Epitomize SEGA's Founding Principle: "CREATION IS OUR LIFE "
Returning to SEGA CORPORATION for the first time in six years, I found the company's business conditions had transformed. This is particularly noticeable in the Consumer Business segment, which is facing completely new competitors in a market barely imaginable 10 years ago.
SEGA's founding principle is "CREATION IS OUR LIFE." Reflecting this attitude, we have been in the vanguard of innovative technology and business models throughout our history. In the past, this creative approach has earned market support and driven growth. Recently, however, our status as a trendsetter has weakened. A symbolic example of this has been our slowness to introduce products catering to the shift in entertainment toward smartphones and other platforms. As SEGA's new president, I want us to be ahead of the times once again and to epitomize the statement "CREATION IS OUR LIFE."
To achieve this, I will reform the structure of business models, as well as the organizations enabling them, and optimize the deployment of management resources. Furthermore, I want to change where we provide entertainment and seize the initiative in sectors of the industry new to us.
Become Market Savvy
SEGA has had many successes based on a production-oriented approach. In addition, its amusement-related businesses have consistently driven market development. However, such efforts were within the framework of related laws, which restricted entry to the entertainment industry. Today, competition to attract users extends beyond the entertainment industry's traditional boundaries. An idea or technology alone is not enough to create value—no matter how outstanding it may be. We can only create hit products when we have our finger on the pulse of market trends and offer products that match market demand. With this in mind, I am urging personnel to become market savvy. I want them to be alert to emerging trends, create content through a marketoriented approach, and leverage such content fully. Established by spinning off SEGA's operations for smart devices, SEGA Networks, Ltd., is a good example of a marketsavvy organization. In the digital game area, new content appears almost daily. At SEGA Networks, personnel are constantly thinking about how to make content stand out as much as possible and whether it will hold users' interest. This type of market savviness is gradually spreading throughout SEGA.
SEGA is a comprehensive entertainment company, and some of its business areas have declining profi tability. However, I do not believe that the company should abandon its valuable points of contact with users and intellectual property distribution channels. Instead, I want to reinforce businesses with low profi tability rigorously and create new points of contact with users. Through these efforts, we will preserve and extend SEGA's presence in the entertainment industry.
