Canon has always been a company led by technology and innovation and their continued investments in R&D show a commitment to innovation. They are consistently in the top 5 US Patent recipients and were #3 behind only IBM and Samsung in 2011. They invested 8.7% of net sales to R&D in 2011, which was higher than competitors.
Canon under Mitarai’s leadership has 6 key strategies going forward:
1. Achieve #1 position in all core businesses
2. Develop new business through global diversification
3. Establish world-leading production system
4. Reinforce global sales capabilities
5. Build the foundations of an environmentally advanced corporation
6. Impart a corporate culture and HR befitting a truly excellent global company
We also heard from Group Executive of the L Printer Products group Yoshinori Ikeda, who gave an overview of the large format printer business. The company aims to be the #1 imaging provider - part of the 6 key strategies outlined by Mitarai. Currently Ikeda acknowledges some work to be done to bolster the Canon brand in this area, he pointed out the recent Océ acquisition gives the company a very broad product lineup that none of their competitors like HP and Epson have. The key distinction here is black and white CAD (missing at HP and Epson), and color CAD (missing at Epson).