Panasonic Corp. has carefully cultivated a culture befitting its 100-year history, with many employees starting the day doing calisthenics and singing the corporate anthem. Now, Yasuyuki Higuchi is supposed to shake up those traditions.
Higuchi, 60, last year took charge of the connected solutions business, which makes products ranging from in-flight entertainment systems to automation equipment. While his first job out of engineering school in 1980 was at Panasonic, he left the company after about a decade, just as Japanese manufacturers peaked during the consumer electronics boom.
Higuchi received a degree from Harvard Business School and spent the following 25 years working at Boston Consulting Group Inc. and Apple Inc., running department store chain Daiei Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Japanese operations.