The Founder Konosuke Matsushita

In 1956, as the government was announcing the successful completion of the nation's economic reconstruction, Konosuke startled his work force and the industry by announcing an ambitious five-year expansion plan for Panasonic Corporation, calling for quadrupled annual sales, a 60% boost in the number of employees, and an increase in capital assets from three billion to 10 billion yen. "Success is guaranteed," he said, "because these numbers represent the desires of the masses, with whom we are making an invisible contract." Konosuke achieved these seemingly impossible goals in just over four years.