The Untold Story of Panasonic System Solutions in the Philippines with Genaro Castro Jr.

When he began working in March 2000, he
immediately pursued a job in the technology
industry and landed at Panasonic Philippines
right off the bat. He was a sales engineer
then, handling a variety of products from fax
machines to telephones and PBX systems.
Come 2003, he got assigned in Panasonic’s
Cebu office, where he helped the company
pioneer the system solutions business in the
Visayas region.
From there, he worked his way up until he
ultimately became the company’s latest
Country Head for the System Solutions
Group. Being in the company for 21 years
now, Pari has worked under different types
of leaders, from Japanese to Filipino. All
of them have varied styles when it comes
to leadership, but Pari leans more on the
coaching style of leadership.
In the workplace, he will typically just show
his people the output that he expects and
gives them suggestions to achieve such
output. At the end of the day, though, his
subordinates are given the freedom to create
their own workplan as long as they come up
with the same output they are targeting.
The Company and its Products
Founded in Japan in 1918, Panasonic was
started by 23-year-old Konosuke Matsushita
with a desire to create things of value. It was
initially called Matsushita Electric Housewares
Manufacturing Works, whose first three staff
members were Matsushita himself, his wife,
and his brother-in-law. Matsushita believed
that the market for convenient, high quality
household electrical fixtures was untapped
and huge, so he set to work and eventually
came up with two new products - an
attachment plug and a two-way socket. The
products surprisingly became a hit as they
were not only cheaper by 30% to 50% but
they were also of higher quality than those
already available in the market.
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