Mitsui Chemicals, Inc Our 20th-Year Challenges VOL.1 VOL.2 VOL.3 VOL.4 VOL.5 VOL.6 VOL.7 Talk of the future of Mitsui Chemicals INTERVIEW Challenge towards the Future with Customer-Driven Innovations ※This booklet was planned and edited by NikkeiBP Advertising Dept Management Media Division. Talk of the future of Mitsui Chemicals Mitsui Chemicals’ Target Position (Operating income: 100 million yen) Mobility Health Care Food & Packaging New / Next Generation Business Basic Materials 14% 2025 Basic Strategies Proportion of target (1) Pursue innovations business domains 86% 300 12% (2) Accelerate global expansion (3) Strengthen competitiveness of existing businesses 700 Proportion of target 250 FY25 business domains 10% 2,000 65% FY16 To a new stage 400 450 8% 1,021 -Customer-Driven Innovations- ROS (%) (Corporate wide costs and others: -100) 6% (Corporate wide costs and others: -78) Proportion of target FY06 business domains 917 Challenge towards the Future 4% 34% Reform business portfolio FY13 2% 249 Changes in value through paradigm shift with Customer-Driven 0% 10,000 12,000 15,000 20,000 Sales (100 million yen) Innovations Target operating income in FY2025 is 200 billion yen. We are entering a stage quite different from the present. President & CEO Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. Tsutomu Tannowa and pride.” company with a good spirit, sometimes further growth investment in the next President Tsutomu Tannowa says Mitsui my messages may be taken too much se- step. There is a target for 1 trillion yen of Chemicals frmly maintains the Corporate riously. They should take their way of growth investment in the 10-year period. Vision. Meanwhile, the company will thinking like ‘We have to take this way!’ or We believe that there are ‘3 issues’ to change the management system fexibly. ‘I want to do this!’” aim for a new stage with an operating in- He thinks that the result is important, the Mitsui Chemicals newly made 2025 come of 200 billion yen in FY2025. Mitsui Chemicals achieved an operating income of 102 billion yen in FY2016 after undergoing to globally stagnant demand after the employees would be motivated by perfor- LTBP, there will be 1 trillion yen of growth First is the growth and expansion of the major restructuring. The 2025 Long-Term Business Plan “2025 LTBP” is newly established, and global financial crisis in 2008 and prob- mance recovered. investments over 10 years in order to three targeted business domains. In the we aim for unknown areas with an operating income of 200 billion yen. The keywords to achieve lems of oversupply in China. achieve an operating income of 200 billion Mobility, Healthcare and Food & Packag- Operation income of this are “Creating New Customer Value through Innovations”. It is necessary to switch to a con- The mission of the 2014 MTBP secured yen. ing businesses, we will expand business- 200 billion yen in FY2025 cept of customer-oriented market-in type from the one of a conventional product-out type. business portfolio changes and financial “In aiming for an operating income of es such as peripheral businesses, invest- health. With the business portfolio chang- “As a result, there is also a sense of ac- 200 billion yen, we are fully aware that we ment projects, and secure facility es in particular, we focused on expanding complishment by performance, and then, are going to enter a new world where is capacity to meet demand. Second, we Under the 3 year Mid-Term Business “Our performance has recovered, and the three targeted business domains and all the employee is probably regaining quite different than what it used to be. In will foster the next generation of new Plan “MTBP” started in FY2014 (2014 we have also started our 2025 LTBP. restructured the Basic Materials business. confdence. order to improve the fnancial structure in businesses and accelerate the creation MTBP), Mitsui Chemicals achieved a re- However, the path up to this point was On the other hand, challenging to ‘Re- Since I have recently talked about ‘Inde- the 2014 MTBP, we expect to see moder- of new products. Third is that we intend cord-high operating income of 102 billion very difficult. We have been pursuing store Our Confdence and Pride of Mitsui pendence, Self-support and Self-motiva- ate profit growth in a couple of years to further strengthen our competitiveness yen in FY2016. 2017 marked the 20th an- painful restructuring bulk & commodity Chemicals’ in the 2014 MTBP, I have con- tion’ and they are starting to have that since we have restrained investment quite in the Basic Materials business.” niversary of the establishment of Mitsui product businesses such as Phenol be- tinued to convey this message in order for feeling. a bit. We will steadily accumulate strength What kind of stance is needed in order Chemicals. cause market conditions deteriorated due our employees to regain the confidence Hence, Mitsui Chemicals is a serious during this period, and must head towards to expand the targeted business domains? Talk of the future of Mitsui Chemicals the mantra of “Creating New Customer ther these solutions. We have also devel- Customer-Driven Innovations Value through Innovations”, espoused in oped the metal & resin integration tech- the 2025 LTBP, Tannowa convinced. nology ‘POLYMETAC™’, which expected “We believe that it is important to Create “Our proposal quality have been gradu- to adopt in automobiles in the future. New Customer Value through Innovations ally improved, and the approach of R&D Moreover, Mitsui Chemicals has also and to resolve social issues through busi- has changed a lot. successfully developed the world’s first ness activities. So that we put high priority There is an example case of ‘sound solu- high-performance nonwoven, AIRYFA™, on a concept of ‘Customer-Driven Innova- tion’ in which our researchers heard cus- that realizes both softness and strength.” tions’. tomers’ needs. One restaurant chain had Increasing opportunities for contact with We tend to consider making excellent a problem with a noisy dishwasher, and customers and determining their needs products leads to wining in competition. we solved this applying sound analysis will also arise collaboration with other Of course, we must have the ability to cre- and exploiting characteristics of materials. companies. ate superior technology and products. Since sound requires a complex solution, We would like to be the first From now on it is necessary to combine I feel that our way of thinking has become company to be consulted. accumulated technologies in our company quite more flexible fitting to customer’s Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and, in some cases to propose high val- needs. “In September this year, our company ue-added products and/or solutions to We are also developing a rapid in-vitro and Microwave Chemical Co., Ltd., a ven- customers.” diagnostic kit for the identifcation of bac- ture company from Osaka University Our 20th-Year Challenges We will keep our eyes open for custom- teria to quickly identify causative bacteria (Suita City, Osaka Prefecture) agreed to ers, catch their needs and trouble quickly of sepsis, and the need for this test kit is form a strategic partnership. We are pro- and make proposals with high added val- very high. In addition, reducing food loss moting the joint development of micro- ue. Then, social issues can be solved and waste is also a big challenge in the wave-based next-generation chemical through business activities that align with world, and we are developing flms to fur- process technologies. By promoting open innovation, we are Meeting the Challenge accelerating the creation of new products and new businesses.” to Create New Customer Value through Innovations Mitsui Chemicals has various human re- sources and technologies. Once Mitsui "Seven Persons at Mitsui Chemicals" Chemicals practices Customer-Driven In- novations by combining these resources, With four straight years of increased profts and its frst re- innovative changes must certainly take cord profits in 10 years, several years of restructuring are place at the company. yielding results at Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. In 2017, the company “Whenever customers acknowledge va- is making a fresh start as it marks the 20th year since its riety of our products and wide range of launch. Looking ahead, it aims to create new customer value technologies, they will think ‘Right, let’s and resolve various social challenges through its businesses. ask Mitsui Chemicals’. Customers will call People create technology, and technology builds up people. us frst, because they will know that con- The company is developing richly creative human resources sulting with Mitsui Chemicals leads to within chemicals, a business with an extremely broad scope of good ideas. We want to be so.. application, and is honing the numerous technologies it has The possibilities of chemistry are infnite. accumulated. Those people and technologies are truly the as- We would like to push ourselves to ’Create sets of Mitsui Chemicals. New Customer Value Through Innovations’ This series puts the spotlight on seven persons who are pio- and to resolve various social issues through neering the future of Mitsui Chemicals, and will introduce the future-looking, fexible ideas, without being stories behind those people and technologies over seven suc- restricted by existing frameworks.” cessive issues, beginning with this one. Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. Our 20th-Year Challenges VOL.1 Lenses × Pigment × Lenses rays, or are used in eyeglasses that combine the functions of sunglasses outdoors and normal clear eyeglasses indoors. They develop color by absorbing the ultra- "Creating Lenses violet rays that are said to be harmful to eyes outdoors, and reduce brightness. The key factor in this is a photochromic pigment that develops color by changing shape when that Protect Eyes and struck by ultraviolet rays.