Business as a moral undertaking: the Matsushita story.
American Enterprise, The, July, 1997 by Kotter, John P.
Born in a Japanese farming village in 1894, Konosuke Matsushita endured numerous childhood blows, including the death of six of his seven siblings, his father's speculating away all of the family's financial assets, and leaving home at the age of nine to work 16-hour days in Osaka as apprentice to a hibachi-maker.
Rather than being ground down by such difficulties, Matsushita went on to become one of the titans of twentieth-century enterprise, founding today's $80 billion-a-year home appliance and consumer electronics giant Matsushita Electric (maker of Panasonic and other brands). Upon his death in 1989, more than 20,000 people attended funeral services for this persevering, intensely spiritual businessman.
In his new book, Matsushita: Lessons from the...
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