Message from the President April.2018

Fiscal 2018 will begin.

April is the time when the MEITEC Group will bring in many new employees, and the time for employees in the Group to start their business activities for the year on a new note and make a start on further personal development. I would like our new employees to enjoy their new job and environment to the full, with a spirit of “independence and mutual support.” I want their senior colleagues to welcome the new members gently and sometimes rigorously with a spirit of “independence and mutual support.”

Today, in the world, capital investment trends and production activities of companies, particularly those in the manufacturing industry, remain solid, despite a sense of caution about the geopolitical risk. The manufacturing industry and engineers are working actively on developing new technologies based on the major technical themes and challenges required by society, such as self-driving technology and the use of big data, taking advantage of their competitive advantage and their own strengths. However, it is quite difficult to grasp the changes and trends on such a major time axis as an actual feeling.

For that reason, I feel the importance of having a “sound sense of crisis” now. We should feel acutely under what circumstances social trends are occurring and winds are blowing, and where they are trying to go, instead of complacently operating with no sense of reality. And we should always think about how we will adapt to these trends and winds, taking advantage of the techniques, careers and skills we have been cultivating up to date, and thinking about how we can refine them to make a contribution.

A sound sense of crisis is not something we should have when we face an emergent crisis. (It would be too late then!). Rather, it means observing things with an awareness of issues on a routine basis, questioning ourselves and moving into action. To do that, we need to have a consciousness of contriving ways and making improvements, to find out how to come to notice things we normally do not notice, instead of proceeding unthinkingly.

In the SYORYU (in-house newsletter), a quarterly journal in the spring of 2018, I picked up the special feature “Pay Attention to ‘Antenna’ and ’Sensibility’!” I think that precisely because creating the future is the job of engineers, the engineers in MEITEC need to be proactive in acquiring all kinds of information, think about the information as their own issues and turn them into achievements.

Why is it important to have a sound sense of crisis and to polish our Antenna’ and ’Sensibility? These are the major themes I want to think about with you once again precisely because it is April and the start of a new fiscal year.