Nikon 2016 Annual Report Download - page 26

Bringing to fruition a variety of initiatives across the
business units, the Corporate Strategy Division will
accelerate the growth of the Nikon Group.
Tomohide Hamada
Senior Vice President and Director,
General Manager of Corporate Strategy Division
Message
Q In the Medium-Term Management Plan announced in June 2014, M&A, R&D, human resources,
and cost reduction were introduced as the “four programs to achieve transformation.” Please tell us about the
progress your division has made in each of these programs.
M&A Program
Since completing the acquisition of Optos Plc in May 2015, we are
involved in several other M&A candidate projects. Not limited to the
Medical Business, other than specically examining those projects in
the Industrial Metrology Business, the thinking is that we will proceed,
for example, with services in the Imaging Products Business by which
people can enjoy images.
In the meantime, with regard to the Corporate Venture Capital
(CVC) Program we have announced a policy to invest capital in the
order of ¥30 billion toward the expansion of new businesses and com-
menced venture investments globally by means of multiple venture
capital sources. In July 2016, we jointly established a new private
fund, the Nikon-SBI Innovation Fund, with SBI Investment Co., Ltd.,
which will target investments in Nikon’s current business areas as well
as in the latest technologies and new service areas, such as IT, AI,
and robots.
With the aim of strengthening the Industrial Metrology Business,
we undertook a capital increase of preferred stock and invested
approximately $10 million in Tribogenics Inc., a U.S. venture that is
engaged in the X-ray analysis equipment business. The technologies
that Tribogenics possesses are unique and there would be the poten-
tial to create new markets, so we felt that afnity with Nikon would be
high. We are currently in the process of multiplying the technologies
and knowledge that Nikon has with a view to, for example, enhancing
our product competitiveness in the X-ray non-destructive testing eld and
tapping into new markets.
R&D Program
We have stated our plan to invest a cumulative total of ¥220 billion in
R&D in the three years from the scal year ended March 31, 2015, to
the end of March 2017, ¥50 billion of which will be for R&D expenses
in new business domains such as in the Medical Business. We are
making progress in accordance with that plan. As an example, in the
Instruments Business, which is positioned as a growth eld, the effects
of having invested R&D expenses are gradually being seen in business
performance. In the years to come, the idea is to focus on investments
in growth businesses while closely monitoring market trends. In the
Semiconductor Lithography Business, we will reduce the scale of
investment in ArF immersion scanners and divert that portion to other
lithography systems and businesses in growth elds. In the Imaging
Products Business, we will concentrate R&D expenses on priority
measures, such as developing middle and high-end digital cameras–
interchangeable lens type, and control R&D budget allocations with
consideration given to returns on our investments. In the scal year
ending March 31, 2017, we are planning Companywide R&D invest-
ments of ¥70 billion to be centered on growth elds, such as the
Instruments and Medical businesses.
Human Resources Program
In the scal year ended March 31, 2016, we conducted large-scale
personnel reorganization, transferring employees who had been mainly
assigned to the Precision Equipment Business and Imaging Products
Business to the Instruments and Medical businesses, as these are
Overview of Divisions and Business Units
CORPORATE STRATEGY DIVISION
24 NIKON REPORT 2016