Summary of New Year speech of 2015 (for employees)

January 5, 2015 Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd.

Osamu Inoue, President

It is predicted that the demand for automobiles in the world will continue growing steadily by virtue of the continued healthy North American market and the recovery trend in the European market. But yet, there are many unclear factors. Although it is anticipated that the SWS group will receive orders at a good rate for the time being, the order volume may fluctuate greatly depending on changes in market environments. I ask you to obtain accurate information quickly and share it globally. I also ask you to assume there may be environmental changes and prepare appropriate options so that we can respond to any changes flexibly and quickly.
In light of the above, I will make three requests this year.

The first request is to advance 'Reduction 10'.
While profitability has deteriorated due to increasingly intense price-cutting competition and more diversity among vehicle model types, unprecedented cost reduction is essential to enable the harness business to grow sustainably. For this purpose, I ask you to continue promoting the 'Reduction 10' activities, and set clear target values with a definite timeline to explore these activities. Permanent cost reduction cannot be achieved through conventional activities only. I urge all divisions involved in manufacture, development, sales, procurement and others to cooperate closely to achieve the targets.

The second request is to enhance development/suggestion capabilities and speed.
As the customers' prime markets have moved to emerging countries, the life cycle of products and technologies that our customers desire have become shorter and shorter. In addition to this, new competitors have appeared along with growth in emerging countries, and competition in development of new products and new technologies has become more intense. I ask you to promote the Concept-In Activities so that we can expand our order-taking activities advantageously, making use of our development capabilities to provide unique and high-value-added products. Furthermore, to continue providing new products and new technologies at appropriate times, I ask development divisions and sales divisions to work together to extract our customers' needs, propose ideas earlier than competitors, and develop new products at overwhelming speed so that we can readily release them in the market.

The third request is to enhance global marketing capabilities.
To achieve 'Vision 2017', it is an absolute requirement to expand businesses with current customers or potential customers in Europe, America, and emerging countries such as China. To keep up with customers that are expanding their businesses globally, I ask you to immediately form and strengthen a foundation where we can respond to customers' requirements globally through close cooperation between SWS Japan and local companies, especially among the sales, development and manufacturing divisions. To meet this end, cultivation of human resources is imperative. It is necessary to appoint local personnel to responsible positions and cultivate more local personnel. It is also imperative to cultivate global-minded leaders with competent communication skills. I ask you to promote human resource development programs on a worldwide scale to create personnel capable of supporting our global businesses.

Public Relations Section, General Affairs Department

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