Commitment From the Top

Each and every employee is committed to contributing to society

The Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred in March 2011, has continued to have a vast impact on Japan’s economy and the lives of its people. Since the occurrence of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, the entire Fujifilm Group has been conducting activities to support disaster recovery efforts, specifically, by providing both the public and private sectors with a range of materials, devices, and services, in addition to striving to resume the operations of our own production and sales bases. In particular, in the “Photo Rescue Project,” which we launched to clean photographs stained by seawater and mud in the tsunami for their owners, many employees voluntarily participated to “rescue” these photos, which must be invaluable to both those who took them and those who appear in them. The project has also given us an opportunity to reappraise the significance and value of printed photographs.

At the FUJIFILM Finechemicals Hirono Factory, located about 21 km from the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station, drastic decontamination measures were undertaken by making use of the knowledge and technologies concerning radioactivity across the entire Fujifilm Group after the local area was removed from the list of “emergency evacuation preparation areas.” As a result, the factory was able to resume operations as early as October 2011. Moreover, through the factory, we gave advice on decontamination tasks and supplied a range of essential materials and equipment to the town of Hirono as part of our efforts to conduct local recovery support activities.

These activities were conducted based on the voluntary initiatives of individual employees and demonstrate the commitment of each and every employee to contribute to society by using the knowledge and technologies possessed by the Fujifilm Group. I believe that the strong social commitment of our employees is the real source of the Fujifilm Group’s strength.

We are still on the way to reform We will put the Group in the path to growth based on the strength of individual employees

While Japan remains in a stagnant state, facing the aftereffects of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, and an unstable political situation, rapid changes are taking place across the world, including the further progress of digitalization, the remarkable growth of emerging economies, corruption and confusion within old regimes—as epitomized by the “Arab Spring,” and the economic crisis in Europe. Under these circumstances, we could easily be carried away by the torrent of global changes and sink if we fail to make appropriate decisions in preparation for the future.

The Fujifilm Group indeed faced a crisis due to the rapid progress of digitalization, which started around 2000. Specifically, the market for our core silver halide photography business dramatically shrank due to the digitalization of photography. To survive this major hardship, we thoroughly reviewed our technologies to search for new possibilities, bravely restructured our business into six business fields with growth potentials, and dynamically changed our corporate structure. We must, however, take further steps forward to ensure that we can successfully implement our growth strategy in this age of great confusion. To this end, all employees working in the production, sales, R&D, administrative and other non-production divisions must display their abilities to the full and work in cooperation with each other. We must formulate a growth strategy by anticipating future changes and implement the strategy based on the strong commitment of individual employees to ensure that we put our business on to the path to growth.

Achieving targets through strong will and teamwork

We formulated and have been implementing the medium-term management plan, “VISION 80,” across the Group, looking towards the 80th anniversary of our foundation in January 2014, focusing on “promotion of growth strategies for priority businesses” and “speeding up global expansion of our business operations.”

In the healthcare field, we have been expanding the scope of our business from “diagnosis” to include also “prevention” and “treatment,” and fostering M&As and collaboration with other companies in a variety of areas, based on the unique technologies that we have accumulated in the field of films, such as nanotechnology, organic synthesis technology, and analysis/evaluation technology.

In the highly functional materials field, we will provide unique materials developed based on the Fujifilm Group’s technologies, including those for flat panel displays, solar cells, and semiconductors, and contribute to the growth of the whole industry, which, of course, is also important for our own growth.

In the document solutions field, we will accelerate the shift to a solution service business to make further contributions to the creation of a better communications environment. In the Asia-Pacific markets, including China, we aim to expand both sales and our market share by promoting locally-grounded business management through collaboration with local governments and the private sector.

As for global expansion of our business operations, we are enhancing our sales networks in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

None of the targets described above can be attained easily, but I am sure we can achieve them with our strong will to tackle challenges, based on teamwork and extensive mutual support, and through our ability to identify and solve problems patiently—the very same qualities that we used to overcome the hardships caused by the mega-earthquake and tsunami.

We will create new value toward the sustainable development of our company and society at large

Twenty years ago, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To mark the 20th anniversary of this event, Rio also hosted the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to enable the international community to foster cooperation and formulate measures to resolve global problems, such as environmental issues and poverty. Has the international community made progress to ensure the sustainability of the Earth during the past 20 years? Although national governments, private companies, and citizens have been making their respective efforts, there remain so many problems to be solved, including those related to climate change, depletion of energy resources, and poverty in developing countries.

We must continue making further efforts to meet these challenges and fulfill our responsibilities to future generations. We must be thoughtful and innovative to meet the needs of the present and future societies, and help create a sustainable society in which people can lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. As an on-going business, we will continue changing ourselves and providing new values for the future.

In June 2012 we launched a new management system. Under this new system, we will continue making self-reforms and innovations with great foresight, believing it to be our mission to continue providing new value for the sustainable development of our company and for society at large.

August 2012