HIDAJournal 2012 SPRING No.2

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3HIDA Journal No. 2 ● SPRING 2013successfully kicked off our operations. However, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 deteriorated our revenues in 2009 by 30% against the previous year, triggering quite tough conditions for us. With order volumes declining in many markets at the time, we focused on “business expansion that is not influenced by economic fluctuation” as our growth strategy to enable stable business management, implementing specific measures based on the medical lighting business, which was showing stable business growth. Then, we focused our attention on entering the global market for halogen lamps used for medical purposes and airports. However, the standards of airport lighting in other countries were different from Japanese standards, making us a newcomer in the market. We thought we would never be able to compete with other companies without a competitive edge in pricing, and finally decided to advance into foreign markets at the end of 2010.This globalization project, however, was decelerated at an early stage of our plan due to the unexpected Great East Japan Earthquake. Our company is located at the bank of the Kitakami River, but our factory building and manufacturing facilities fortunately did not suffer from substantial damage as they are located on a hill 15 kilometers away from the estuary. Still, the necessary infrastructure, including electricity and water supply, was not available right after the disaster, disabling operation of our factory.In the meantime, some of our employees had their houses or cars destroyed or washed away by the tsunamis. We worked on dealing with our employees first of all, although what we could do was limited. With all communication methods unavailable, all we could do at first was to wait for our employees to report to the office. Then, we continued to visit their houses or shelters for several days and were able to confirm the safety of all our employees. Later, many of our suppliers and business partners provided us with supplies required for daily life, allowing us to deliver them to our employees who were affected by the disaster.We were hit by frequent aftershocks right after the earthquake and everyone was under mental strain. Receiving these sorts of supplies and heart-warming messages from various people greatly encouraged our employees to work on the reconstruction from the earthquake. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who supported us. I also appreciate the efforts of all the employees who were under dire conditions but reported to the office and worked hard at that time.With the support provided by many people and the efforts made by our employees, we were somehow able to recover our factory operations to pre-earthquake levels in about two months.We fully started our globalization project around May 2011 and finally decided to expand our busi-ness to Vietnam. The greatest rea-son we chose the country was the diligence and industry of the Vietnamese. As we observed how other Japanese companies operated in Vietnam, we saw how Japa-nese staff interacted with the Vietnamese and felt we could suc-cessfully work with them.Our company is currently constructing a factory at Dong An Industrial Park 2 in Binh Duong Province in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, targeting commencement of operations as of April 2013. Initially, part of our production in Japan will be transferred to this site. In time, however, we will leverage technology established at our headquarters in Japan to work on the production of lighting products for medical use and airports in global markets based on our cost advantage. This means that we will not transfer our production in Japan to this site on a smaller scale, rather we will make sure to achieve growth in both the Japanese and overseas markets. In addition, we will expand the scope of production processes and the number of production items in our Vietnamese factory as our production there becomes stabilized. We will also target the localization of our business management there in a few years.Currently, we have invited Mr. Le Ba Minh Duc, who will lead our operations in Vietnam, to Japan for training. He will learn the skills for manufacturing and maintenance here so that he can teach his skills to local operators. I hope he will exhibit leadership in setting up operations in Vietnam as well as in expanding the scope of production processes and the number of production items in subsequent phases.It has been almost two months since he came to Japan. I was initially concerned with how our factory in Japan would accept a person from overseas for successful training, but it turned out that our employees in Japan actually supported him very warmly both at work and in private. This experience made me recognize anew that our company actually has a climate of accepting different cultures.I also appreciate the support from HIDA. As we applied for HIDA’s training program, an official from HIDA visited and advised us on the content of training plan and acceptance of staff from overseas. When Mr. Duc came to Ishinomaki City after taking a six-week general orientation course held at HIDA Chubu Kenshu Center, I was surprised by how quickly he made progress in Japanese, a language he did not understand at all when he first came to Japan. His language skills are quite effective and this currently helps him to communicate with his instructors during training at our factory.He has nine more months before his training is completed. He will learn more difficult skills going forward. I hope he will go back to Vietnam with his skills and techniques learned through training and exert his capabilities in the phases of setting up a factory and expanding our business in Vietnam.Mr. Le Ba Minh Duc on-site for trainingOur products

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