Attachment plug. Since houses usually had only a single outlet in each room,two-way sockets were popular. KM designed what he thought was an improved version of the standard product,obtained a patent on it,and then began manufacturing. Within a relatively short period of time,the new item was selling better than their first three offerings.
By the summer of 1918, Matsushita Electric had grown to eight employees and four products. Compared to some well know entrepreneurial success stories, the company was still minuscule and vulnerable,more tortoise than hare despite KM's aggressive attempt at growth. But the little firm had survived a difficult initial period and was beginning to establish some momentum.
Hares tend to attract attention,tortoises do not,and young MEI went virtually unnoticed by all but a small community in Osaka. Yet like so many of the other great corporations founded in the last century and a half,the slow,quiet,resourcepoor start did not prove to an obstacle in the long run. Quite possibly,just the opposite is true.
A wholesaler named Yoshida approached Matsushita and asked for exclusive rights to market the successful two-way socket. After negotiation, KM granted those rights in exchange for a 3,000-yen lone to finance increased production capacity.
As employment grew, the facility at Obirki-cho became increasingly crowded. Instead of moving again space,they
***before the end of its first year in operation, Noguchi Jun's enterpris(see reference at beginning of this chapter) built a hydroelectric pant. By the end of year two, the firm was Japan's largest producer of calcium carbide. More recently in the United States, People Express airlines had over a hundred employees shortly after its first year in business, as did Perot Systems and a few of the biotech start-ups.