Ricoh 2010 Annual Report Download - page 31

30
ANNUAL REPORT 2010
To Our Shareholders
and Customers
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Financial
Section
Fiscal 2010 Highlights
and Progress of MTP
RICOH NOW
Overview of Ricoh
Group Vision and Management Plans
With “Winner in the 21st Century (Build a strong global RICOH
brand)” as its group vision, Ricoh strives to continue growing and
developing as a global company by gaining the trust of its
customers. Ricoh intends to gain the trust of its customers by
continuously working towards achieving greater customer
productivity and knowledge management. Accordingly, Ricoh plans
to conduct its business activities in a way that provides innovative
products and services to all of its customers (including those who
use information at work and in their lives outside of work) based on
Ricoh’s three core values of “harmonizing with the environment
(i.e., reducing and minimizing environmental impact),” “simplifying
your life and work (i.e., enhancing user friendliness and striving
towards simplification)” and “supporting knowledge management
(i.e., offering solutions to process information).”
In addition to this overall group vision, management has
established medium-term goals. Fiscal year 2010 was the second
fiscal year of the 16th Medium-Term Management Plan, which
covers the period from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2011.
Under the 16th Medium-Term Management Plan, Ricoh’s objectives
are to earn an even greater level of trust from its customers by
placing greater emphasis on customer viewpoints and continuing to
provide products and services which meet and exceed customer
expectations. To achieve the objectives of the 16th Medium-Term
Management Plan, Ricoh has established the following five basic
group management strategies: (1) become the market leader in
each of the targeted business areas (such as the production
printing business and the solutions business), (2) strengthen and
accelerate its environmental management (which encompasses
environment-related technological development, such as the
development of products like color PxP toners, the management of
resources and energy used in the entire lifecycles of Ricoh products
and the delivery to customers of Ricoh’s environmental philosophy
and activities), (3) promote “Ricoh Quality” (which means to
accelerate the innovation processes to achieve greater customer
satisfaction), (4) create new business lines and (5) build a strong
global RICOH brand. Using the groundwork it laid in fiscal year
2009, Ricoh worked towards realizing the objectives of the 16th
Medium-Term Management Plan in fiscal year 2010 and strived to
carry out the above group management strategies.
More specifically, in the Imaging and Solutions segment, Ricoh is
utilizing its strengths, such as customer contacts, broad product
lines, image processing technologies, ability to propose solutions
and ability to conduct business globally, to respond to the
increasingly diverse needs of a greater number of customers, and
to further solidify its business foundation. Ricoh understands that
“work flow,” “security,” “TCO,” “compliance” and the
“environment” are important considerations for customers. By
focusing on these considerations, Ricoh’s goal is to provide greater
value to its customers who use its products. For example, in order
to contribute to the overall productivity increase of its customers,
Ricoh is working to develop (1) document solutions that construct
and manage a file server system that saves, searches and outputs
documents, (2) facility management services that operate and
manage centralized printing centers or multiple printing equipment
at customers’ site and (3) IT consultation services that assist
customers in improving their use of IT, enhancing their security
systems and building an infrastructure that enables uninterrupted
business operations. In addition, Ricoh intends to continue
developing its production printing business and providing solutions
such as workflow improvements to meet its customers’ needs.
In the Industrial Products segment, Ricoh is working to identify
new business areas where large growth can be expected, and to
allocate and direct its resources to such business areas. Ricoh is
also making an effort to strengthen cooperation among personnel
in the technical fields and the other business areas in order to
develop new businesses that combine diverse fields.
In addition, Ricoh continues to consider additional steps that it
could take to develop business in the emerging markets, such as
China and Southeast Asia, in both the Imaging and Solutions
segment and the Industrial Products segment.
Sales and Distribution
Ricoh continues to utilize the following three marketing and sales
channels for the distribution of its products to end-user customers
in Japan: (1) direct sales by Ricoh to end-user customers through 9
domestic subsidiaries and affiliates, (2) sales through independent
dealers of office equipment and (3) sales through independent
office supply wholesalers and retailers. Ricoh estimates that over
one-half of its domestic PPC/MFP and laser printer sales by revenue
are derived from its direct sales channels to end-user customers,
with the remaining balance being divided between sales through
independent dealers of office equipment and independent office
supply wholesalers and retailers. During fiscal year 2009, in an
effort to consolidate its operations, Ricoh merged 33 sales
subsidiaries in Japan into five sales subsidiaries to enhance the
efficiency of its domestic sales activities. As a result, as of the end
of fiscal year 2009, Ricoh had seven domestic sales subsidiaries,
located in the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku
and Kyushu areas, that coordinated its marketing and sales
channels in Japan. To further enable a quicker response to
customers’ increasingly diversified needs and to efficiently manage
its sales operations, Ricoh plans to merge these seven domestic