Seiko Epson Corporation

2009

Looking Ahead

April 2009
While hard hit by the downturn in the global economy, Epson is looking to return to growth with a new long-term vision.

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2008

Top Niche Player

November 2008
Epson boasts industry-leading semiconductor technologies that are likely to play key roles in our technologically ubiquitous near future.

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Aspiring Higher

August 2008
New Epson President Minoru Usui seeks to leverage the company's outstanding assets into an enduring pattern of growth.

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Creating Customer Value

April 2008
A thorough knowledge of one's own competence and business customers' markets is key to building win-win partnerships.

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Built on Innovation

January 2008
As a company that takes pride in developing its own unique technologies, Epson gives special importance to building its business strategies around intellectual property rights.

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2007

Symbol of Resurgence

October 2007
Although Epson is best known today as a world-leading manufacturer of printers and other imaging devices, watch making has always been an integral part of its operations. It has continued to develop and manufacture innovative Seiko-brand watches throughout the company's 65-year history, including the world's first quartz watch in 1969, the first digital quartz watch in 1973, and the first automatic power-generating Kinetic watch in 1988.

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Building the Dream Product

July 2007
Over a span of nearly two decades, Epson has gone a long way toward fulfilling the dreams of photo enthusiasts with groundbreaking inkjet printers, inks, and media that have revolutionized the world of digital photography. The unique Micro Piezo technology behind Epson's celebrated Stylus printer lineup was developed in the late 1980s by a team of engineers headed by Minoru Usui, now a board director. Having been named general administrative manager of the Production Engineering and Development Division last year, Usui is currently also directing his foresight and enthusiasm to the question of not just what to make, but how exactly to make it.

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Micro Piezo Takes Epson into the Future

April 2007
Over 250 media representatives and securities analysts gathered at the Epson Business and Technology Forum 2007 on March 27 in Tokyo to view a variety of new commercial and industrial applications for Epson's proprietary Micro Piezo technology—the core component of the company's inkjet printers. The range of applications for this unique technology is potentially huge, and it promises to become a key driver of future profit growth.

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Devising a Crystal Clear Future

January 2007
Epson Toyocom Corporation ("Epson Toyocom") is a model for how business integration should work at its best. Before their operations were amalgamated in October 2005, Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson")'s crystal device business and Toyo Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. ("Toyocom") were struggling to enhance their respective market positions. But today, Epson Toyocom finds itself a frontrunner in the burgeoning market for crystal devices and commands massive orders from the world's biggest manufacturers of cellular phones and other digital devices while enjoying their overwhelming confidence.

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2006

Turning Technology into Income

October 2006
While most consumers will not immediately notice the changes, Epson is thoroughly revamping its operations and remaking itself into a company that steadily and consistently generates high profits. Under a sweeping reform program spearheaded by Executive Officer Toru Oguchi, Epson's finished products business is embarking on a new course that will lift it above the pitfalls that caused last year's disappointing performance.

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Restoring Stakeholder Confidence

July 2006
On April 1, 2006, Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson") thoroughly reorganized its Head Office, streamlining its various functions into two main organizations for corporate strategy and management control, the latter including human resources, finance, and other administrative functions. This was part of the company's efforts to turn its fortunes around from a disappointing performance in 2005, when it registered a net loss after downwardly revising its business projections on repeated occasions.

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A Sharper Focus on Core Strengths

April 2006
On March 16, 2006, Epson President, Seiji Hanaoka released the details of a three-year program of sweeping reforms-an outline of which was announced in January-to shore up the company's earnings potential. Called "Creativity and Challenge 1000," it maps out a strategy to generate pretax profit of ¥100 billion by fiscal 2008 (April 2008 to March 2009).

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Information Management Reformer

January 2006
In his role as head of Epson's business strategy, Managing Director Hiroshi Komatsu is looking to ring in fundamental changes in business attitude that make it possible to reach decisions quickly and chalk up higher profits.

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2005

Quality from the Ground Up

October 2005
For Masayuki Morozumi, Epson's chief production officer and senior managing director, a manufacturing plant is much more than just a place where products are assembled. It is also a showroom, where potential manufacturing customers can visit to determine whether or not they can trust the company to supply key devices and components. It is also a studio where Epson's brand strength is created. And most importantly, it is the place where answers can be found to most production-related issues.

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Anticipating the Future

July 2005

"We employ what we call the pathfinder approach to R&D," explains Masao Akahane, who in April 2005 became Epson's chief technology officer—a post held by President Seiji Hanaoka while he was executive vice-president. "This means gaining a strategic head start by anticipating future needs and nurturing core technologies until the time is ripe to apply them in products with a decisive technological edge."

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Charting Epson's New Path

April 2005
The announcement on February 23, 2005, that Epson President Saburo Kusama would hand over the reins of the company to Executive Vice-President Seiji Hanaoka took many by surprise.

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The Magic of Creation

January 2005
If there is a word to sum up Epson's approach to manufacturing, it would probably be nonconformist. "We've always avoided moving with the pack," contends President Saburo Kusama. "I think this commitment to originality and innovation is part of our genetic makeup."

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2004

Embracing a Luminous Future

October 2004
Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices, launched on October 1, combines the various LCD businesses owned by Seiko Epson and Sanyo Electric. In this article, Seiji Hanaoka of Seiko Epson discusses the background to the groundbreaking joint venture.

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Creating A New Photo Culture

July 2004
With the maturation of the PC market, booming digital camera sales, and an intensifying war of attrition in the inkjet sector, Epson has opted to expand its vision under a bold new strategy of making the brand synonymous with photography.

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Epson's Plans for Growth

April 2004
Ushering in a new business year on April 1, Seiko Epson Corp. (Epson) has issued a concrete, three-year plan of action called Action07 to turn the medium-term management goals outlined in its SE07 corporate vision-formulated the previous year -into reality.

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Marketing Epson's Potential

January 2004
For Toshio Kimura, 2003 was a frantic whirlwind of a year. Almost immediately after being named executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) in April, Kimura traveled to Europe and the United States to meet with investors in preparation for Epson's June 24 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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2003