We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our shareholders and investors for your continued and exceptional support.
The CRESCO Group embarked on its new five-year vision “CRESCO Ambition 2020” in April 2016, in a bid to ensure capturing business opportunities and achieve a further leap, and is striving to achieve the target of business performance, implement focus measures, and enhance the corporate value.
Under the corporate philosophy of “management in accordance with ‘CRESCO Ambition 2020,’” “qualitative growth through reinforcement of service quality,” “quantitative growth through reinforcement of resources and technological strategies,” and “increase in growth speed through M&As,” we are tackling 11 items of issues to be addressed and pushing forward with the business operations in the fiscal year under review.
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Ongoing issues in accordance with the five-year vision |
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The business environment is steady, backed by the development of infrastructure related the Tokyo Olympic Games, which are to be held in 2020, in addition to the expansion of inbound demand and firm domestic demand, despite concerns such as the economic dispute between the U.S. and China and the relationship between Japan and South Korea, the impact from the developments of the situation in the Middle East, and an increased lull in the economy. Efforts to address the “fourth industrial revolution,” “work style reform,” and “labor shortage” to strengthen the competitiveness and the growth potential of enterprises are generating further demand for software and systems development backed by the trend of “Digital Transformation (DX).”
These trends bring opportunities to demonstrate the superiority of the CRESCO Group, which operates in a wide range of business fields encompassing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and IoT (Internet of Things) in addition to its core technologies of application development technology, IT infrastructure construction technology, and embedded technology. On the other hand, however, the shortage of engineers has been a bottleneck for business expansion in the contracted development business.
At this interim period, the Group reinforced the quality management system and project audits, tried to review its customer portfolio and business structure in response to changes in markets, and, at the same time, devoted its efforts to cultivating new customers and developing new business and service incorporating advanced technology. The Group also strove to ensure the appropriate amount of orders commensurate with resources and to further improve customer satisfaction by strengthening development systems (nearshore and offshore) and reviewing its operating policies.
The Company is also implementing “health management.” The founding philosophy, the CRESCO Charter declares that “CRESCO is a people-centered, merit-based company.” The Company is promoting the creation of a workplace where employees, who are the center of corporate activities, can demonstrate their abilities and capabilities to the utmost, while remaining healthy in both body and mind.
The business environment itself is projected to stay mostly favorable, supported by digital transformation centered on “aggressive IT management,” and in response to the Tokyo Olympic Games to be held in 2020, as well as to inbound tourism, despite a growing sense of uncertainty both in Japan and abroad due to factors such as deterioration of business confidence, according to the BOJ Tankan survey published in September 2019, mainly in large companies in the manufacturing industry. Regarding an outlook for IT investment, the trend of trying to reform business, create value and establish a competitive advantage by introducing products and services using technology such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence continues, although the strength of such a trend varies by the scales of companies, types of industries, and modes of business. Interest in our products and services is thus expected to increase. On the other hand, as a consequence of the expanding demand, we continue to face a human resource shortage, so constant acquisition and development of human resources, productivity and quality improvement, and strengthening of development systems are continually top priorities.
The CRESCO Group works to build new business by pursuing alliances with other companies, pursuing open innovation, and collaborating with industries and universities, works to further reinforce technology and quality in the software development and embedded software development businesses, which constitute the pillar of the Group’s business, and contributes to the development of a sustainable society through qualitative and quantitative growth.
Nov, 2019
Toshio Iwasaki, Chairman & CEO
Hiroyuki Nemoto, President
