President's Message
Dedicated to Being a Social IN Value Creation Company
Olympus Corporation commemorates its 90th anniversary in 2009. Since our founding, we have continuously offered new value to society, with the optical technology cultivated in our initial business of domestic microscope production providing the foundation of our achievements. In retrospect, our history can be seen as an ongoing drive to meet the challenge of helping people around the world have healthier and more fulfilling lives.
Social IN, established as our management philosophy in 1994, by definition underscores the true nature of our business and describes our role in society. Social IN is underpinned by our frontier spirit, which is dedicated to meeting social needs through technology and the creation of unprecedented value.
Business Areas Expand as People's Dreams Grow
Based on this management philosophy, Olympus has been expanding its sphere of business activities from life science encompassing microscopes to imaging-, medical- and industry-related fields. In the life science field, we are paving the way to nextgeneration health care through our contributions to the clarification of life processes. At the same time, we have broadened the possibilities of photography by developing imaging technologies and have brought happiness to countless people.
Also, in cooperation with medical experts, we pursue treatment methods that place less physical burden on patients in order to enhance their quality of life (QOL). Moreover, our industrial equipment supports social infrastructure by helping to maintain safety and security in modern society. Looking back on our 90-year history, we feel a renewed sense of responsibility to society as all our business activities are based on our close relationship with people's daily lives.
Contributing to a Better Society through Business Activities
In addition to its usual business operations, Olympus engages
in a wide variety of activities that involve various stakeholders, including
customers, local communities and people all around the world.
In the medical-related field, for example, we sponsor the "BRAVE CIRCLE" colorectal
cancer awareness campaign in Japan and provide technological training to promote
diagnostic techniques using endoscopes while advocating minimally invasive medical
care on the world stage.
Moreover, with the aim of ensuring the comprehensive understanding of the environmental impact of our business activities and reducing such impact on a Groupwide scale, we established the Medium-Term Environmental Target aimed at halving our total CO2 emissions by fiscal 2020 compared with the 2007 level. By doing so, we clarified the direction we need to take in environmental preservation.
Furthermore, we are currently pursuing the Olympus Space Project as a 90th anniversary project. In this project, the astronaut Koichi Wakata has been using the Olympus E-3 digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera to take pictures of the Earth from outer space to raise awareness of environmental issues. By contributing to society through its business, Olympus aims to increase awareness of its status as a member of society as well as to promote its harmonious relationship with society.
Working to Develop a Bright Future Hand in Hand with Society
As a company responsible for helping to ensure a bright future, Olympus will continue to create new value for the next generation. We believe that our raison d'etre is to apply such value to ensure that people enjoy healthy and fulfilling lives today and into the future.
Aiming for this bright future, we must ensure a thorough understanding of the concepts entailed in our Social IN management philosophy in order to reflect these concepts in our daily business operations. With pride in a frontier spirit honed over 90 years of operations and guided by Social IN, Olympus will make ongoing efforts to achieve its 100th anniversary and beyond.
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa
President
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