Kenwood 2001 Annual Report Download - page 6

KENWOOD Corporation Annual Report 2001
04
A Message from the President
each manufacturing division, are now under the control of
the newly established Production Control Div. This office is
responsible for defining the objectives of each factory and
for restructuring the manufacturing system on a global
scale disregarding divisional interests. The Committee for
SCM (Supply Chain Management), the Committee for
Technology Planning, the Quality Assurance Committee,
and the Purchasing Committee are being formed so that
these specialized functions will be coordinated throughout
the company. More, financial department is being
augmented to enforce fund management on a
consolidated basis.
Next, in order to revitalize the organization and motivate
employees, a presidential project called "Young
Management Committee 21 (YMC21)" is getting set up so
that the companies' business operations reflect the
opinions of group leaders in their twenties and thirties. In
YMC21, young employees will be given an issue to
address by management and they must submit a proposal
at a management meeting within a period of three months
in normal cases, and no later than six months. This project
will be launched in the near future when the new
organization is stabilized. Likewise, in order to revitalize
divisional organizations, a similar unit will be established
within each division for the discussion of issues unique to
that division.
Defining the Rules for Business
Participation/Continuation and Promoting Profit
Oriented Activities
In order to withdraw from non-profitable businesses, the
company will review all existing money-losing operations
so that they are either turned around to yield a profit or
terminated before March 2004. Since we failed to cover
losses for two consecutive years and the need for making
up for losses prevented us from making new investments,
we are determined that all of us think profits first and
shoulder additional burdens, if necessary, under the current
unfavorable circumstances. Learning from the lessons in
the GSM and CD-ROM businesses, which were the major
reasons for the loss in the period ended March 2001, we
are establishing the rules for decision-making regarding
business participation and/or continuation to prevent large
losses in the future. The rules are: 1) enter a new business