Unveiling Company Culture & Future Vision

Dive into the heart of innovation with the Panasonic Connect Beyond podcast! In our debut episode, CEO Yasu Higuchi takes us on a journey through the tech landscape, sharing insights honed from years at the forefront of change. From his beginnings at Panasonic to his global ventures, Yasu Higuchi's story is one of relentless pursuit towards sustainability and impact. Join our host Margarita Lindahl as she uncovers the driving force behind Panasonic strategy and its contribution to a better world.

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What is Connect Beyond: Exploring Tomorrow's Technology Today?

Welcome to Connect Beyond, Panasonic Connect Europe's podcast, where we delve into the forefront of technology, innovation, and human connection. Each episode guides listeners through the evolving landscape of tech solutions, featuring insightful discussions with industry leaders and experts. As we navigate the dynamic realm of technology, Connect Beyond aims to keep listeners informed and inspired, encouraging a deeper connection with the latest innovations and trends. Tune in, broaden your horizons, and engage in the conversation of innovation and connectivity with us.

Welcome to the Panasonic Connect podcast.

I'm your host, Margarita, and in this very first episode of our podcast series, we will be looking behind the curtain of technology, solutions and innovation.

And who better to explore this with than the chief executive directing our progress?

Today, we have the pleasure of having Yasuo Higuchi, the CEO of Panasonic Connecticut, with us to share his unique insights on a range of topics that are not just transforming our company, but the entire tech landscape.

And as a brief introduction, Yasuo Higuchi started his career at Panasonic out of university, then later got an MBA from Harvard Business School and spent the following 25 years working at the Boston Consulting Group Apple and running various companies, including HP, the supermarket chain Dai, and Microsoft Japan, before returning to his current position at Panasonic.

So grab your favorite cup of coffee, and let's start this tech talk.

Higuchi san, the very first time I met you was about four years ago, and during that time, I was working in Tokyo in Japan.

And I still remember our very first conversation because while getting to know each other, we did not really speak about business or Panasonic, but rather about the city of Tokyo and the best restaurants in this beautiful city.

So quite a human centric approach in conversations.

And this human centric leadership style, which is still quite raw in a high ranking environment, indeed is very special in this context.

Please let me ask, how important is it to you to be approachable, focusing on personal connections and interactions?

Well, thank you, Margarita.

First of all, thanks for having me on this podcast.

It's very honored for me to be the first one on this program.

So thank you.

And if you can call me Yasu, which is my first name, that'd be great.

And I think, as Margarita said, breaking down formalities is really important in the workplace and for a company's culture.

Since I came back to the company in 2017, I immediately made a push to change the culture to one that is flat and agile rather than top down and heavy.

So one thing we did away with is executive offices.

Typically, a CEO and other executives will be locked away in a room behind a barricade of secretaries.

I think it's important for executives to be approachable and be out there on the floor with the rest of the team.

If someone can grab me for just a few seconds to discuss something, that could save them hours of work in some cases.

So that's just one example.

But yes, also among regular employees, I really think informal interactions are important.

You never know when a chance encounter or water cooler conversation will lead to a great idea or collaboration.

So that is why by respecting people's individual situations, to choose to work from home or remote, we are also encouraging people to come back to the office at least a few days a week.

Yeah.

So your approach of creating a culture where everyone from the CEO to the team can easily connect is in really great, and I strongly believe that it certainly enhances a more collaborative environment.

Jumping into a more tech related topic now, let's start by looking into your perspective on the role of technology in the future business landscape.

So can you share your thoughts, Yasu, on how this can positively shape our company's future considering the global context?

First of all, technology is really important for our company.

The first product, the very first product of our company was a two way socket.

That's the first innovation created by our founder.

And our company has always had technology in the center or core of the company.

So technology and innovation is really, really key to our success.

And Panasonic has been grown with the trend of electrification of many things.

But it is also very important to keep your eye on the technological trend.

If you fail to do that, you'll be very ugly competition with your competitors in the area of community products.

In some cases, you'll be disrupted by new technologies and emerging players.

So one example is audio space.

In the past, you had many kinds of audio products from amplifiers and tuners and record players.

But now, if you have a smartphone and speakers or smartphone and headset, I mean, that is all you need.

So audio products are completely disrupted by Internet, digital and software.

So you have to really carefully keep an eye on the technological trend.

Anyway, technology is important, but we have to carefully pick the domain we compete.

Now, let's jump to something that's almost a buzzword nowadays, but certainly a game changer of tomorrow, generative artificial intelligence.

This technology is advancing rapidly.

So in your view, how will generative AI redefine the way we do business at Panasonic?

Yeah, generative AI is one of the very exciting technologies we should leverage.

How we leverage that technology is kind of twofold.

One is to increase our internal productivity.

I'm talking about internal operational productivity.

The other thing is how to use Generative AI for our monetization.

So I will touch upon the first month internal productivity.

From February 17 last year, a version of Chat GPT, which we called Connect AI, was rolled out to all of our employees in Japan, which at the time was far ahead of other companies.

It was not a question of using generative AI to do business or cut costs, but it was introduced to increase operational productivity within the company.

So far, we have confirmed that using it for tasks like programming and translation have had a particularly large effect.

Now more people can focus on their creative work and let AI do the routine tasks.

And in the future, we will further deepen the use of AI in four stages, actually, and accelerate further business transformation.

Using generative AI for our monetization is pretty much up to each business under Panasonic Connect.

So anyway, this is very, very exciting technologies, both for internal operational productivity, but also our monetization opportunities.

Well, you've painted a very vivid picture of our strategic directions, which certainly is guided by effective leadership.

Let's delve into that personal aspect of guiding a company like Panasonic.

Could you kindly share some of the leadership principles or strategies that have deeply resonated with you as our CEO?

When it comes to solutions and software and seeking for added value for our customers, we have to collect different kinds of ideas from employees.

So in that case, we really want to have dynamic, open, fair culture where everybody can share their own opinions.

So that's why I've been driving kind of a servant type leadership concept in Panasonic connect.

And I also learn a lot from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadera, who I used to work under during my times as CEO of Microsoft Japan and then chairman.

And of course, having started my career at Panasonic after university, there are many teachings from our founder, Konosuke Matsushita.

Our discussion on leadership certainly connects to responsibility, in particular our commitment to corporate social responsibility and creating a sustainable society.

How do we integrate those core values into our operations?

Yeah, so first of all, donation, donating a portion of profits, it's a purely social contribution.

So donation is a very important part of our CSR activities, and also our business itself is a contribution to society.

Our business is a b, two b business solution business.

The purpose of that is to make, help our customers to be successful.

So by optimizing their customers operations, they will be able to reduce carbon emissions and optimize supply chain, optimize the processes.

So that's these things themselves, making a social contribution.

And then we have to contribute to the well being of our employees themselves.

Unless employees are happy, the companies will not be successful.

They have to feel valued every day in company and they have to grow, they have to acquire skills.

So unless the employees find reason to work for Panasonic and feel valued within Panasonic, they will not be able to be happy.

So well being of the employees is also a very important factor.

May I ask what meaningful sustainability milestones you are personally passionate about achieving.

Of course we have target as far as carbon emission is concerned.

We are working very hard to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

But I'm more excited at scope three target avoided emission that is realized through our business activities.

As I said, through our business activities we contribute to the customer's success and part of the success is the reduction of carbon emissions.

It's amazing to hear your personal drive towards those sustainability goals and it really brings to life the change we are making here.

As we come to the end of our conversation, it becomes clear that your thoughts and directions have great impact on the overall Panasonic connect strategy and the way we contribute to the world around us.

Thank you very much Yasu for this interesting dialogue and our audience.

We are just getting started.

Look forward to more captivating discussions on tech topics and innovations that matter.

Join us next time for another insightful investigation into the technologies shaping our future.

Until then, keep engaging, keep innovating and stay connected with us.