Nikon 2014 Annual Report Download - page 27

strengthening customer relationship management (CRM),
a main point of CLM,* which focuses on the relationship
between the customer and the product. With customer data
accumulated over the past 10 years on the approximately 200
million items we have sold, we are setting up a system to effec-
tively use this large amount of data to make timely suggestions
to customers in purchasing either new products or replacements
or adding lenses. We plan to come up with novel products
based on an analysis of this data in the hopes of bringing in
new customers. The third strategy is to entrench ourselves and
to exploit our advantage in developing markets, which we view
as strategic markets for business development. Along with
China, our most important market, we are pursuing activities
in the markets of India, ASEAN countries, Central and South
America, and Africa. Our plan for China is to focus on its
third- and fourth-tier cities, which are home to 500 million
people, thus increasing our presence to win a larger share of
the growing Chinese market.
We are reducing costs by scrutinizing the entire supply chain,
probing the developments, procurements, and manufacturing of
every section while building on the measures each has taken to
date. Our ability to enhance profi ts has two wheels: expanding
sales and improving cost competitiveness.
* CLM: Customer Lifecycle Management
An approach using vast amounts of data and information technology to ascertain the
“lifecycle” events of customers, such as new purchases, repairs, upgrading, or adding
lenses, to prompt the timing of cross-sales or to make fuller contact through support
services, for example, thereby enhancing purchases of Nikon products.
What can you tell us about Nikon’s basic
thinking on supply chain management?
The main issue is how to best manage inventory. Although we
need to have enough items in stock for growing markets, we
are basically aiming to keep our inventories down. To this end,
we are moving to weekly planning of manufacturing and sales,
which means quantifying trends in worldwide manufacturing
and sales based on projected demand and shortening lead times
between manufacturing and sales. Reducing inventory even
further requires more fi nely tuned forecasts. By meticulously
identifying locally embedded information and being sensitive as
we collect it, we can deliver products better tailored to regional
needs in a timely way with nothing wasted.
What is your medium-to-long-term vision for
the Imaging Business Unit?
The imaging industry has the potential to change considerably,
becoming more diverse and employing technologies that we
cannot yet imagine. For us, such change in the market could
translate to promising business opportunities. We have high-
level technologies in optics and image processing, and we want
to combine these technological strengths with the joy of sharing
video and images once they have been taken to provide new
value. Regarding the hardware itself, of course, we can still
further adjust the basics of taking a picture, but we must focus
on making the compact digital camera more distinct from the
smartphone with such features as an ultra telephoto function
or a waterproof design. Taking a photo is the fi rst step, but how
can we make it more fun after the picture has been snapped?
How would I more fully enjoy photography? This is what we
must think about at all times, incorporating trial and error to
offer added value and meet diverse needs.
I think the Nikon brand represents reliability and, even
more so, quality. Our goal is to determine how to raise aware-
ness among many more customers of our reliability and to build
a lasting appreciation of it over time. Though market conditions
may be quite diffi cult, we are positive and enthusiastically want
to offer a variety of products to satisfy our customers. I fi rmly
believe that the road to our great success will be by communi-
cating openly throughout the organization and using fl exible
judgment and quick action to build up a string of successes.
Digital SLR camera Nikon D810 Interchangeable lens-type advanced digital camera
Nikon 1 J4
Compact digital camera COOLPIX S9700
25
NIKON REPORT 2014