Top Management Interview, a special event marking the renewal of Rikei Web Site
Newly-Born Rikei Corporation starts.
-We highly value the quality, speed and volume of corporate business activities. Let's return
to Rikei's original point and establish Newly-Born Rikei.-
"Completing as many high-level jobs as possible speedily is our corporate ideal and eternal management policy. And our attitude as a trading firm specializing in high-tech remains unchanged," says Mr. Aoyagi, President & CEO of Rikei, which is newly born after accomplishing many internal reforms. In such words, he seemed to have strong confidence in attaining these ideals. Mr. Aoyagi is delivering the following message concerning the meaning of "Newly-Born Rikei" and future corporate plans.
You newly cited "Newly-Born Rikei" as a key word to express your future corporate vision. Would you please explain the background for this word and its true meaning?
The Japanese economy is still in a prolonged slump. Enterprises' investment in Information Technology (IT) do not go up, and market demands for computer and information systems still remain at a low level. In the midst of such a severe market condition, Rikei, which had been expanding smoothly, is also forced to face such a market condition. Rikei, which marked its 47th anniversary this year, had been growing with Japan's high-speed economic growth and its organization had grown too big. Under such growth, some questions came up to me a few years ago. Isn't Rikei's original corporate spirit becoming thinner among individual corporate members? Isn't now the time for each individual corporate member to return to his or her original point and for Rikei to return to its original point? To overcome the prolonged deflationary economic slump, shouldn't Rikei undergo a drastic structural improvement? Because of the background mentioned above, I have decided to use the key word of "Newly-Bore Rikei" to appeal my intention to each and all of Rikei members and also widely to people outside of Rikei.
In connection with "Newly-Born Rikei", what concrete plans do you have to expand Rikei's business activities in various fields?
As our business pillars supporting "Newly-Born Rikei," I'm planning to actively expand our business activities in 4 major fields of business.
The first field is wireless LAN infrastructure in networks and security solutions.
In the field of broadband, it is generally believed that it will become a matter of course that all PCs will have
the function to support wireless communications, and that the market of wireless LAN, which is steadily growing now,
will reach Yen 50B by the end of 2003. In this market, our company is selling Nomadix (a U.S. maker) products, which
have the function of connecting between the wired Internet and wireless LANs, for public wireless LAN services, also
selling Cranite Systems (a U.S. maker) products as very strong security solutions which are required in wireless
LAN environments.
The second field is e-business.
In the field of e-business, we are actively attempting to develop new customers such as major financial businesses
and camera mass-distribution shops, etc. other than manufacturers which have been our major customers so far. We are
offering ATG (a U.S. maker) eCRM systems to such private-sector businesses as profit-generating solutions, gradually
seeing good results of our sales efforts since the beginning of our fiscal year 2003.
The third field is highly value-added devices and parts for optical communications.
The market of products and parts related to optical communications seemed to have seen its bottom and is recovering
gradually now. In the now booming Chinese market, demand for system LSIs, which are installed in cell phones and
other mobile data terminals, is increasing. We will promote and sell such LSIs and relevant products to the Chinese
market, centering on Shanghai.
The fourth field is maintenance service and other technical support services to our customers.
We have improved our maintenance service system for computer systems which we are handling as the distributor, and
also have established after-care call centers as well as a nation-wide organizational system which enable us to respond
promptly to our customers' requests for our technical proposals, operation, maintenance, sub-contract constructions
work, etc.
If there are any results which prove the performance of "Newly-Born Rikei," please tell us.
In anticipation of the arrival
of the age of wireless LANs, we launched a public wireless LAN service under the name of "BizPortal" in
November, 2002. This service operation was accepted by SHINJUKU i-LAND, Shinjuku Nomura Building, Shinjuku Washington
Hotel, Century Hyatt Tokyo, all in 2002, followed by Shinjuku Park Tower, Narita Airport, THE WESTIN TOKYO in 2003,
and now the operational service was launched by Roppongi Hills. I'm very proud that "BizPortal" was adopted
as the latest IT technology at Roppongi Hills, a landmark spot attracting the widest attention in Japan now. I think
it is an event befitting the start of "Newly-Born Rikei."
The biggest sales point of "BizPortal" is as follows - any individual, without needing to enter a contract with any service provider, can access the Internet any number of times at Yen 500 within 24 hours from his or her first access by obtaining an ID password, and moreover, he or she can use the same ID password even in different "BizPortal" service areas. As you know, conventional public wireless LAN service requires each individual to be registered with a service provider and to become a member of the service on a monthly fee basis before he or she can use the service - which means nobody can use the service immediately without going through such prior procedures unlike our "BizPortal." The business model that Rikei proposed in the form of "BizPortal" is the one which meets the potential needs of individuals without a contract with any service provider, and the visible results were obtained in that major spots in Tokyo adopted and introduced this service in succession.
As the last question, please tell us about future business prospects for Rikei and the industry.
Since the IT bubble has burst in the U.S.A., the market recovery of the information industry is being delayed at a global level. But as the profitability of businesses in general is improving due to their restructuring efforts, I think investment in IT will be recovering gradually.
In Japan, all system integrators, large, medium and small, are attempting to enter fields and market sectors other than their specialized one in order to survive, causing severe competitions in the market. In the midst of such developments, Rikei is attempting to be re-born by returning to its original point. Our basic management policy of highly valuing high-level, high speed and high volume of what we perform remains unchanged, but we also keep setting a highly-sensitive antenna to obtain information about the latest technologies and will tackle next-generation technologies developed in Europe and America. I'm determined to continue winning in competitions by strengthening the source of our competitiveness as a trading firm specializing in high-tech products and services and by presenting proposals which will meet our customers' satisfaction.
All members of Rikei are determined to create "Newly-Born Rikei" with concerted efforts, so please wait and see. End,
