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Message from President
- Takao Suzuki
President and
Chief Executive Officer
Our company has achieved new records for both consolidated sales and consolidated operating profits for the second quarter of FY2011, with sales amounting to \274.4 billion (153% on the previous year) and \11.7 billion in operating profits (144% on the previous year). As for the second half of the fiscal year, though the world economy is still plagued with uncertainty on various fronts, as long as current circumstances do not change dramatically, we believe that we will achieve our goals for the year of \550 billion in sales and \22.6 billion in operating profits.
As April of this year, we will embark on the second year of the 2015 Vision. With this in mind I would like to tackle the following three challenges.
First, our company is working to differentiate ourselves from our competition with the new business concept of Smart Logistics.
The greatest strength of our company is System Logistics (3PL), though in recent years our competition has been gradually gaining on us in this area. Also, because our traditional businesses of heavy cargo transport/engineering and installation face limitations in the domestic market, our expectations for expansion now lie with overseas markets. At the same time, freight forwarding business needs are growing rapidly due to the current trend toward global expansion of business. The concept of Smart Logistics is comprised of a total package of the three businesses—offering safe, secure, green, global, one-stop service. By providing a unique blend of services that our competitors do not, we intend to further widen the gap between us and our competitors. From this point onward, we want to promote our company as “Hitachi Transport System -The Smart Logistics Company”: the key concepts here are “Green, Global, and Comfortable.”
Second, we aim to be a true global company by combining both globalization and localization.
In October of last year, we held the second Expanded Global Business Meeting (EGBM). With new participants such as VANTEC and ETG (Thailand), the discussions developed nicely, and participants enjoyed a lively “multilateral” atmosphere. We expect to see even more EGBM participation in the future as we proceed with additional M&As. We look forward to stepping up the globalization process even further as the impact of the EGBM grows greater and greater.
Until the present time, we have targeted Japanese companies as our main customers, but from this point onward we also need to acquire local customers—who of course comprise the majority in the countries in which we operate—in order to expand on our business. This is the reason why have been working over the past few years to localize key staff positions at our overseas group companies. To achieve this goal, we have been providing various types of training, which is held in Japan for managerial staff at our overseas group companies or conducted by lecturers sent from Japan to teach at our overseas locations, continuously for the past several years. We will continue to step up these programs in the future.
Though it is difficult to train personnel in a full way in just a short period of time, we want to persistently realize true globalization by harmonizing the two aspects of globalization and localization.
Third, we are working to manifest a greater synergistic effect through PMI (post-management integration).
The most prominent example of this is the PMI we have with VANTEC, a company that joined our group in April of last year. As you are aware, VANTEC is a major presence in the auto parts logistics sector, while we are the leading 3PL provider.
Both companies have numerous locations in Japan and abroad. Since many of these locations are close together, we are working to achieve the benefits of streamlining by consolidating some of them. As of April last year, our two companies had been holding discussions, which led to the announcement of our Basic Policy at the end of last year. This year, we plan to implement various specific types of integration, and to share the advantages together. Our fundamental stance on PMI is to give priority to the benefit of the companies that join our Group. We believe that this is the cardinal rule to the success of our consolidated Group.
Our new target of becoming a \600 billion company in the new fiscal year will start in this April. In light of above three policies, we will pave the way to dramatic global expansion with Smart Logistics to reach this greater challenge than anything never faced before.
