What is the business vision for the future? What are the management objectives?

We intend to strengthen cooperation between companies within the Group, and realize ‘sales at the top level of the industry’, ‹an overseas sales ratio of 50%’, and an ‘ROIC^* of 15%’.

The conditions surrounding companies are changing extensively, as reflected in rapid growth in the newly emergent nations and in markets in resources-producing countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, the increasing maturity of the domestic market, and the global environmental problems that were discussed at the Toyako summit. Although it is by no means easy to respond to these changes, if we are able to respond well to such adverse conditions, this is likely to provide us with major business opportunities, as was the case in the past at the times of the oil shocks and the recession brought on by the appreciation of the yen. In order to achieve further growth, we need to respond not only to the immediate items that confront us but also to future topics in light of changes. It was in this context that we formulated our ‘AISIN Group VISION 2015’ in April this year.

The Vision has three key phrases: “Create With”, “Harmonize With” and “Be With”. “Create With” is all about working together to create new values. This involves creating system products unique to AISIN that bring together the technology possessed by each company in the Aisin Group that has been carefully nurtured over the years in a variety of business operations. “Harmonize With” is all about generating a favorable response all over the world under the condition of ongoing globalization. “Be With”. is concerned with people, society and nature all getting on together harmoniously. The idea is to enhance the sustainability of regional society without harming people, communities or nature through open and fair methods of business. With sights set on the year 2015, we are aiming to achieve the highest sales of any company in our branch of industry and to reach an overseas sales ratio of 50 percent and a rate of return on invested capital (ROIC)^* of 15%.

Our Group has hitherto been supported to some extent by increased production on the part of our main clients, but in the future we intend to grow under our own steam on new markets that we have developed ourselves and to achieve sales on the highest level within the industry. The number of cars being produced by Japanese manufacturers outside Japan is already greater than the number being produced within Japan, and we are likely to see an expansion in the market overseas, especially in the newly emergent nations. We intend therefore to expand our overseas sales ratio from the current figure of 31% to 50% during the current year. Since prior investment is likely to become increasingly important in order to respond to the market in the future, we intend to raise the ROIC (rate of return on invested capital) to a level of 15%. In recent years our Group has been continuing to engage in large-scale investment in anticipation of market needs in areas such as die casts and transmissions, in investment in promising fields such as brakes, and in investment in fields likely to support future growth such as overseas business and R&D activities. Since investment along these lines is going to be needed in the future, we will be placing importance on ROIC in addition to ROE and making efforts to enhance investment efficiency to a yet higher degree.

*ROIC (Return on Investment Capital) is calculated by dividing net operating income by the sum of inventory assets and fixed assets.