Paving the Way to the Future Through the Group's Collective Strength

 ～Accelerating C-creation with GMM

Stay Safe, everyone!

We always begin our meetings with the greeting, "Stay Safe!" Safety takes precedence over everything else.
That is why it is crucial for every base to strictly adhere to fundamental safety practices and for each individual to take personal ownership of safety.
To ensure we all share a commitment to the "Stop, Call, Wait" protocol, we actively remind and encourage one another—even during global meetings. n mid-July, the 2026 GMM (Global Management Meeting) was held at TKP Garden City PREMIUM Nagoya Taiko (Nakamura Ward, Nagoya City), located in front of Nagoya Station.
The GMM serves as a forum for sharing the Sumitomo Riko Group’s policies and key priority themes with colleagues from around the world.
This year, 177 heads of bases and local executives from 12 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia gathered to engage in lively discussions over the course of two days.
We were also joined for the first time by Sumitomo Electric Industries (hereinafter "Sumitomo Electric") representatives: President & COO & CSO Osamu Inoue,
Executive Vice President Hideo Hato, and Managing Director Yoshiyuki Ogata. Executive Vice President Hato spoke about the Sumitomo Electric Group Mid-term Management Plan 2028 (28M)*2, explaining the background of the "Five-Way Satisfaction" (*1) principle—in addition to the philosophy inherited from the Sumitomo Spirit—and other key concepts.
In particular, he outlined three key pillars—including "demonstrating the Group's collective strength"—thereby clearly defining the direction for tackling the business plan. 

A Message from Me: Launching "2029M" to Realize "2029V"

At the beginning of the meeting, I expressed my gratitude for the results achieved in fiscal year 2025.
Across the entire group, both net sales and business profit have reached record highs for three consecutive years—a testament to the hard work and spirit of taking on challenges demonstrated by each and every one of you.
At the same time, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric Industries requires us to align our business operations with the Sumitomo Electric Group’s policies more closely than ever before.
This marks a major turning point for the further development of our group.
I view this change as an opportunity for growth, and I look forward to engaging in much deeper discussions with all of you regarding our vision for the future beyond 2029 (POST2029).
We have also established the "Sumitomo Riko Group Vision 2029 (2029V)," which defines the ideal state we aim to achieve by our 100th anniversary.
The Mid-Term Management Plan 2029 (2029M) outlined here serves as the execution plan for realizing 2029V.
By deepening the initiatives we have pursued to date—namely, developing people and peers, building the organization, and creating value—and by focusing on the three pillars outlined below, we aim to steadily advance our "2029M" plan and realize the vision set forth in "2029V."
① Strengthening the management foundation
② Sustainably reinforcing the earnings structure
③ Achieving sustainable growth through challenge and creation
Through these three pillars, we also intend to contribute to the sustainable growth of the Sumitomo Electric Group.
We have identified the rapid response to the rise of Chinese OEMs in the automotive market and the creation of synergies with Sumitomo Electric as key themes to address now.
By mutually leveraging our respective global customer bases and business bases—particularly within the general industrial products segment—and combining our respective strengths, we will accelerate the creation of new value.
To steadily advance these initiatives, the leadership of executives and key personnel at each base—along with a willingness to boldly take on challenges—is essential.
I look forward to seeing us share a unified global direction and transform change into opportunities for growth. 

Results generated through cross-functional collaboration

At this GMM, Mr. Ram Naresh, Plant Manager of SRK-IN (India), presented a case study on productivity improvement.
At the three bases—SRK-ER (Thailand), TRID (Indonesia), and SRK-IN—progress and challenges are regularly shared, improvement measures are implemented across the organization, and mutual learning takes place through reciprocal visits.
As a result, concrete improvements were implemented—such as the introduction of hourly production scheduling in the vulcanization process, as well as work standardization and line balancing reviews in the assembly process—productivity reached 129% of the initial plan for fiscal year 2025.
What particularly impressed me was the persistent effort to raise employee awareness and knowledge—sharing challenges across bases while utilizing initiatives like the "DOJO ROOM" (training center) and "Quality Day."
These cumulative efforts led to improved quality levels, resulting in process stability and high productivity. It is an excellent example of how cross-base learning fostered an achievement that can be described as the "SRK-IN Quality Model."
I hope they will continue to maintain and build upon this model, leading to further improvement initiatives. 

Co-creation for Quality Improvement 

On the second day, breakout sessions were held to present key initiatives across various functional areas—including corporate planning, human resources, quality, safety and environment, legal affairs, and information security—and the details were shared with me afterward.
The Quality Assurance Headquarters explained the importance of fact-finding and root-cause analysis based on the "5 Gen" principles (actual site, actual object, actual situation, fundamental principles, and rules), as well as three key management areas: adherence to standards, management of changes, and management of abnormalities.
Additionally, the Automotive Products Quality Assurance Division shared a case study regarding initiatives to prevent quality-related misconduct and leverage inspection data; specifically, they promoted the elimination of handwritten inspection records and manual data entry.
Across seven domestic group production bases, we achieved an 89% elimination rate for handwritten processes and a 67% elimination rate for manual data entry by the end of fiscal year 2025.
Success was driven by the headquarters recommending the necessary infrastructure upgrades and system implementations, while also supporting the development of operational workflows and training programs tailored to each work-site's specific needs.
The way headquarters and domestic group bases are working together to resolve issues serves as an excellent example of co-creation.
Moving forward, we hope to roll out these practices to our overseas bases via GMM, thereby enhancing quality capabilities across the entire group. 

Internalizing the Lessons of GMM 

Masayoshi Matsumoto, Chairman of Sumitomo Electric, attended the networking event held on the first day, providing a valuable opportunity to deepen interactions with the participants.
I encourage all participants to take the case studies and insights shared at this GMM back to your respective workplaces and consider how they can be applied to your own work.
It is the driving force behind our Group’s sustainable growth for each employee to take personal ownership of the "2029M" plan—aimed at realizing our "2029V" vision—and translate that commitment into action.
By pooling the insights of our colleagues around the world, learning from one another, and elevating each other, we can create even greater value.
Let us boldly continue to take on challenges—viewing change as an opportunity rather than being bound by past concepts—while remaining grounded in the Sumitomo Spirit and the philosophy of "mutual benefit for all parties" (Gohō-yoshi).
I look forward to working alongside all of you to create new value for the next century, leveraging the connections and insights gained through GMM and harnessing our collective strength as members of the Sumitomo Electric Group.