂，分公司遍布世界各地，但松下公司的效率仍能获得很大的改进。 当我们更进一步探讨松下是如何获得这样的成就时，另有几项因素自行显露出来。一家规模很大的原松下附属公司的负责人这样说：“我们并不利用数字当做齿轮来推动制度的进行，我们是用人来推动制度。当然，数字可以协助追踪个人的表现，并找出问题来；我们需要这一类的管制，才能有效推动业务，但是，基本上，松下认为，人是可以信任的。不过，我们的管理制度可以提供指导原则，防止发生毁灭性的错误。在日本的高速公路上，我们在路中央设有'预防撞车铁栏'，防止车子因为超速而冲上来的车道。松下的财务'预防撞车铁栏'即具有相同的目的。”从外表来看，松下的制度似乎比较严苛——至少，某些人是认为如此。日本汽车工业的一名高级主管说：“松下派了很多会计及财务专家在各分公司巡视。这是一种十分严厉的管理制度。”东京Touche Ross公司的一名重要合伙人说：“有很多日本公司的形态十分接近美国公司——例如，松下、YKK、索尼与本田，是其中比较著名的。它们的管理制度相当严密，更注重基本路线。这可能是未来的潮流，但是，不要忘了我们也有自己的传统形态的公司——像是'日本钢铁'以及'住友化工'（Sumi-tomo）。从这些传统性的公司里，我们可以看出很多典型的日本传统作风。” 松下财务管理制度的其他要素，值得我们继续加以讨论。第一，投资本金；第二，开会检查业务状况。总公司把各部门上缴来的60%的利润存入所谓的“松下银行”。松下则用这些钱来资助新的投资事业，各部门也可以向他申请贷款。各部门除了日常事务的开销之外，不拥有自己的账户。即使是各部门自己保留的40%利润，也由总公司加以保管（总公司并替各部门加利息），等到各部门想要进行投资时，才能把钱提走。如果某个部门必须向总公司要求周转金，到月底时就要把欠账处理好。同样的，各部门的欠账不得超过30天，公司在这同一段时间后就要开始收账。如果某个部门必须向总公司借钱，总公司将要收取很高的利率（比银行利率高出2%）。如果这个部门业务状况很差，而且公司的高级部长认为这是因为这个部门部长的错，那么，公司还会向这个部门收取更高的“惩罚”利息。这时候，总公司就要向这个部门施以重大压力，以控制资本，避免资本泛滥。诚如大家所说，松下的管理极为严格。 在每个月与每季度举行的反思会中，财务管理的内部作业发挥了最大的效用。在此，我们可以看到松下制度中比较不定量的一面，以及深入观察它的风格。在每个月的月底，每一部门的营业资料全部送到主管财务的执行副社长那儿，若是和6个月的营业计划有差异之处，更要一一附加说明书。下一步骤，就是由部长和他的工作人员花上几天的时间，在总公司内极为详细地审查每一项目。然后，再由总公司的高级部长和各部门举行会议，把各项计划再反思一遍，这一次是在比较宽容的气氛中进行。 判断一个部门的管理效率的标准，就是看它有没有能力按照计划进行工作、增加销售量和市场占有率、收回应收账款，以及存货的使用情形。松下的管理以长期评估而闻名。如果情况很坏，高级管理人员可能会提出很严厉的问题加以质问，但是最重要的是，看你有没有尽力做好你自己分内的工作，而且也不能比同一市场内的任何人差。但是，松下并非软心肠的好好先生。松下经常公开表示：“要将表现不好的人，调到公司其他的职位上，使他们能够适应环境及发挥最佳能力。”松下公司经常采取这种补救方法，以求适才适用。即使是部门部长或分公司负责人，只要是表现不佳的，通常都无法在他们的职位上待太久。各部门部长也参加每季的同事反思会。在这个会议上，各部门的部长把他们的营业结果在彼此面前公开。所有的部门分成A、B、C、D级：A级（表现最佳者）部门首先提出他们的报告，D级最后。一位参加这项会议的部长说：“用不着在大众面前揭发他人的短处。你的部门是名列前茅，或是落在别人之后，这就是很大的刺激或鼓励了。在这些会议中，并不会残酷地单独找出特定个人或一个部门来加以反思，也不会令他们公开感到难堪，但是，每一个被暗示在那一季中表现不佳的公司，在离开会议之后，都会下定决心，不再面对那种难堪的场面。” 我们已经详细讨论了各种财务与策划制度。另外还有一个值得注意的制度，那就是松下公司精心策划的销售网。在日本人心目中，松下最著名的可能就是它那独特的批发分销制度，这使得松下公司在零售阶层拥有很大的力量。松下公司经由这种制度，和3种零售商店进行交易：（1）由松下公司拥有一部分或全部股份的零售店；（2）私人商店，但只经销松下的厂牌产品；（3）同时经销松下产品以及和松下竞争的产品。为了方便比较，特别举出下面两项数字：松下在日本全国拥有2.1万家只经销其产品的零售店，而索尼公司的这类零售店却只有1000家。 松下公司经由预售名单以及生产统计表，来监视它的销售力及销售进行情形，而且这些名单与统计表几乎和生产工厂所使用的完全相同。跟Procter＆Gamble和IBM公司一样，松下也组成了自己的顾客俱乐部，使松下公司能随时了解其产品使用者的需求，并吸收他们的意见及建议，以求改善。松下公司一定要面面皆考虑到了，才把产品送到市场上。它的销售组织，每年还有1亿美元广告预算作后盾，这是日本公司中广告预算最为庞大的。事实上，松下销售制度中最重要的一面，就是松下对顾客所表现的热诚与个人关切。松下幸之助说：“作为生产者，只有当我们的产品送到顾客手中，并加以使用，并且感到满意时，我们的社会任务才能算是圆满完成。……因此，一家企业最重要的就是，要以最迅速的方法获知顾客需求什么。我们必须知道顾客每天的喜恶。”松下的销售人员，对于他们自己的产品以及竞争产品的市场占有率的统计数字，均能背得很熟，朗朗上口，就好像美国的销售人员在周一早晨均能朗朗背诵各种球队的得分数一样。松下甚至希望它的高级管理人员和主管也能经常亲自到各零售店拜会。对美国人来说，松下这种庞大的组织，严密的销售、生产，以及财务管理制度的最杰出优点，可能就是：在其内部服务的员工并不认为，这些管理制度很严苛或令人难以忍受。我们不妨听听松下几位部门部长所说的话。收音机部门的一名社长说：“我们公司内确实是有些规定，但我已经很适应它们，已经到了不需要它们的程度。总公司很少怀疑我们的管理计划。我们并不必经常向总公司请示核准我们在这儿所做的一切。当然，有时候，我们也会向上级请示，我们会这样问道：'我们刚刚设计了这样一个产品，你们认为可以吗？'不久以前，会长提议我们设计一种售价在2000日元的收音机，并向我们保证，如果我们设计出来了，他将率先购买10万台。我们把这个计划搁置了两三年。但等到我们开始生产这种收音机后，我们一口气卖出了100多万台。有时候，即使我们不向上级请示，它们也会传达一些意见下来。但整个来说，我们在公司内可以自由交换意见与观念，而不必顾虑到职位与身份。”电子工程部门的社长说：“我经常去见财务、销售与人事部门的负责人，通常都在两三天前约好见面时间。我们通常大约谈上30分钟。此外，我们每个月还举行一次研究会，我们在会上和会长、社长、执行副社长等人交换意见。在喝咖啡的时间内，我们这些与会的部门负责人则彼此互相交换消息与情报。”最后的评论来自电视机部门的社长：“有一天，松下会长对我说：'我要从业务的第一线上退休，当一名顾问。如果你有任何事情想要征求我的意见，尽管来见我。'结果，我是第三个或第四个去拜访他的人。他用心听完了我的想法，并批评广告宣传品以及电视广告，他说：'你应该和大家多谈谈。但不要忘了，作最后决定是你。'” 从上面这些评论中，可以看出很重要的一点：各部门部长一致认为，他们拥有相当多的自立企业精神。他们承认其他人在公司内的存在，但很少暗示受到他人的压迫或干预。结果，我们可能会认为，总公司人员与高级主管可能会自认缺乏影响力。但事实并非如此。这些高级人员一方面既能发挥他们的影响力，另一方面又能保持各部门的独立性，他们并对此感到很愉快。很奇妙吧？当然，松下维持这种互相矛盾的情况的能力，我们是不能仅凭研究它的结构与制度，就能了解的。因此，我们就必须转而研究这个问题的两个最重要的部分——松下风格与他的基本组织哲学。 松下幸之助的个人风格有几项不凡的特点。第一，他的强烈“参与”方式。松下一直渴望将一种企业精神徐徐灌输进入公司内部，所以，他和好朋友高桥建立了一种在许多方面是小型企业的管理风格。他们两人对吸收资讯似乎不感觉疲倦。即使到了今天，他们俩仍能仔细阅读长篇报告及无数的数字，并能捉住其中的要点与问题。这两人还有一项很出名的习惯：不管是在白天或夜晚，他们经常打电话给现场的主管，如果他们有一两天未曾亲自和每一部门主管谈话或打电话给他们，那是很不寻常的事。结果，公司的高级部长们也养成了跟他们一样的习惯，也经常插手重要事务或是指出一些未受到注意的市场潜力。他们两人表现出关心的管理方式：与工厂、生产现场保持密切的联络，并和顾客也有同样的联络。松下公司的高级人员很少待在他的办公室内，松下一再强调多花点时间在市场上的重要性。 我们对松下风格的讨论，可能会令某些读者感到惊讶，因为这完全违背了大家经常描述的日本高级部长的形象：他们总是冷静地坐在高处，远离市场上的“战场”。若是以这种形象来描述松下，也并非完全不对，而只是有一半错误而已。事实上，“理想”的日本领袖都静静地坐在高处，而美国理想的领袖经常都是比较年轻、好运动、积极进取的。松下自己的风格则混合了这两种，他曾经有一次评论说：“当你拥有100位员工时，你要站在最前线，即使你对他们大吼大叫，或者打他们，他们仍会追随你。但是，当员工增加到1000人时，你绝对不可站在最前线，而应该留在中央。当公司扩大到10000人时，你应该怀着敬畏及感谢的心情，留在最后面。” 我们在前面已经提到过，在二十世纪六七十年代期间，松下先生采取了一种“不管事”的管理态度，并培养出下一代的领导干部。但是，由于危机发生，他立即又出面处理众多事务。比松下年轻10岁的高桥目前仍然是松下公司最主要的解决困难的人。虽然名义上他是公司的顾问，但是，若有某个部门发生困难时，高桥就会深入问题的中心——调查、提出严重的问题、指出问题所在。松下一位部门部长说：“但是，这些高级部长的干预不会令人感到不愉快，而且不会令你觉得他们是在查你，因为你会觉得他们那样做是为了训练你，培养你的能力，以便当他们不再领导你时你可以自主。松下的一个基本信念是：'在平凡人身上培养出不平凡的能力'。由于有了这种基本目标，松下公司的高级人员在处理困难及问题时，就会显得有点冷酷无情。” 松下充分明白，部长的态度是和部属最有力的沟通方式，因为这可以使他们明白，上级主管真正需要的是什么。松下成功的秘诀在于他有能力与比他低七级的员工沟通，并鼓舞这名员工积极地为达成公司的目标而努力。风格是达成这个目标的重要工具。松下公司不断把一些代表该公司价值的传奇性奋斗故事，转述给它的员工。有个故事指出，松下在1964年的电扇危机中，亲自出马，删除了原来的分销过程中的两个环节，把省下来的钱分给零售店，因而使得原来陷于危机的松下电扇再度复活。在1970年经济不景气期间，也曾发生过么一段神奇的故事：高桥荒太郎把生产线上的工人派去沿门挨户推销松下产品，不但减低了工厂的存货，也降低了生产成本。在这些以及其他一些近乎神奇式的故事中，都可看出同样的一个主旨：松下的管理人员意志坚强、重视实际、积极进取。一名高级人员说：“松下公司的风格重点就是，找出问题所在，然后加以解决。问题发生后，我们立即把问题孤立在它所发生的那一阶层，不让它蔓延开来。松下公司的传统，一向是热烈支持积极进取的主管人员。高级主管人员的行为更是强烈支持这种传统，他们树立了好榜样，使得各部门部长知道每天应该从事及思考什么。在我们公司里，上级不会教下级解决问题的详细办法。” 松下风格的另一特色是，它对于各种冲突采取很实际的解决办法。在松下公司内部，存在着很多竞争与潜在性的冲突——这又是违反日本的传统的现象——尤其是各部门（例如，收音机与录像机部门），因为彼此的产品互相抵触，而发生竞争与冲突的机会也很多。当几个互相竞争的部门请求公司拨款投资这种产品时，公司的投资资金委员会就会接触到很多不同的意见。在此，我们又可再度看到西方与东方处理方式获得很好的综合。松下和高桥两人的个性都相当坦白，因此，他们的作风也就渗透进了公司的文化中。但是，虽然这些讨论相当激烈而且集中攻击，却很少会引起人与人之间的公开冲突。我们问松下公司的主管人员，他们是否“和其他部门吵架”，他们对此问题都感到大惑不解。一位部长这样解释：“我们就像是正常婚姻生活中的丈夫与太太一样，偶尔也有意见不相同的时候（或者，一些在一起合作很多年的亲密商业伙伴，也会有这种情形）。我们有冲突，但不会一直冲突下去，我们基本的大前提就是，我们将在生活中不断调整适应。我们所谓的'调整'就是——各有关方面在基本上，将努力使大家团结在一起，而不是彼此互相排斥。”一位生产团体的社长更进一步指出：“当两个部门互相竞争要生产同一种新产品时，我经常介入并加以处理。我倾听两方面提出的意见，通常这些事实对其中某个部门有利。我们都试着把这些事实全部摊开来，让理智去自行判断。我们为此讨论建立起'接受时间'，我的意思是说，人们需要花一点时间才能使自己获得改变，适应对各种事情的新看法。我们要求积极进行——但我们总是试着允许人们改变自己的观点。” “接受时间”，在日本公司中，是解决冲突最有力的工具。一个人的信仰通常是很重要的财产，甚至远比物质财产更重要，人们也会为了他们的中心信仰而慷慨牺牲。即使是比较不重要的信仰，也会退缩进入一个人的过去中，以及前进到他的未来中。当新的想法或事实出现时，不管它们是如何急迫，人们总是需要一点时间来逐步放弃旧的想法与事实，然后才能接受新的想法与事实。尽管面临庞大压力与急迫，松下仍然在处理事情的同时，建立起“接受时间”。生产工程部门的社长说：“我们必须创造出正确的气氛与环境，才能使人们接受新的技术，你不能强迫人们接受你的想法——我们目前是逐步把新的技术揭露给人们后争取他们的接受。”这种说法正好和松下会长所说的一段话互相吻合：“我很少在正式场合与我的部长会谈。我们都是不拘形式，促膝而谈。重要的是要培养起他们的独立性，因此，不管我的问题是多么尖锐，我的暗示是多么赤裸，但我约束自己不要发号施令。我们必须尊重各个部门的自尊，以及遵守公司的传统。” “精神”是最不适合描述公司生活的一个名词。然而，除了这个名词之外，再也没有任何其他名词，足以用来描述作为松下哲学基础的强烈信仰制度。松下的风格有很多看来似乎复杂而又难以解释之处，但只要我们详细考虑了它们的基本价值，那么，这些矛盾之处也就很容易了解了。例如，松下公司的员工如何会把高级人员的批评当做是“训练”；公司又如何能够调动表现不好的人员，而且让他们发展出“优良品行”，而不至于觉得沮丧。一个公司能够长期维持这么高的工作效率，但是该公司的重要主管人员却不断谈到“接受时间”，以及他们渴望“赢得人们的信任”，这是很令人感到困惑的。 任何人类机构一定免不了要面对其内部的矛盾的对立——通常这些对立系存在于公司必要的效率与人类的感情冲动上。也许“精神”现象就因此被当做从这个无法避免的困境中——个人与社会、人类与效率——获得解决的一种工具。对松下来说，他的处事方式的根本就是宗教。在1931年，正当经济萧条最为严重之际，松下在日本发起一项宗教运动，结果获得广泛的支持，并迅速得以成长。此经验使松下留下十分深刻的印象，他写道：“我终于明白了，人们需要以某种方式把他们的生产性生活和这个社会联结在一起。”松下就是以这种见解来重新思考他的目标。结果产生了这种管理哲学——根据一种类似达尔文式的进化比例，把商业利益和社会福利密切结合在一起。松下说：“一个公司企业应该根据它对社会所提供的服务，迅速独立自主。公司利润不应该代表公司的贪婪，而是社会对这家公司的信任投票：这家公司所提供的服务受到了社会大众的珍重。当一个企业无法获得利润时，它应该死亡——否则就是浪费社会资源。公司不应该对失败的部门像父亲那般加以照顾或是加以补助”。 乍听之下，我们这些处于企盼政府紧急援助时代且又充满疑心的公民，会认为这种对利润的明智看法，多少有点虚伪和异想天开。松下公司的一名高级人员提出了这项说明：“如果你不以意识观点来思考这个问题，你将发现，这个社会产生了一些公司，而这些公司提供服务，满足社会的某种需求，然后这个社会就给这些公司利润，以奖励它们对社会的贡献与服务。许多西方人士很容易嘲笑日本公司订下发誓要奉献自己，服务社会的崇高目标，他们并且认为，日本人的这些高调口号其实都是骗人的。但是如果你们的某一家大公司——例如，IBM，要想真正让它的员工们去'思考'或是确实相信'IBM就是服务'，那么，这句话就不再只是一句广告口号了。它将成为替这家公司服务的几千名员工的真正信仰——这是超乎利润的一种人类价值，这些员工将把他创造性的生命奉献在这上面。松下的商业哲学也是如此。”松下哲学提供了超越它所生产产品之外的一种价值基础。松下是日本第一家拥有自己的社歌与生活规范的公司。一位高级人员说：“在西方人看来，这似乎有点好笑。但是，每天早晨8点钟，在日本全国各地，共有8.7万人一起背诵公司的生活规范，以及高唱公司的'社歌'。我们大家就像是一家人。”松下早就看出，终生在一家公司服务的这种长期经验，必然会在一个人的个性上，留下不可磨灭的影响。在松下看来，工作至少占了我们清醒时间的一半，因此，如果不让工作在我们的生活上占据重要地位，那是令人难以想象的。因此，公司就应协助它的员工改善内在的心理，这也是不可逃避的责任。要想实现这个责任，最佳的方法就是把公司和社会，以及个人联结起来，并坚持说，管理人员就是训练员和个性培养人员，而不只是人类资源的利用者；但是，这种把商业哲学与冷静的商业目标连接在一起的现象，日本人却认为是十分正常而自然的。一位观察家指出，松下提供了两种特殊的训练：一种是基本的技术训练；但是，第二种以及更为根本的训练则是，对松下价值的训练。这些价值是在一个人一生当中的一段漫长的学徒时期内，加以培养而建立的。刚被招考进入公司的新手不断受到这些价值的熏陶。不管是属于哪个工作团体的员工，每个员工至少每隔一个月都被要求为他的那个团体做一次十分钟的演讲，讲题是该公司的精神价值与它和社会的关系。据说，说服自己要比说服别人困难多了。因此，松下很早就利用这种“自我教诲”的技巧。上级可以要求下属考虑他们为了松下公司的价值而提出一项建议。每个人都已经听过以及一再听过创办人的这段名言：“如果你犯了一个诚实的错误，公司将大大地原谅你；你可以把它当做是一次训练，吸取教训。不过，如果你违背了公司的基本原则，你将受到严厉的批评。”公司的经营宗旨、信条与“七精神”，现在列在下面。 经营宗旨： 彻底认清身为产业人员的责任，谋求社会全体的进步，为了世界文化更进一步地发展而贡献自己。 员工信条： 唯有全体员工团结努力，才能使公司获得进步与发展。全体员工本应至诚、团结一致，为公司的不断进步而努力。 七项“精神”道德标准： (1) The spirit of serving the country through industry (2) An upright spirit (3) Dear and sincere spirit (4) The spirit of struggle and improvement (5) The spirit of etiquette and humility (6) Comply with the spirit of assimilation (7) The spirit of gratitude 只要把这些道德标准牢记在心，就能使你获得很大的愉快与安心。它们为一个遍布世界各地的企业机构的员工，创造了共同的希望。它使得一个极为复杂而又高度分层负责的公司，能够不断经营下去，即使在很多营业指导方针崩溃之后，它们仍能维持公司的进行。当我们拿松下公司同一时代的美国公司互相比较时——在20世纪20年代诞生的美国公司，像通用汽车、美国电话与电报公司、西屋电气公司以及RCA——我们发现，只有少数美国公司，能够维持当初创立时的活力了。若想知道，为什么独有松下公司能够维持它原来的面目，而其他很多公司却不能维持，这正是松下成功的主要因素。 松下一家主要分公司的负责人评论：“松下的管理哲学对我们十分重要。它使我们能够跟得上西方公司的高效率，同时又使我们不必丧失丝毫的日本人特色。也许，松下最大的胜利就是：它能平衡运用西方的理智与东方的精神智慧。” 松下对风格与精神价值的重视，深深根植于公司全体员工的内心中。从一开始，松下就认为，整个企业并不比企业内的人员重要。他把公司所扮演的角色，比喻为水桶外面的那个铁箍。如果没有铁箍，每块木板都要向外掉落，水桶就装不住水了。他说，由于铁箍的纪律限制，所有个别部位全部团结在一起，完成交付在它们身上的那些任务。 松下的人事业务中，有几项值得注意的特点：第一项就是它杰出的训练与心理教育过程，每个新进人员都要接受这些训练与教育。事实上，日本人的优点之一，就是他们很重视训练。松下公司及其附属机构的20万名员工中，每一个人都有过相当丰富的受训经验。松下的所有专业人员，不管是工程师、会计人员或者销售人员，一开始都要接受基本的商业训练。每个人都要花上6个月，从事销售工作，或直接在一家零售店内工作。每一个人同时也要到生产线上，从事枯燥的装配工作。同时，我们已在前面提到过，在进入公司的最初几年当中，每一位新进人员都要学习“松下的处世方式”，不容许有太多的错误。 在此，我们必须要注意，松下这种看来纯属理论的训练方法，与美国几家杰出公司所使用的方法相近。麦金赛公司（McKinsey＆Company）的克劳斯（Paul Klaus）评论说：“在P＆G、希尔斯和IBM这些大公司中，他们的管理制度跟军队很相似。只要你不照规矩来，他们就会找上你。这些公司专门招考21岁左右的年轻人，这些小伙子思想较为开放，可供塑造，公司安排他们从最底层干起，训练他们相信公司的制度，遵守公司的规章。这些美国大公司之所以杰出，真正的原因是它们很重视这些细节。经过一段时间之后，这些经过训练与磨炼，而又能留在公司内的人员，成了公司制度的一部分，彼此互相了解，于是成为公司推展业务的最大主力。” 我们在前面提到过，松下的训练制度，对年轻人施以严格的训练。训练课程包括：公司的组织、财务制度，当然，还包括松下的哲学课程，训练的宗旨很快就向受训者明确表示。在实习期间，受训练者就要接受销售与生产纪律的考验，彼此之间展开竞争。他们将会获知，在松下公司，最重要的就是了解顾客的需求，以最低的成本，把适合市场需要的产品送到贩卖地点。部长与管理人中每一次获得晋升，每一次都要接受一次额外的训练——每一次的训练课程，都包括了对松下哲学的研究，以及在零售店或生产部门吸收更新的工作经验。 在20世纪30年代，松下开始着手建立他那一套独立自主、分层负责的结构制度。他当时就已预料到，要想同时维持整个公司的完整，以及生产线的特点，是十分困难的。所以，他建立了一套很