Trust Recovery Growth Vitalization - Marubeni

Strategy by Business Segment
Industrial Machinery & Information
Business Division
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Progress through the convergence of hardware and software
During the past fiscal year, we largely completed steps to deal with projects
that had been pending. For the current year, we recognize that in realigning
the division’s operations, pursuing synergies between major operating
companies will be crucial to achieving earnings growth. For the division, the
key word will be convergence of hardware and software. The new business
model we are creating will bring together hardware such as textile machinery,
production and industrial machinery, and optical fiber networks with
software development. Overall, we plan to take decisive actions for completing
the “V” PLAN and achieving growth in the fiscal year ending March
31, 2007 and following years.
Division Strategies and Strengths
The division’s core businesses are the IT infrastructure and
solutions business, sales of PC- and mobile communicationrelated
products, and sales of production and industrial
machinery to the automobile, pulp and paper, environmental,
healthcare, and textile industries. In addition to pursuing independent
business models while strengthening alliances with
other units to expand individual business portfolios and grow
earnings, each business proactively combines the functions
of IT solutions and industrial engineering to create high
added-value and thereby meet the increasingly sophisticated
needs of customers.
The division has three main strengths: 1) comprehensive
capabilities that enable it to tackle large projects, 2) expertise
that allows specialization in specific fields, and 3) a telecommunications
sales and service system that leverages companyowned
infrastructure. Regarding the first strength, the division
aims to win large contracts that require integrated capabilities,
including engineering, in such fields as automobile manufacturing,
pulp and papermaking, and healthcare industries. With the
second strength, the division pursues increased global market
share and profitability by utilizing Marubeni’s sales network and
Yoshinori Kusagaya
Corporate Vice President, COO
proprietary technologies in the environmental systems, consumer
industries, and textile machinery fields. As for the third
strength, the Vectant Group, which has its own optical fiber
network and data centers, works to expand sales channels for
high-end dedicated lines and IP network services, which are
selling briskly amid the shift to broadband networks.
The division focuses on the development of businesses and
the cultivation of markets that promise strong growth. Areas
where the division is working to bolster its business underpinnings
and create new earnings pillars include the RFID* business,
which is expected to demonstrate rapid growth across a
broad range of fields, especially logistics; public security, which
involves the strengthening of government security services
and systems, which is being pursued by national governments
around the world; new environmentally friendly energy sectors,
including the solar power generation and biomass ethanol
manufacturing businesses; and broadcasting, which is
expected to see increased capital investment along with the
shift to digital formats.
* RFID (radio frequency identification), a technology that enables the tracking
of people and goods using wireless IC tags