Happy New Year to everyone.
I am happy to celebrate the new year with each of you who actively work in various places.
I would like to share a few thoughts with you at the start of 2022.
As we look back on 2021, we can see it was a year where our business activities were constrained not only due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by a global shortage of semiconductors. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the efforts of all the executives and employees who, despite various restrictions, continued to carry out business activities while making efforts to prevent infection.
Next, I would like to talk about three things that are my aspirations for 2022 and what I would like to ask of you.
These are "Ensuring health and safety", "Strictly following Basics and Ethics", and "Achieving the 2021 Mid-Term management plan and starting the 2024 Mid-Term management plan".
As a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we shifted primarily to telecommuting, limited business trips, and carried out various other measures to prevent infection. As a result, the number of infected persons in the Hitachi Systems Group in Japan has significantly decreased after peaking in August. However, new variants such as the omicron variant have been discovered. I would like you to continue measures to prevent infection this year as well as you engage in business activities. Many people have been telecommuting for a long time now. The number of people newly taking a leave of absence due to mental health is increasing, particularly among young employees.
At the Hitachi Systems Group, we put utmost priority on the health and safety of our employees and their families, and under our basic principal that "health and safety take precedence over everything else", we have promoted various measures, including improvement in the work environment for workers who work long hours and mental care for telecommuting. However, I believe that more thorough efforts are necessary.
In order to have both physical and mental health, one must improve one's daily habits through appropriate exercise, avoid stress through appropriate workplace communication and the like, and carry out other such measures in daily life. I ask that you always stay aware of the fact that "you are responsible for protecting your own health", and behave with self-awareness so that you may live a fulfilling life with family and friends.
At this opportunity marked by the start of the new year, please work seriously on your own health management, such as by making time for exercise.
With the goal of each and every employee understanding "S (Health and Safety) >> Q (Quality) > D (Delivery time) > C (Cost)", taking this to heart, and applying it in their actual behavior, we began implementing conversations with the superior of one's direct superior at Hitachi Systems in October of last year. Before this, I held round-table meetings with Division General Managers from July to August of last year. Let us use these types of activities to think about and discuss matters together to create workplaces that are open and free of illicit behavior throughout the company. If you encounter trouble in your work, please do not keep it to yourself, but consult your superior or your corporate department.
I will once again ask you to reaffirm and understand that "S >> Q > D > C" is your standard for making decisions in work, and I would like you to act with utmost priority on "Basics and Ethics" and "right and wrong is more important than profits and losses".
Including this month, there are only three months left in the 2021 Mid-Term management plan. Please continue to focus on providing our existing services that can be provided quickly, such as services related to telecommuting, including the construction of telecommuting environments, and business services centered on cloud services, with a sense of speed and in a form that meets customer needs. I believe that if the Hitachi Systems Group comes together as one, we can achieve the sales, operating profit, and operating cash flow targets stated in the 2021 Mid-Term management plan.
However, I once again ask you to never stray from "Basics and Ethics".
April of this year will mark the start to our new 2024 Mid-Term management plan. Currently, plans are underway for various systems and services, including those of local administrations and the national government, to migrate to clouds. The key lies in how we can provide standard services which provide customers a significant benefit when used, such as cloud migration for package services conventionally provided on-premises, or management, security monitoring, and operation of cloud environments.
Under the 2024 Mid-Term management plan, in addition to "expanding digitalization (the Lumada business)", we will leverage the base that we have strengthened thus far, including "ensuring profitability for base businesses through modernization" and "shifting towards and expanding managed services", as we shift to a stage where we aim for growth.
We consider FY 2022 to be an important year in accelerating our growth. To move to the next stage, I would like for each and every one of you to collaborate effectively with various Business Groups, our group companies in Japan or overseas, and even the Hitachi Group and our partners as we work to provide services that meet our customers' current needs.
Marking our 10th anniversary, we held the "Tsunagari - Hitachi Systems 10th Anniversary Event" over the three months from October until December last year in order to improve employee engagement. The thanksgiving online event we held in November featured many fun programs, and the employees at our branch offices and group companies were full of energy. It was a time we could really feel the bonds of the Hitachi Systems Group. Let us utilize these bonds to swiftly answer our customers' needs for digital transformation (DX) and to offer support from various perspectives.
I would like to conclude my message by offering my best wishes for a healthy, bright, and fulfilling year for our customers, partners, Hitachi Systems Group employees and their families, and all other stakeholders.
January 4, 2022
Setsuo Shibahara
President and CEO
Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
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