By 1993, the company had 19 manufacturing companies in Europe. From an organizational standpoint, these factories reported directly to their respective business unit in Japan.
1.3.2 Sales and Marketing.
Revenues from exports were an important part of MEI's business and it opened the first Sales Company in Europe, Panasonic Deutschland GmbH, in Hamburg, Germany. By the end of 1991, MEI had its sales companies in twelve European countries and eight sales agents in other five countries. In 1994, there were 22 separate warehouses belonging to Sales Companies and every country had a spare parts center. .
1.3.3 Human resource .
Of Matsushita's 1993 workforce of 252,000 employees, 62% were based in Japan and 38% were overseas, in which nearly 3000 employees worked for the Sales Companies and Agents around Europe. All of its board members and senior executives, and virtually all top managers in the company, were Japanese nationals. However, Matsushita also emphasized the need for training and development of local personnel, referred to as "localization" of management. The work forces of the Sales Companies comprises local nationals with some Japanese expatriates in management level. There was little or no movement of managers among the European Sales Companies. Human policies were tailored to each country and, as a result, performance evaluation, salary administration and benefits differed among countries.
1.3.4 Organizational structure.
Matsushita's belief in autonomy was reflected in its multi-divisional organizational structure, with each division operating as a separate business, responsible for the full range of activities from product design to manufacturing, and fully accountable for its results. In Europe, MEI's manufacturing factories operated independently to one another and similarly, all MEI's Sales Companies were self-sufficient, and performed the full range of activities from purchasing products from Japan, to marketing and sales, technical support, logistics and warehousing, and supply of spare parts.