Panasonic NA CEO on Consumer Electronics Show

excuse me, is with us. He was named to that position in August of nineteen. He joins us on the phone in Toronto. Michael, nice to have you here on Bloomberg. How are you? Um? Interesting time. I know you've been with the company for a while, but to be put in that top position position just ahead of the pandemic. So what's your world been like? Hey, Carol, Um, it's been a very unique environment. I'll tell you what I mean. You know, we we have a long history in in electronics.

I mean, we're a hundred year old, hundred plus year old company, right that has dramatically transformed ourselves from you know, typical kind of hardware products and consumer electroducts to hardware plus software and services. So we've really we've really created a whole new economy for ourselves and and changed significantly. We're kind of like the you know, often the one behind the scenes, but I'll tell you there's been nothing really like how we've been pivoting towards, you know, through

this pandemic. How we've changed, and you know, it's it's significantly moved our company is no question, all right. So that that totally I want to know more, So tell me what you know, the new economy that's been created for you guys, what specifically what do you mean? Well, I mean there's a couple of things that are happening, you know, first of all, just from a you know, a CS perspective, we're we're continuing and now it's really

amazing things. I mean, you know, we're a significant player in the automotive space, developing next generation of augmented reality and head displays that we're launching. We've got we've got new new audio technology, uh in partnership, in partnership with clips and and Dobe around Dobie outmost so just to think about that experience from your car and there's so many people that are driving now versus taking all types

of other transit. So it's kind of your you know, it's it's a new dimension and experience, so what works. We're exploring that and really enhancing that environment. You know. The other thing is that that that's happened is you know, people are working from home is and and pivoted to home offices. I mean not everybody has that opportunity, but many are working from from from home these days. So from an entertainment perspective, we think about things like gaming, right,

I mean, we've just we've enhanced our game. We launched, you know, as product called sound Slayer, which is in partnership with a company called the Square Annex, and the final Fantasy fourteen online game. So that's really exciting. And then well I want can I can I slet out

for a second. Let's go back to you, um, because I feel like there's so many different things we can unpack here, um to use an overused word unpack, But cars specifically, I feel like, tell me what you guys are seeing Specifically you are involved, uh in cars in a big way, whether it's battery development and other areas. But I mean with Apple the Apple News late last year.

I feel like we all were like, we all kind of kind of stood up a little bit straighter, right because of that, We're already kind of standing up straight, you know, straighter because of Tesla specifically. But how do

you see that? How do you what do you see when it comes to cars autonomous vehicles this year and and your role in it, and we and we're we're we're Tier one suppliers, so we're creating many of those unique experiences in the car and we're either delete in partnership with our automotive partners, or we're developing things for others.

But I'll give you a great example, you know, in terms of how the industry is shifting, and we're really leveraging our technical talent and our and our i P around you know, standard platform so you know, for example, um, you know, Android is is a platform that has been developed for automobiles, which have have typically developed our entertainment systems around our own platforms, our own development the hardware, and we've completely changed and now we are a very

significant developer around the Android platforms and developing products and services and experiences on other platforms. But it's giving the specific and uniqueness to the automotive partner that that that that they that they want and you know, for that, we've you know where it's the fourth year that we've support the Google and Where platform or a reference partner.

We're doing some really awesome things in the car as you know, as as individuals moved from their living room and their homes and their offices, you think about the you know, the car and it's it's the it's the next almost untouched experience, which we're trying to enhance. We're doing that with a bunch of partnerships. But is there something like when it comes to cars that you think we're not talking about that we should. We just got

about forty seconds and we'll come back and talk some more. Listen. I think I think that the whole autonomous driving is is is a very unique environment and you know, and and this work that we're doing in terms of heads up and how that impacts not only the driver itself, but in the future it will give you this experience when you're not driving the car as well and give you that comfort less anxiety about knowing what's out there.

Part of the problem with you know, a time just driving is you just don't feel comfortable because you're not in control with you know this, that those heads up displays, you can you have an experience. You can experience what looks like outside without actually driving. You know. I guess what I want to talk to you about, to Michael, is you know some of the trends that we did

see during the pandemic. I looked at UM your press preview for c e S and you know, whether it's refrigeration at supermarkets, whether it's immersive entertainment, whether it's you know, working increasingly with education to do those fully remote learning experiences. Uh, you guys are opening up is it a luminarium UM or working with them that's going to open up in Atlanta. Like,

there's a lot of things go going on. Tell me about the trends that you guys have had to kind of either pick up some momentum on and said, man, this train has left the station and this is going to be with us from now on. That um that are really going to stay with us longer term. Yeah, I mean it's incredible how how we've how we've changed. I mean, I'll just give you some examples and some of it, you know, we were doing. We accelerated that.

I mean, you know, we're as you know, we're a significant manufacturer and developers of battery technology, and you know, we we ramped our production to support you know, a bunch of healthcare providers and ventilator production facilities, and we just we ramped that really quickly. Think that we didn't know we could do that quickly. We just we we got the entire team on board and just persevered and

make sure we delivered on that. I mean, you look at quick service restaurants and you know, and and and and how that has changed. Right everything from contact with payment technologies that we're developing and accelerating rolling out to smart lockers right the clicking collect it's not just about being at room temperature, but being at you know, heating and cooling in the same in the same locker and tying that all back to a standardized platform. And uh

and within food retail or quick service restaurants. So we've we've really accelerated a lot of that, a lot of technology and even going back on the battery side, I mean, we've never really experienced this kind of ramp before, but you know, we power many of the data centers in North America too, with you know, with battery technology and battery technology that really supports that connectivity and need commerce. That's that's powering this, uh, this new trend, and that's

going to continue in the foreseeable future. Yeah, what is it that you guys have learned about businesses are consumers specifically in terms of other trends that are going to stick. I mean we've talked a lot about the digitization of just everything that we're doing. I mean some things, whether it's telemedicine, whether it's learning. Uh, there's a lot of things.

And like you said, had the contact less payment. I mean I finally got an Apple PEG, you know, and my husband I laugh about I can't remember the last time that we've used money, uh cash money, I should say paper money. So you know, I look to you guys as, okay, kind of visionaries. So what are the things that are maybe in R and D that you are working on, that you're you know, that you can talk about that are like, okay, the consumers different, the

businesses are different. Things are really this this pandemic impacted a lot. Yeah, I mean we we have we have so many technologies and an I p under under our hood. And you know, one of the things that I'll just get give me that. One of the things that we've tried to do is leverage some of those technologies across I'm a number of our businesses. And so I'll give

you an example of that. I mean, if you think about what we're doing, we have a technology called nanoex technology, and just the technical is, you know, we kind of we have these high hydroxyl radicals, but basically from what it means is it's actually effectively inhibits um you know, odors and and and some viruses and uh and and and various things that can be incorporated into our product. This technology was actually developing for hair dryers to kind

of to make the hair drying experience actually better. And then we said, well this actually inhibits you know things, and so can we incorporate that into our airline business, or avionics business, our automotive business. Right to have cleaner, cleaner, fresher indoors or inside are air conditioning, so so many products.

So I think, you know, what we've really done has taken some of our core technology and say how does that fit into other areas and how is that now conducive or supportive to towards this pandemic and beyond in terms of air quality and freshness. And that's just one example of looking across our extended platform of businesses and taking one technology things, how does it fit in other

areas well? And you know, I want to go back if I can, because you, like I said in the introduction, you came into your current position in August of twenty nineteen, just before everything was going to you know, start to be you know, come undone. Panasonic has I think something like two workers globally. You know, what was it like, you know, in your position and being involved in this massive global company and just kind of finding your way

through those first few months of the pandemic. Yeah, it was. It was really challenging. I mean we you know, first of all, we had to evaluate exactly how serious this was right early on thinking about it. We've got you know, twenty employees in North America. A good chunk of those are manufactory environments, and we had to we we had to first understand how how how serious was this? And then you know, how do we start to to move

our employees where we can remotely? I mean, you think about all of our office workers like everybody else, we started to move them remotely, making sure that our ike systems and our networks are capable of handling all of that, and then really communicating to our to our employees of how to do that. That was kind of one one one option or one silo, and the other one is

how do we make sure we have business continuity? I mean we're we make things, we shift things, we put things into other I mean you think about the comply chain around automotive, the supply chain around so many of our businesses. Grocery for example, we would power along the refrigeration within grocers. We have to get into those stores make sure that those equipment is fixed and ready and

and and and working for customers. Right. So, doing that in the safe and secure environment, making sure that we have the appropriate testing, making sure that we had business continuity with the biggest challenge for us and making sure that our employees were safe and secure within their environments. And we did everything possible to make that happen right like so many just you know, stakeholders to take care

of it. One hey, um, last question, just quickly, um, what kind of visibility do you have about one what do you think the business environment is going to be. I mean, we're always listen, we're seeing we're seeing stability

in our in our business. Um. Obviously there's been winners and some loser who say in the business, but I mean overall, we're seeing stability and and and ramping in areas around sustainability, uh and and around things like connectivity and how we're and and those two, those two I think are going to be with us for two and beyond. Right, But we're seeing things stable, we're things and we're seeing

some momentum. Um. I think you know, the first quarter is gonna be a little bit, a little bit challenging overall, just because we're getting handled on the pandemic. But I see some some some some brighter skies ahead, and especially in the back half of this year. He sat a little cautious there, Michael, A little bit, which is fair. I think. I think I think we all if we all through this over nine months, no doubt about it.

And it just feels like just when we feel like we we can turn the corner on something, something else hits us big time. Michael, Thank you so much. Good luck with the show. The Digital CS Michael Moscow at Chairman and CEO at Penasonic Corporation of North America on the phone from Toronto, tab