Topic: Promoting Management for Sustainable Growth
Speaker: Masatoshi Matsuzaki, CEO of Konica Minolta, Inc.
Time & Date: October 22 (Mon.) 2018, 11:45 – 14:00
Location: Roppongi Hills Club

About the Event:

As CEO, I made it my mission to “Make Konica Minolta a company of sustainable growth”.

The reasons I set this target are (1) the time when I was appointed as a CEO was right after Lehman crisis and (2) Konica Minolta had a history that our existing business were being disrupted by the innovation outside our industry. In accordance with my mission, we promoted transformation of our businesses: we built a system for creating continuous innovation. We identified crucial issues that are important for both stakeholders and Konica Minolta. Social innovation is one of them.

Since 2014, Masatoshi Matsuzaki has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Konica Minolta. He served as President and CEO of Konica Minolta from 2009 to 2014. Prior to this, he held several leadership executive positions responsible for R&D and strategy. Masatoshi Matsuzaki is also an Independent Director of Ichigo Inc., of Nomura Research Institute, and of Nippon Sheet Glass Co. He is also Vice Chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Directors.

Report:

Executive Insights with Masatoshi Matsuzaki (KONICA MINOLTA, INC.) AHK Japan had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Masatoshi Matsuzaki, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KONICA MINOLTA, INC., as a speaker to our Executive Insights Event Series.

Since 2014, Mr. Matsuzaki has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Konica Minolta. He served as President and CEO of Konica Minolta from 2009 to 2014. Prior to this, he held several leadership executive positions responsible for R&D and strategy. Masatoshi Matsuzaki is also an Independent Director of Ichigo Inc., of Nomura Research Institute, and of Nippon Sheet Glass Co. He is also Vice Chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Directors.

Konica Minolta was formed in 2003 by a merger between Japanese companies Konica and Minolta in 2003. It is a Japanese multinational technology company with annual sales of 8 billion Euro in 2017. The company specializes in business technology such as copiers and laser printers.

At Executive Insights, Mr. Matsuzaki shared his vision and mission as CEO of Konica Minolta as well as lessons learned. He especially emphasized the need to be sensitive about changes outside of one’s industry and differentiate between temporary and structural change.

These two points were exceptionally hard lessons to learn for the company as well as the camera industry in the early 21st century: Conventional cameras were replaced by digital cameras, leading to a collapse for the photo film market in a matter of years. Just a short time after this, the iPhone was introduced, signaling the arrival of the smartphone. From 2006 to 2014, the market for digital cameras declined from 100 million units shipped to 43 million units.