Panasonic Corporation, the Japanese electronic giant has elevated Manish Sharma (Managing Director, Panasonic India & South Asia) as an executive officer in its global executive council. This is the first time, an Indian will be a part of their decision making body worth $80 billion.
Sharma, an engineer of Bhilai Institute of Technology was earlier associated with companies like Panasonic, Haier Appliances India Pvt Ltd, Samsung and LG Hotline. At 44, he is the youngest executive officer and the fourth non-Japanese ever appointed by Panasonic for the council.
With a strength of around three lakh employees, Panasonic recently saw a drop of 8.5 per cent in its profit in the 2016-17 financial year. It is seeing an improvement by funding on segments like car, airline information systems, batteries and energy solutions.
The Panasonic officers hold a meeting two times a year to discuss the growth channel of the company. Manish Sharma said his mandate will be helpful for new ventures like energy products and mobile phones in the country.
In India, Sharma has been replaced by Shigeto Yuasa as the new Managing Director. Yuasa was the head of operations in Taiwan and now he will report to Sharma.
“This appointment at global level will accelerate the efforts to make India the hub to drive growth in newer and developing economies. I will also get access to more information which will help me look at more opportunities for India and can extract more resources and products for the Indian market;” Manish Sharma was quoted by The Economic Times as saying.