2013

President Tsuga delivers a keynote speech at "2013 International CES"

From January 8 to 11, 2013, the "2013 International CES (hereinafter, "CES"), one of the world's biggest consumer electronics exhibitions, took place in Las Vegas. As the major event to mark the start of the exhibition, Tsuga delivered an opening keynote speech in which he shared about Panasonic's activities in the B2C and B2B fields, in terms of its diversity of businesses and direction to take, by showing specific examples.

The message communicated at CES attracted attention internally and externally for its content offering a new direction to Panasonic's business in the harsh management environment.

Tsuga shared the aim of taking off as an "Eco Engineering Company" offering innovative solutions by changing the existing image of being a "TV manufacturing company" which American customers had toward Panasonic. Specifically, he presented actual examples of activities being undertaken in the B2B and B2B2C fields in the United States with the themes of "YOUR TV," "YOUR HOME," "YOUR CAR," "YOUR BUSINESS," "YOUR JOURNEY," and "YOUR COMMUNITY."

For example, for "YOUR CAR," together with a General Motors executive as a guest, Tsuga presented about the commercialization of an information entertainment system co-developed with General Motors in the U.S. For "YOUR BUSINESS," he proposed the use of 20-inch 4K tablets by professional photographers at their filming locations and shared a case of a convenience store using Panasonic's eco-friendly store solutions. For "YOUR JOURNEY," an actual case of delivering an in-flight entertainment system was introduced. Through these, Tsuga clearly communicated how Panasonic will be able to contribute to the society in the future.

In conclusion, Tsuga stated, "Some of the contents I talked about today may have sounded quite bold and been surprising to you. The Panasonic I just presented might be quite different from the image in your mind. However, in order for us to realize goals, we must carry out an unprecedented level of drastic transformation and innovation for the company and the industry as well." Thus, he took a vow to achieve a full-fledged turnaround from the harsh financial condition.

Launched the 4-Company system with a business division as the basic unit of management

Panasonic's future vision: Expanding business areas while preserving the Home Appliance DNA

During FY2012, Panasonic continuously recorded severe results due to the sales decline attributable to sluggish sales of consumer digital products, etc. and the impairment loss of businesses for solar batteries, consumer lithium-ion batteries, mobile phones, etc. Under the circumstances, on March 28, 2013, Tsuga presented the FY2013 Business Policy internally and externally, in which he announced the promotion of the new 4-Company system with a business division as the basic unit of management while carrying out other necessary matters like deciding how to deal with unprofitable businesses.

Tsuga specified regaining the strength of each business as the key point to realize Panasonic's comeback. Accordingly, the existing 88 business units (BUs) were reorganized into new units respectively taking responsibility for development, manufacturing, and sales on a global basis and being capable of continuously increasing funds and profits. As a result, 49 new BUs were created as autonomous responsible management bodies and they were renamed "business divisions."

Then, as entities to manage these business divisions, four Companies: Appliances Company, Eco Solutions Company, AVC Networks Company, and Automotive & Industrial Systems Company were set up. Under this structure, Panasonic would address major industrial fields. In their respective industrial fields, the four Companies would support the development of business divisions through business expansion, new business creation, and strengthening of key devices.

Further, to facilitate value creation, "Cross-Value Innovation" was held out as an approach to create greater values by combining different strengths outside the box. Accordingly, "Cross-Value Innovation 2015 (CV2015)" was announced as the name for the midterm management plan for the three year period from FY2013 to FY2015.

Furthermore, in September, Panasonic launched the new brand slogan "A Better Life, A Better World" in line with the management philosophy emphasizing "contribution to the prosperity of society."