This video presents Corporate Video (Long version) / FUJIFILM.
- Fujifilm’s proprietary technologies and pursuit of high quality
- Bold Challenges — Paradigm shift & Globalization
- Expanding business fields — Fujifilm products in our everyday life
- Fujifilm — challenging new frontiers
The new Book “Innovating Out of Crisis, How Fujifilm Survived (and Thrived) As Its Core Business Was Vanishing” by Shigetaka Komori, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation Chairman and CEO, recounts how he was inspired to lead Fujifilm’s journey from the brink of extinction to its current path of prosperity and growth – and a new direction.
Excerpted from:
Innovating Out of Crisis: How Fujifilm Survived (and Thrived) As Its Core Business Was Vanishing
By Shigetaka Komori, Chairman and CEO, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation
Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, California, 2015
In the year 2000, photosensitive materials such as color photographic film accounted for sixty percent of Fujifilm’s sales and two-thirds of its profits. The disappearance of that market in roughly the blink of an eye, as digital photography grew dominant, was for us an earth-shattering event. Photosensitive materials, our core moneymaker, had fallen into the red in just four or five short years.
It was during this, the deepest crisis in our company’s history, that I was appointed president.
The question facing me now was how to survive this unprecedented situation and save the company. If I failed, it would mean disaster for Fujifilm; and for me personally, at this final stage of my career as a company man, it would mean my whole life had been a failure.
* * *
Photography is an indispensable part of human culture, and Fujifilm takes as its mission to protect the photographic culture. We cannot stop producing film simply because the market has shrunk.
But if the demand for photographic film drastically dwindled, our production facilities and sales organizations around the world would become a huge fixed cost weighing us down. If Fujifilm could not sustain this burden and went under, the lives of some seventy thousand employees and their families would be shattered.
It was clear to me that this was not the time for makeshift measures. Our only choice was to initiate radical reform, including the downsizing of our photography-related businesses. Had we delayed by just another year or two, we would have been right in the middle of the devastating financial downturn of 2008 and the company might not have been able to survive this double punch.
At the same time, while moving ahead with structural reforms in our photography-related businesses, we boldly invested in those fields that we felt showed future promise. By developing entirely new ventures, we could fill the vacuum left by the loss of our core business.
After assuming the position of president, I used each and every opportunity to stress the fact that this marked a new start for the company, a “Second Foundation,” if you will – much more on that later. For an entire decade it is fair to say that Fujifilm braved high waves, kept on course, and managed to traverse a turbulent sea.
Thanks to this series of reforms, the company was literally reborn.
Mr. Shigetaka Komori, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation
The Brief Bio of Shigetaka Komori
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation
Shigetaka Komori is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation.
In 1963, Mr. Komori joined Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. after graduating from the University of Tokyo with a B.A. in economics. During his tenure, he gained extensive experience in the graphic systems and recording media businesses. From 1996 until 2000, he served as Managing Director of Fuji Photo Film (Europe) GmbH. In 2000, he became President, Representative Director of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., and in 2003 he was appointed President and CEO.
From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Komori was Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. He is also President of the Japan-Germany Society and the Japan-Netherlands Society.
In 2015, Fujifilm will celebrate 50 years in the United States.
Innovating Out of Crisis is now available through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, in both hard copy and e-book.
PRESS RELEASE
NEW BOOK FROM FUJIFILM CHAIRMAN & CEO SHIGETAKA KOMORI EXPLAINS THE COMPANY’S DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION
‘Innovating Out of Crisis’ offers a glimpse into why and how the company managed to remain a global innovator
Valhalla, N.Y., June 17, 2015 – In Innovating Out of Crisis, How Fujifilm Survived (and Thrived) As Its Core Business Was Vanishing, published by Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, California, Shigetaka Komori, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation Chairman and CEO, recounts how he was inspired to lead Fujifilm’s journey from the brink of extinction to its current path of prosperity and growth – and a new direction.
In its recent fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation reported a record profit, in spite of the loss of its core business several years ago, brought on by a rapid increase in the digitalization of photography as well as the world financial crisis in 2008. In the year 2000, photographic products made up sixty percent of Fujifilm’s sales and two–thirds of its profit. Within ten years, however, the booming market for digital photography destroyed that business. In the midst of this, Mr. Komori guided the company through an historic transition from being a traditional photographic company into a leading global innovator.
In his book, Mr. Komori states, “The company’s core photographic film market was shrinking at a spectacular rate, and the situation was critical. Fujifilm had good management resources, first-rate technology, a sound financial footing, a reputable brand, and excellence in its diverse workforce. If all these assets could be effectively combined into a successful strategy and applied, I was sure that something could be done to save the day. The whole of Fujifilm was depending on my managerial skills to make it happen. I was gripped by a strong sense of mission. ‘Maybe I was brought into this world to overcome this crisis,’ I thought at the time. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.”
Fujifilm is now a leading global company with business interests in a variety of industries, including: healthcare, highly functional materials, document solutions, digital imaging, optical devices and graphic systems. The company has been applying its unique core fundamental technologies, resulting from 80 years of research and development that began with the design and production of fine, quality photographic products.
In 2015, Fujifilm will celebrate 50 years in the United States.
Innovating Out of Crisis is now available through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, in both hard copy and e-book.
About Fujifilm
FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation is based in Valhalla, New York, and is the regional headquarters for the Americas. It is comprised of fourteen directly owned subsidiary companies in the U.S. and Canada, and two in Latin America: Brazil and Colombia. The company manufactures, markets and provides service for a broad spectrum of industries including photographic, medical imaging and informatics, pharmaceutical and other life science industries. Industrial segments include data storage, electronic materials, chemical, and graphic arts products and services. For more information, please visit www.fujifilmusa.com.
FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, Tokyo, Japan brings continuous innovation and leading-edge products to a broad spectrum of industries, including: healthcare, with medical systems, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics; graphic systems; highly functional materials, such as flat panel display materials; optical devices, such as broadcast and cinema lenses; digital imaging; and document products. These are based on a vast portfolio of chemical, mechanical, optical, electronic, software and production technologies. In the year ended March 31, 2015, the company had global revenues of $20.8 billion, at an exchange rate of 120 yen to the dollar. Fujifilm is committed to environmental stewardship and good corporate citizenship. For more information, please visit: www.fujifilmholdings.com.
