Ricoh 2008 Annual Report Download - page 14

ANNUAL REPORT 200813
■ Priority efforts in Ricoh’s sustainable environmental management
Managing resources/energy used across
the entire lifecycle of related products
Developing environmental technologies
Conducting lifecycle management
Delivering Ricoh’s environmental activities to customers
■ Promoting Ricoh’s global brand
Commitments
(meeting expectations)
Trust
Ricoh Brand
Customers
and society
Ricoh Value
Continuously
delivering
three tangible
benefits to
customers
Harmonize with
the environment
Simplify your life
& work
Support knowledge
management
2) Accelerating sustainable environmental
management
Currently, inter-governmental agreements and actions are being re-
quired on environmental issues, such as a successor agreement to
the Kyoto Protocol, and the agenda of the Conference of the Parties
(COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. In sync
with these governmental movements, business communities are un-
der increasing pressure since around last year to make a commitment
to their environmental conservation goals. For the Ricoh Group, sus-
tainable environmental management is anything but a new fad. Even
when I was a design engineer, we already had a variety of schemes in
place to recycle our products. Such steady efforts and improvements
over years make Ricoh’s sustainable environmental management
what it is today, securing a high reputation both in Japan and else-
where in the world.
I am always thinking about in which direction I should lead Ricoh.
Some companies are recording astonishing sales, say hundreds of
thousands of units per month, in the current printer market. But when
you look closer, only some 20% of the printers sold are used con-
stantly and the remaining 80% are used only occasionally. Estimated
total pages printed by their products would be the same as those
printed by just a few tens of Ricoh’s MFPs. While I acknowledge
budget printers are valuable in that they readily provide printing op-
portunities to home users, I cannot help wondering whether spending
huge amount of resources and energy to create rarely-used products
only to meet this single purpose is the right thing to do in the present
and future global environment. When we say we are aiming to har-
monize with the environment as a key element of Ricoh Value, we are
not merely talking about the energy-effi cient products and services
we provide, but also about the attitude and mindset we espouse. It
is part of our mission to make positive contributions to reducing the
environmental impacts generated by business offi ces worldwide. To
achieve this, we will intensify and accelerate our sustainable environ-
mental management.
3) Promoting Ricoh Quality
The Ricoh Group has been satisfying various customer needs, such
as reductions in operational costs and improvements in business
processes. Going forward, we must raise the bar and achieve a qual-
ity that exceeds our customers’ expectations. This quality, which
delights our customers, is what we call “Ricoh Quality.” To pursue
Ricoh Quality, we have made organizational changes in April 2008
aiming at further structural reform of the entire R&D processes,
which is anticipated to be highly time-intensive. As the next step, we
plan to implement drastic reform of the remaining processes, includ-
ing production, marketing, and service.
4) Creating new areas of growth
I enjoy growing plants and vegetables. This hobby teaches me every
day that you can’t reap what you do not sow. Nothing will grow in
empty soil. Even when collecting edible wild plants, there are rules to
follow. You should not root up everything or otherwise nothing will
grow on the site anymore. I think these lessons apply to the Ricoh
Group, whose growth has been driven by constant innovation.
A good example is GR DIGITAL, a digital version of Ricoh’s GR
series of high-quality compact fi lm cameras which have been well-
received by professionals and other skilled photographers. GR DIGI-
TAL made its debut in 2005 as a digital camera that captures scenes
in exactly the way the users intends. Since then, we have nurtured
this product, which eventually evolved to become a hallmark of Ricoh
Value. This fact is supported by the many external awards that GR
DIGITAL has received, including the Camera of the Year and the Edi-
tors Award from the Camera Grand Prix Awards. Moving ahead, we
will work to generate a similar cycle to develop new growth areas—
creating new customer value based on Ricoh’s existing core compe-
tencies, developing and translating it into a new business, and using
the new business to stimulate further growth in other core busi-
nesses.
5) Building a strong global brand
The Ricoh Group has leading market shares worldwide. We are grate-
ful for such strong market positions as they are a testament to how
much Ricoh’s products and services are valued by our customers
around the world. But rather than being complacent, we have made
a fresh commitment to becoming the brand of choice with strong
customer loyalty by delivering Ricoh Value through our products and
services. Toward this goal, the Ricoh Group will single-mindedly work
to establish a strong Ricoh brand in the global arena in an earnest
manner, capitalizing on the worldwide sales and service network of
InfoPrint Solutions Company, a new member of the Group, and taking
many other initiatives.