Message From the President

Advancing reforms and emerging as a highly profitable firm amid the global competition

President and Chief Executive Officer Mitsuo Imai

While the global economy in 2009 showed signs of emerging from the worst period of the economic slowdown—due to economic measures and monetary relaxation carried out by each country—the economy was unable to shake off concerns over a double-dip recession centered on Europe, North America, and Japan, and tough economic conditions prevailed. Under such economic circumstances, as a result of carrying out thorough cost reductions and structural improvements, the Hitachi Cable Group expects to be able to make massive improvements in fiscal 2010 ( the year ending March 31, 2010 )business performance in comparison with fiscal 2009 ( the year ended March 31,2009 ), which has seen an unprecedented level of red ink.

This year, 2010, the global economy is expected to gradually settle down, and proceed with a gentle recovery. The Hitachi Cable Group aims to revive itself as a highly profitable firm that will survive amid the global competition by taking advantage of this opportunity to implement reforms to establish a firm revenue base.

Specifically, we will carry out efforts on the following points.

First, we will strive to strengthen our overseas businesses.
To ensure the Hitachi Cable Group continues to grow as a highly profitable firm, under strategies based on careful marketing in each region and business area, taking into consideration global markets as a whole to a greater extent than in the past, we will advance global business expansion focused on the needs of regions with growth potential such as Asia, and business areas such as clean energy and social infrastructure, which are expected to see growing demand. For this purpose, together with striving to cultivate market acumen companywide, we will conduct verification of quality, delivery times, costs, and other matters from various approaches and make progress in building optimal production and sales structures that surpass the boundaries between Group member companies in Japan and around the world. Furthermore, together with making progress on development of structures enabling local staff to thrive at even greater levels than before, we will work to develop optimal production systems through full-fledged deployment of the Hitachi Cable Just-in-Time (JIT) Production System at Group companies overseas.

Second, we will focus on strengthening research and development capabilities.
In addition to linking the results of research and development to swift development of products and businesses, we will strive to improve our element technologies in the form of basic materials technologies, electric and electronic design technologies, and mechanical technologies, to nurture the technological capabilities that will support future growth of the Hitachi Cable Group. Further, we will build intellectual-property strategies in unison with business strategies through study and analysis of market trends and the capabilities of our competitors and ourselves, for each product and business.

Third, we will advance human-resources development.
Along with enhancing our ranks of human resources with multifaceted points of view and decision-making abilities, capable of advancing business on a global basis, through restructuring our human-resources development structures such as rotation and training systems, we will broaden the abilities of individual employees, working towards more effective use of human resources.

Finally, as a member of society we will further enhance our efforts to fulfill our corporate social responsibility (CSR) in areas such as legal and regulatory compliance, environmental protection, safety, and respect for human rights, as all employees appreciate anew the importance of keeping to the straight and narrow.