In what direction is Group management likely to head in the future?

We have to achieve a synergistic effect by linking and combining the power of each group company nurtured autonomously and independently.

The Group has hitherto aspired to an independent and autonomous style under which importance is placed first and foremost on the individuality of each company within the Group. In this way we have managed to create a corporate Group quite unique in the business world in which individual companies are able to display their overwhelming strengths in the respective areas of business in which they excel.

For example, Aisin AI was originally Aisin Seiki's Shiroyama plant, but when manual transmission business reached a level of maturity, the company set up on its own in 1991 as a manufacturer specializing in this particular field with the express aims of further deepening the specialized nature of its operations and raising the flexibility of its business. Aisin AI thereafter successfully developed many new and innovatory products and gained many new clients.

The way in which each company within the Group has aspired to autonomy and independence has thus been extremely effective in terms of enabling us to nurture the capacity of each company. However, the situation today is that competition in connection with development is becoming increasingly severe on a global level and the environment in which we are doing business is growing ever more difficult. Under these conditions it is important therefore that the potential of the Group as a whole is maximized by linking and combining the potential cultivated by each company. As was mentioned earlier, this linkage and combination is essential if we are to be able to develop system products with a high level of added value that combine the products and technology present within the Group.

In the future we intend therefore to shift the basic stance of Group management from ‘autonomy and independence’ to ‹cooperation and linkage’, and to pursue the ideal of Group synergy.

asuhito Yamauchi President