日本電機企業的成功變革：Panasonic公司個案研究

Abstract

日本電機產業最近面臨前所未有的困境，許多家公司都因此被迫企進行業變革。Panasonic不外乎也是其中之一，雖然偉大的企業家──松下幸之助培養Panasonic成為國際上的大企業之一，但在其卸任後，卻因後繼經營者採取的策略陸續失敗，導致公司幾乎差點面臨破產，還好在2012年津賀一宏就任社長後Panasonic成功地幫助公司復甦業績。而他是如何達成企業變革，以及跟以往的社長不同之處在哪，都是值得關注的觀點。本研究修正岸田民樹提出的ESSP典範，分析Panasonic1985年後的四個階段的企業變革的步驟，檢討現在Panasonic的成功因素。 研究結果發現，津賀社長就任的2012年後施行的企業變革的成功因素如下。首先讓Panasonic陷入史上最大的經營危機去掉進行改革時的障礙，做成容易進行大規模改革的土壤。之後津賀進行改革時活用自己強項﹑以客觀的視點來察覺外部環境的變化，準確進行針對成長領域的選擇與集中。接下來為了在新的事業領域進行選擇與集中，Panasonic積極地探討與外部企業的合作，另外對於公司人才的選用，脫離不同以往的標準，開始重視高能力及主動的人才，促進適合企圖轉換為BtoB企業的組織變更及人才起用。再來企業接受新組織及不同類型的人才時需要企業文化的變革。身為領導者的津賀不但不彰顯權威，更明確表示其允許失敗的態度，帶給Panasonic有速度感的經營方式。而此變革跟上家電廠商的BtoB事業轉換的潮流，以維持經營理念的方式緩慢地達成復甦，對於這點也值得評價。

Japan’s electrical machinery industry is facing an unprecedented challenge lately, i.e. each and all companies in it being compelled to transform their business. Panasonic is also one of them. Despite having become a world-class company under the guidance of its founder and the legendary entrepreneur Kōnosuke Matsushita, Panasonic was once on the verge of bankruptcy after successive strategic failures by Matsushita’s successors. However, after Kazuhiro Tsuga became the chairman in 2012, Panasonic achieved business recovery. Therefore, how this business transformation was achieved and how Tsuga differed from his predecessors are two aspects worthy of attention. This study hence modifies Kishida’s ESSP paradigm to analyze steps in Panasonic’s four stage business transformation after 1985 and examine factors that contribute to its present success. Results show the following success factors for the business transformation implemented by Chairman Tsuga upon his assumption of office in 2012. First, obstacles that put Panasonic in the biggest sustainability crisis in its history and that could hinder the reform were removed to create a ground that made it easy to implement this large-scale reform. After that, Tsuga took advantage of his forte, i.e. an objective point of view, to detect external changes for exact choices and centralization that targeted areas for growth. Next, to achieve choices and centralization for new business areas, Panasonic actively sought to collaborate with other companies. It also started to value highly capable talents who took initiatives in its corporate talent policy to break away from its past companyism and drive organizational changes and talent hiring that fit its attempt to transform into a BtoB company. Moreover, when a company accepts a new organization structure and different types of talents, transformation of its corporate culture is also necessary. In view of this, Tsuga abandoned the show of authority, and made clear his stance of allowance for failure, which brought into Panasonic a business approach that gave a sense of speed. Another thing worth meriting about this transformation is that it kept with the trend of transformation to BtoB among home appliance manufacturers and achieved slow recovery while maintaining the business philosophy.