Panasonic beats Sony, Honda, Microsoft and all comers
Advertisement
DIMSDRIVE Research asked 4,205 people, 2,129 of them male, to name a great company founder or proprietor, in an internet-based survey carried out at the start of October last year.
Note the date that this was taken. It was before the problem with the Matsushita Fan Heaters cropped up, and before Takafumi Horie found himself in hot water regarding some share dealing. Since this second story is currently under criminal investigation, I will refain from comment, although I do note that there seems to be some element of the population that back Horiemon, and in fact some are suggesting that he will emerge from this scandal stronger, not weaker.
Regarding the Matsushita problem, however, I felt their response was very thorough, especially compared to the recent problems with Mitsubishi truck wheels falling off, and if anything too thorough, as for a month they pulled all their TV advertising and replaced them with simple information spots about the product recall, manned almost every kerosene stand with employees to ask purchasers if they have a National Fan Heater, and had leaflets distributed with everyone’s gas bill.
Why Japan has so many paraffin heaters is another matter altogether; even in my brand new block of flats with the almost unheard of luxury of double or bonded pair glazing on all windows and underfloor heating, the people directly above us own one. Thank goodness our place is also kitted out with a full complement of smoke detectors!
Q: Please tell me who you think is a great proprietor or founder. (Free answer)
Q: Please tell me who you think is a great proprietor or founder. (By sex, free answer)
Male
N=2,129Votes Female
N=2,076Votes Konosuke Matsushita 806 Konosuke Matsushita 702 Soichiro Honda 538 Soichiro Honda 347 Bill Gates 94 Bill Gates 114 Carlos Ghosn 49 Takafumi Horie 103 Takafumi Horie 41 Carlos Ghosn 62 Masaru Ibuka 40 Masaru Ibuka 38 Isao Nakauchi 35 Isao Nakauchi 38 Sakichi Toyoda 28 Akio Morita 33 Akio Morita 26 Masayoshi Son 29 Masayoshi Son 22 Sakichi Toyoda 28 Looking at the breakdown by ages, but excluding the teenage group as the number of respondents is very low (although Takafumi Horie does clearly come out on top in that group), Konosuke Matsushita tops all bar one of the age bands, gaining over thrice the votes of the second place person amongst those fifty and older. Only amongst men in their twenties does Konosuke Matsushita lose to Soichiro Honda.
Other interesting people that feature in the league tables include Den Fujita, the ex-president of McDonalds Japan, the seventh equal choice amongst men in their twenties; and Momofuku Ando, the man who invented instant ramen, was tenth amongst women in their twenties
Subscribe to feed
[...] his own country, KM is rated more highly than all other Japan entrepreneurs, as this survey by Time magazine in Japan in 2006 seems to [...]