On this day of beautiful blue sky and warm spring weather, I am delighted to welcome 111 brand-new recruits into the “All Fujitec” community. On behalf of all the employees who make up this community, I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations and appreciation to you for joining Fujitec.
Today you take the first step toward becoming fully-fledged members of society; I sincerely hope that your future lives in that role will be the best they can possibly be. We have been looking forward to working with you; I want us all to grow together through our work and stay cheerful, engaged, and energetic as we move toward a brilliant future.
Now, allow me to tell you about the basic concepts that inform how this company will grow with you, and the foundation on which that growth will be based. Our management philosophy is of paramount importance to us and it reads as follows: “Respecting people, technologies and products, we collaborate with people from nations around the world to develop beautiful and functional cities that meet the needs of a new age.” This sets out precisely what we are aiming to achieve. Fujitec was founded in Osaka as a manufacturer specializing in elevators and escalators in 1948, as Japan’s postwar recovery was getting under way, and this year we mark our 76th anniversary. Just 15years after its foundation, Fujitec entered its first overseas market—Hong Kong—and has now grown into a global corporation operating in 24 countries and territories. I believe this is the result of having anchored our business activities to our management philosophy ever since the company was founded.
Next, I would like to tell you about Fujitec’s strengths. One of the company’s strengths is its status as a manufacturer specializing in elevators and escalators that provides everything from R&D to manufacturing, installation, and maintenance through an integrated structure globally. Precisely because we are a company that knows all about elevators and escalators, we are able to grasp our customers’ latent needs and leverage our own unique technical expertise to deliver high-quality products and services that can be used safely and reliably.
Another strength is the thoughtfulness of our employees. Our customers and the users of our products often praise the way our employees conduct themselves. For example, we work night and day to conduct maintenance inspections of our elevators and escalators in order to preserve the social infrastructure these urban means of movement provide. But sometimes our employees halt their work to restart an elevator so that a senior citizen can use it, or they pause while inspecting an escalator to carry a stroller for somebody taking the stairs. I want you all to familiarize yourselves with Fujitec’s existing strengths, such as these, and also to discover new strengths, so that you internalize Fujitec’s unique qualities as soon as possible.
I took up the post of President and CEO at Fujitec in June 2023. Since then, we have operated the company under a new management structure in line with our “continuity and change” approach, aiming to establish a New Fujitec. The elements that represent continuity at Fujitec—that is, the things that should not be changed—are the pursuit of safety and reliability, pursuit of quality, and a commitment to human resource development. Ever since the company’s founding, we have valued safety, reliability, and quality above all else. However, given that our achievements in these areas depend on human resources, I believe that it is fundamental to the company to treat human resource development as another top priority. Meanwhile, we have also identified the elements requiring change—the things that we should revamp. They are a “selection and focus” strategy, strengthening of our Group management, and enhancement of our governance and communication. Our aim in following this “continuity and change” approach is for Fujitec to become a world-leading, excellent company. We are currently taking steps to help employees and stakeholders inside and outside the country better understand our intentions, using the slogan “Move ON” to express this attitude of constantly looking ahead and evolving.
Around the time you reach your 25th year of service at Fujitec, the company will probably be celebrating 100 years since its founding. I hope you will preserve Fujitec’s good qualities and strengths and develop the company further than ever before as the next generation of human resources—the generation that will preside over Fujitec’s centenary. Now is the time to start demonstrating the fortitude to lead the company by working proactively and enthusiastically. I am counting on you.
In the course of your work, I would like you to always focus on front-line operations and pursue globalization. With regard to focusing on front-line operations, I believe that our key challenges are on the front line, while potential hints for dealing with future challenges can also be found there. To understand the true essence of an issue, I urge you to make a habit of personally visiting the front line, seeing the reality firsthand, talking directly to the people involved, touching the products in question, thinking matters through yourselves, and making your own judgments based on what you have seen and heard. With regard to the second objective of globalization, Fujitec is a global company that generates more than 60% of its sales outside Japan and whose workforce consists of 70% non-Japanese employees. In order to continue growing as such a company, it is crucial to maintain a global approach that enables us to espouse diverse values, assess matters from a global perspective, and find solutions to local challenges. A front-line focus and globalization: I want you to understand that these are fundamental to the Fujitec business mindset.
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2019 forced all of you to put up with constraints on your lives while you were students. For instance, your lessons at school may have been conducted remotely and many events may have been cancelled. I too had a similar experience: for much of the time, the pandemic prevented me from engaging in sufficient face-to-face interaction with my colleagues in the company and our customers. Nonetheless, I believe this lack of face-to-face interaction ended up spurring us to take a greater interest in each other and really communicate like never before during those four years. With this in mind, I want you all to remember to show consideration for others and be the kind of employee who would always reach out if a colleague or manager in your department seemed to be having trouble with something.
Showing consideration for each other requires two-way communication; so, let me tell you the six keys to engaging in two-way communication successfully. The first is to speak to the other party, the second is to be mindful of the other party, the third is to assert yourself as an independent individual while also representing the company, the fourth is to listen to what the other party says, and the fifth is to make an effort. These five elements are all vital. And the sixth element is something essential to communication that is made up of the first letters of these five words—speak, mindful, independent, listen, effort—smile! Please try to put these six keys to communication into practice.
Everybody at Fujitec is wishing you the best as you start your own careers here at the company. I hope you will contribute to sustainable growth throughout “All Fujitec” in your respective fields and roles. I am really looking forward to seeing what you can do.
Congratulations to you all as you embark on this new phase of your lives today.
Masayoshi Harada
President and CEO
Fujitec Co., Ltd.
The 2024 New Employees’ Initiation Ceremony
February 9 is the anniversary of Fujitec’s foundation. Our company has been able to continue in business thanks to the relationship of trust with our stakeholders, including customers and the users of our products, and this year we celebrate our 76th anniversary. I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to all the stakeholders who have supported Fujitec.
Recently we announced upward revisions to our consolidated earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2024, to 230,000 million yen in net sales and 14,500 million yen in operating income. Sales and income are both projected to reach record highs. Although there are still some issues to be resolved, we will maintain this momentum as we move forward to the next stage. Recently we also announced that in FY2024 we will embark on our New Medium-term Management Plan. Under this plan, we will manage the company in the spirit of “continuity and change” that I announced in my inaugural speech as president in September last year and pursue our vision of evolution into an excellent company. We will develop even clearer plans on what should not be changed, such as the pursuit of safety and reliability, pursuit of quality, and a commitment to human resource development (continuity), and what should be changed, including reform based on a “selection and focus” strategy, strengthening of our Group management, and enhancement of our governance and communication (change).
To create the New Fujitec, every employee needs to look at matters from a higher-level perspective and radically change their ways of thinking and acting. I encourage all employees to look ahead, keep learning, cooperate, pool their strengths, and accomplish reforms on an “All Fujitec” basis.
I truly hope this will be the year that we constantly forge ahead in line with our “Move On” slogan and deliver concrete results, so that our customers and other stakeholders say that Fujitec has changed and achieved results.
I look forward to continuing support from all our stakeholders.
Masayoshi Harada
President and CEO
Fujitec Co., Ltd.
The 2024 Anniversary of Fujitec’s Foundation Ceremony
Here we are at the start of a new year. I look forward to continuing cooperation with all our stakeholders during 2024. This is my message to you all as the new year begins.
On January 1, Japan suffered an earthquake measuring a peak intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, with its epicenter in Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto region. I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences for those who lost their lives, and convey my deepest sympathies to everybody affected by this earthquake. It caused enormous damage due to repeated intense shaking and tsunami, as well as massive fires, and it appears that it will take some time for normality to be restored. Like many others in Japan, we at Fujitec are determined to do all that we can to help the area recover as soon as possible.
According to the Chinese zodiac, this year is the year of the Wood Dragon. The Wood Dragon signifies the first glimmers of success growing and taking shape. This image describes the perfect year for transition, and what is more, I think it also coincides with the stage Fujitec is at now. I want to make 2024 the year in which we deliver concrete results. If we focus on the idea of the first glimmers of success growing and taking shape, in Fujitec’s case, I understand “taking shape” to mean that our preparation to reach our goals and achieve success is progressing.
Last year, Fujitec marked its 75th anniversary. At the General Shareholders’ Meeting in June of this landmark year, I took up the post of President and CEO and we launched a new management structure. Subsequently, on August 1, we reformed our organization to further accelerate our objectives and achieve sustainable growth. The goal of this organizational change was to strengthen the “All Fujitec” framework under which the technology, production, and administrative divisions would provide support for our two businesses, domestic and overseas. Then, in September, we announced our “continuity and change” approach to management both internally and externally. To help stakeholders inside and outside the company better understand the “continuity and change” approach, this year we will be conducting a PR campaign using the slogan “Move ON.”
In our core business, I regard 2023 as the year in which Fujitec elevated itself to the next level as a company. We supplied products for numerous projects, the most notable example being the Azabudai Hills complex, which opened in November last year, where we installed 110 elevators and escalators including 16 double-deck (two-story) elevators, comprising our largest number of installations ever for a single construction project here in Japan. Meanwhile, in our overseas business, sales were strong in South Asia, where we secured a huge order for 538 elevators and escalators to be installed in a large residential project in India and completed modernization of the elevators in the former OUB Centre one of our highest-profile projects in Singapore.
Thus, I believe that Fujitec is well on the way toward the first glimmers of success taking shape, as represented by this year’s Chinese zodiac symbol. However, for these glimmers of success to grow, I think the employees of “All Fujitec” need to strengthen their ties to each other more than ever before. Working in collaboration with others is more powerful than working on your own, and makes a difference in terms of how quickly a successful outcome can be achieved. I believe this collaboration is how a company grows and becomes stronger.
This year, we are seeking to make further progress in managing on an “All Fujitec” basis by keeping our “continuity and change” approach unchanged as the bedrock upon which management of our company is founded. Elements that represent continuity comprise the pursuit of safety and reliability, pursuit of quality, and a commitment to human resource development. Meanwhile, the elements representing change are a “selection and focus” approach to our portfolio, strengthening of our Group management, and enhancement of our governance and communication.
The year to come will require us to raise the quality of our work higher than ever before and elevate ourselves to the next level as a company. All of us at Fujitec need to take an interest in each other, broaden our horizons, elevate our vantage points, shift our perspectives, and go even further in altering the conventional ways of doing things.
I want 2024 to be the year in which “All Fujitec” delivers concrete results so that our stakeholders really feel that we have become a better company.
Masayoshi Harada
President and CEO
Fujitec Co., Ltd.
Fujitec has launched a new management structure to mark the 75th anniversary of our establishment. As we continue to engage in business activities to constantly provide high-quality products and services over the long term, we will value our corporate culture and prioritize safety and reliability, which are fundamental to our business, and leverage our strengths in integrated systems for manufacturing and sales. Moving forward, our management stance will remain unaltered to ensure that we earn solid trust from our customers and all other stakeholders.
Since elevators and escalators are key elements of social infrastructure on which lives depend, stable management of our company is crucial. Our management team is committed to preserving such stability and working together to lead the Fujitec Group. And our group companies are united in pledging to supply reliable products and services to our customers and users, and to maintain equipment over the long term.
The business environment for elevators and escalators is facing major change stemming from factors including advances in technologies such as AI, IoT, and robotics, environmental issues due to global warming, and severe disasters affecting wide areas, such as earthquakes. Until now we have provided means of vertical, horizontal, and inclined movement of people and goods, but from now on connecting with various things including information, goods, and people’s feelings will bring even greater value to elevators and escalators, buildings, and cities. Elevators and escalators have a bright future and will play wider roles than ever before.
What should we change, and what should stay the same? Our purpose is defined by our management philosophy, and in accordance with the principles of constancy and fluidity, we will apply our essential business practices while adroitly updating them and responding flexibly without being bound by past experiences and conventional methods. As a company that can truly respond to change, we will cooperate with all our stakeholders to evolve through transformation.
To fulfill Fujitec’s aim of being an excellent social infrastructure company, the mission of the new management team is to thoroughly focus on front-line operations and globalization, continue to manage in ways that value people, and build a company that is full of employees who brim with confidence and radiate energy, and where work is fulfilling.
We will guide Fujitec towards the future in ways that meet our stakeholders’ expectations and merit their support, sharing our vision with Fujitec Group employees and our business partners as we look ahead to our 100th anniversary and create a new Fujitec.
Masayoshi Harada
President and CEO
Fujitec Co., Ltd.
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