To our shareholders and investors:
New Year's Greetings from the OUTSOURCING Group
Dear Stakeholders:
Allow me to extend my warmest felicitations to you on the New Year.
In 2013, the economic policies of the new administration gradually began having an effect and many domestic manufacturers performed better as a result. However, closer examination reveals that only a few makers reported real growth in the sales of their products-most posted higher revenues due to the weakening yen and gains accrued from rationalization initiatives. That is how we see the situation.
At a time when social progress is swift and consumer needs are being reshaped over much shorter cycles, enterprises must accept the unavoidable fact that their products will also be viable for shorter lifecycles as well. For Japanese makers to stage a major recovery, the ability to maximize human resources on both a fluid and flexible basis, together with the globalization of production, has become inevitable.
To meet the challenges of these volatile times, the OUTSOURCING Group has transitioned away from the traditional "passive" management model, one in which the entire mainstream manufacturing outsourcing industry followed, where outsourcing providers had to wait until makers decided to ramp up production volume-and only then service the resultant demand for more workers generated from client-makers. Instead, the management model we have adopted today not only requires us to work closely with clients and enhance labor mobility while keeping the toll placed on our contract workers to a minimum, but also to provide HR support services to transplanted factories of domestic makers overseas.
In short, what we are engaged in now is proactive management, a model in which we initiate the structural reforms necessary for Japanese manufacturers to survive, serving as a powerful partner that contributes to their bottom line.
The OUTSOURCING Group is committed to the challenge of constant innovation and progress. And for us to sustain this task, I ask for your continued support and counsel.
Haruhiko Doi
Chairman and CEO
OUTSOURCING Inc.