Message from the President July.2020

The first quarter (April - June) of FY2020 is already behind us. For the last three months, we have been forced to live in an environment more difficult than we could have imagined, due to the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Since mid-May, some prefectural governments began to attempt phased resumptions of economic activities. However, when COVID-19 will be contained remains uncertain and the social situation continues to be unpredictable.

 

In this environment, the Company launched our new three-year Meitec Group Mid-Term Management Plan (2020-2022): “The Transformation”. Under the current severe conditions, we will pursue greater satisfaction for customers in the manufacturing industry and engineers globally. We have already started working on transforming our business model to create new value for society.

 

With the rapid advancement of digitalization, today’s manufacturing industry, which is our customers, is accelerating its movement toward a service-based industry in addition to the traditional manufacturing, seeking to connect manufacturing with services in the final phase. Accordingly, there is a strong sense of crisis in the industry that adherence to existing business models does not guarantee survival and the industry needs to put effort into transformation. To continue to be the best partner of the manufacturing industry, naturally, we must adopt an even stronger sense of crisis and work on this transformation.

 

Moreover, in the situation in which contact with other people and merchandise should be avoided due to the coronavirus, many people’s lifestyle habits, environments and their sense of the value of goods are changing. Returning to their former state is unlikely, even after the coronavirus is contained. For example, the behavior of customers visiting stores to purchase merchandise in the past will be replaced mainly by stores going to customers to sell merchandise, with a minimum of contact. Or, there may be an acceleration of the development of contactless technologies to eliminate the need to touch things in many situations.

 

As we enter this new normal, it is no surprise that companies and people will not survive if they do not change. The Summer edition of our internal newsletter SYORYU (July 2020), which will be published in July, will contain interviews with officers in charge of business segments on the topic of what Meitec hopes to achieve in the next three years, and how we need to change to achieve those goals and pursue higher added value. The management team is committed to putting every effort into the transformation based on their firm resolve and belief in it. We ask that all employees to run at full power, side by side with us, for yourselves, for your co-workers, for our customers and for society.