Message[Mid-Year/FY2020]

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 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. This fiscal year is the final year of the five-year vision.

In this fiscal year, under the business policy of “management in accordance with ‘CRESCO Ambition 2020,’” “ensuring that orders are received by acquiring new customers and optimizing the Group’s business portfolio,” “expanding profit by creating a high value-added business through advanced technology,” “improving productivity and employee satisfaction through continuous efforts toward work style reform,” and “accelerating growth potential by promoting alliances,” we are tackling 12 issues to be addressed and pushing forward with the business operations.

In the business environment for this interim period, domestic and overseas economic activities were stagnant in the first quarter due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In the second quarter, although business confidence has slightly picked up, uncertainty about the future continues to linger and the momentum of corporate activities has not reached its previous level. As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the CRESCO Group was among the first to implement measures aimed at preventing infection of our employees and other concerned parties. In addition, in accordance with the business policy, the Group devoted its efforts to reviewing its customer portfolio and business structure in response to changes in the environment, securing orders mainly from existing customers and developing new businesses and services incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, and, at the same time, implemented aggressive initiatives, such as building working from home systems, promoting digital transformation (DX) within the Group and optimizing the office spaces.

Besides, as a part of evangelist activities, the Group is implementing promotional activities for various services and solutions through publishing the result of technological research.

While the business performance during this interim period was disappointing, the shock from the COVID-19 pandemic has, in a way, also provided an opportunity to change our values and industry structure. As “new lifestyles” and the “new normal” in the “with corona” and “post-corona” periods gradually become established, we believe that the potential appetite for investment related to the digital transformation will actually accelerate and the shrinking IT investment will also expand in the medium to long term.

Although uncertainty about the future remains, the Group has sufficient funds in hand and a strong financial foundation to make the growth investments for the next step. Going forward, we will continue making the necessary investments for business growth, including the digital transformation within the Group, M&A and forming new businesses, and we will actively promote our business by closely monitoring changes in the business environment surrounding the Group and accurately grasping the demand for digital transformation.

Nov, 2020
Toshio Iwasaki, Chairman of the Board
Hiroyuki Nemoto, President