i3 - January/February 2018 - 9

Tech

Panasonic
North America
Chairman and CEO
Tom Gebhardt
Q How has Panasonic reinvented itself
in North America?

A Panasonic is a diversified electronics company
Last April,
Tom Gebhardt,
a 32-year
veteran of
the company,
left his role as
president of
Panasonic
Automotive
Systems
Company of
America to take
over the reins
as Chairman
and CEO of
Panasonic
Corporation of
North America.

Tsuga: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Q Congratulations

on your 100 year anniversary. How does the
company plan to celebrate
this milestone?
A Our development over
the past 100 years has
been made possible thanks
to the support of our key
stakeholders, including
our customers and our
partners all over the world.
Therefore, taking this
opportunity, we truly
wish to extend our most
sincere appreciation to
all of those who have
provided us with their
support and patronage
up to the present day.
Going forward, on various
occasions - including this
year's CES - we truly want
to show people around the
world our achievements
over the past 100 years,
and what we at Panasonic
aim to become, looking
forward to the future.
C TA . t e c h / i 3

Q What is the culture

of Panasonic?
A Since our founding in 1918,
we have been devoted to
contributing to the improvement of people's lives, and
the development of society
all over the world through
our business activities.
Based on this basic business philosophy, we have
engaged in diverse business
activities on a global basis.
This attitude is fully incorporated in our corporate
culture as the DNA of the
Panasonic Group. And today,
we are accelerating our
efforts to create new contributions to society under
the corporate banner of
"A Better Life, A Better
World," which has been used
since I became president.

Q How has CES made a difference for Panasonic?
A First of all, Panasonic is the
only major company that has

participated in CES every
year over the past
50 years since 1967. We are
really proud of this record.
CES really is a very influential
tradeshow around the
world. And by responding
skillfully to changes in society, it has continued to evolve
further into a tradeshow
that covers not only consumer electronics products,
but also new areas, including
technologies for automobiles, IoT and AI. While
Panasonic has been working
to transform itself from
a digital consumer electronics company that focuses
on only TVs, we have leveraged CES in recent years as
a very precious opportunity
to demonstrate our capabilities in various business
areas, such as the automotive and B2B areas. For this
reason, we continue to
regard CES as a strategically
important tradeshow for us.

with strengths in a wide range of technologies,
ranging from consumer products to automotive
and avionics solutions. In transitioning the company
in this region, we prioritized the areas where we
could apply existing know-how and technology
into emerging B2B spaces. In-flight and in-vehicle
entertainment are good examples of applying
AV technology in these new spaces. This has
resulted in high growth in this region for both of
those businesses, with our automotive business
more than doubling in size over the past four years.
Also, as vehicle electrification continues, we expect
to see large growth coming from that sector.

Q What is Panasonic's role in developing
smart cities?
A In Japan, Panasonic joined with partners to build
a community called Fujisawa Sustainable Smart
Town in which sustainability and comfort are the
key objectives. This development is home to about
3,000 people and is about 30 miles southwest
of Tokyo. It was designed to achieve a 70 percent
reduction in the use of water and a reduction of
30 percent in CO2 emissions and to use sustainable
energy for at least 30 percent of its energy needs.
Using many of the lessons learned from this
community, we are now working with cities in
North America, specifically Denver, but also around
the world to apply these technologies. Panasonic
strongly believes that only true public-private
partnerships succeed in this type of development.
That's our guiding principle.
Q Can you talk about the project in Denver?
Are there others in Japan?

A The smart city project in Denver is a partner-

ship with the City of Denver, the State of Colorado
and Denver International Airport among others.
The project has been instrumental in helping us
develop a new approach to the enterprise business, especially where it includes the B2G area.
Located in the Transit Oriented District at Pena
Station on the light-rail line that goes to the airport,
the project has been a testbed for the application
of smart and sustainable technologies, including
a versatile microgrid and solar panel array
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

http://www.cta.tech

i3 - January/February 2018

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