The Teijin Group has announced its new medium-term management plan for 2017–2019, named ALWAYS EVOLVING. With this plan, the company aims to become an enterprise that is essential to tomorrow’s society, by utilising its workforce diversity for enhanced competitiveness, improving core earnings through growth strategies, establishing new core businesses through transformation strategies and strengthening group-wide management systems.

The company’s long-term vision is centred around the idea of evolving for future society as an enterprise that delivers new value, by helping solve social issues, achieving continuous transformation by anticipating changes in the external environment and continuing to create new value at all times.

Business strategies

Teijin will implement both growth and transformation strategies focusing on the materials and healthcare business fields as the pillars of its operations and develop new businesses that are not yet contributing to profits at present into its core earnings sources, without merely relying on the continuation of existing businesses.

Growth strategies for materials business field include focusing on aircraft and automobile businesses (environmental value solutions), as well as addressing infrastructure needs (safety, security and disaster mitigation solutions). Meanwhile, growth strategies for healthcare business focus on strengthening solutions in high-growth domains.

Transformation strategies for material business field will mean transforming the business model from supplying customers with materials to close-to-customer businesses to develop composites that incorporate multiple materials, and thereby win the competition amongst multiple materials. In the area of automotive composite products, rather than merely extending materials businesses into downstream fields, Teijin will leverage its strengths in composite technologies to expand business with a view to becoming a supplier of multi-material components.

Finally, transformation strategies for healthcare business field include strengthening existing healthcare business to deliver comprehensive patient-service systems, even those not reimbursed under the Japanese health insurance system, the company reports.

Global strategy

The company aims to implement regional strategies based on the characteristics of each business in line with growth and transformation strategies. According to the manufacturer, this will help strengthen cross-business regional structures, systems to manage overseas businesses efficiently, and regional strategy formation.

Strengthening of the management system platform

Teijin will pursue inter-business integration by integrating materials-related businesses into one materials business field. The New Business Development Business Unit will be split into units for materials and healthcare business to deepen group-wide collaboration with and absorption of these individual businesses. A newly established Global Strategy Officer will develop cross-business regional strategies and a newly established Information Strategy Representative will pursue smart projects on a group-wide basis.

Teijin will also leverage IT to create new businesses and enhance group-wide business styles. In the medium-term, this will involve healthcare services development, smart plantations and innovation in business operating process, and the allocation of JPY ten billion centred on establishing the business platform.

In terms of cost restructuring initiatives, by fiscal 2019, Teijin aims to reduce total costs by JPY 20 billion from the fiscal 2016 level. This will be realised by completing measures in the revised medium-term management plan in 2014 and strengthening product cost competitiveness centred on growth businesses (JPY 11 billion), and restructuring into a small head office commensurate with business scale after the implementation of restructuring initiatives (JPY 9 billion).

www.teijin.com