EMPOWERING DIGITAL WORKPLACES – RICOH

Introduction

Purpose galvanises people to ignite long-lasting positive change, driving growth and innovation.
The purpose is an inspirational reason for being that is grounded in humanity and which inspires
a call to action. The company I chose is Ricoh, a supplier of business machines and printers who
use technology to deliver superior quality of products. Ricoh in its infancy stage embodied the
principles of “Love your neighbour, Love your Country and Love your workplace.” This Is RICOH’s
founding principles from 1936 as established by its founder Kiyoshi Ichimura. Ichimura explained
the philosophy in 1936 which still lives on through to today. He believed that everyone starts by
loving him or herself. As time passes, however, this feeling grows and expands to include all
people, plants and animals in the world. This provides a guide for business and encourages every
employee to continually improve and contribute to the wellbeing of all stakeholders, including
families, customers and the society at large. From its inception it was not just about financial
success it was about the greater good.

Ricoh founder Kiyoshi Ichimura bequeathed an enduring ethos to everyone in the organisation
which lives on until today. His aim was to innovate on behalf of their customers and to pursue
sustainable business practices on behalf of every life they touched. It is a testament to Mr
Ichimura’s vision that their people are as proud of that today as much as they were when it was
first established. They have grown this philosophy and aim even further as I will establish in the
rest of this paper. Over Ricoh’s existence CEO after CEO have stayed through to the purpose and
have been embodying this. In this paper, I will focus on the social, environmental and the financial
impact that this purpose-driven company has made. I will admit however that in 2008, that there
was a downturn in the market and RICOH recorded a loss but remained true to their purpose and
continued their environmental program.

For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been a leading provider of document management solutions,
information services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.
Their top management recently embarked on wide-ranging initiatives to embrace sustainability
and personalisation across existing and emerging business as part of an enduring commitment
to a brighter future for the customers and the communities it serves.
Change is a constant at Ricoh, and president and CEO Yoshinori Yamashita has proven no
exception to that tenet since taking the helm in April 2017. It was then that he rolled out a
medium-term management plan called Ricoh Resurgent. That initiative signalled his
determination to leave no stone unturned in breaking from the past, overhauling the businesses
to become more dynamic and decisive. Then on February 6, 2019, he announced the Ricoh
growth strategy to fuel greater companywide endeavours toward Ricoh goals for 2023.
Mr Yamashita made business contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the
United Nations central to the strategies he formulated. He stated “that he would eliminate any
business that fails to contribute to SDGs, no matter how financially successful. That is because
the true long-term value and viability of our businesses stem from their ability to resolve social
issues. He accordingly formulated five goals which would assist the organisation in delivering on
SDGs” ( Yamashita, 2019) as seen in the figure below.

Source: www.ricoh.com

As the leader, he helped to incorporate global strategies into the company’s delivery. The leader’s
buy-in of the past and incorporating it into the future keeps true the mantra of the organisation
which has remained ever constant and ensures that the strategy is aligned with the integrity
promised over generations.

The purpose has is an asset within this company. The philosophy has been beneficial to Ricoh
since 95% of its employees' state they joined the organisation due to its philosophy and concern
for the environment. This means that careful thought leaders are involved and delivering at a
stellar rate as their purpose aligns with that of the company in thought and deed, always making
Ricoh an attractive employer for many committed and loyal millennials to join the team. This is a
sound talent acquisition and retention strategy as studies indicate that millennials do care about
the environment. Ricoh in their sales advertisement also boasts of its environmental recognitions
such as being included in the A-List of the CDP (CDP is an international non-profit organisation
that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard
water resources and protect forests.) Ricoh aims to create new markets and value propositions
by looking more broadly at social issues and taking on the challenge to resolve them while
simultaneously achieving social development and Ricoh's business growth. Ricoh will strive to
achieve zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. They have made the Ricoh Group
Environmental Declaration to achieve those goals, and will actively promote energy conservation
activities, and are accelerating the use of renewable energy.

How it affects global success

Ricoh views success threefold, the finance, social and Environmental and as such has indicators
for all of these and produces its annual report to reflect all. In respect to finance, they have
maintained their sales on a path of growth. When analysing their Annual Report, they maintained
a growth of over 20 million Yen every year except for 2017 when they faced a drastic decrease
due to a strong Yen and a decrease in sales in Imaging and Solutions. In the social aspect, they
also look at how they are impacting the office space with workflow solutions, improving efficiency
and effectiveness in the workspace, automating processes where possible. This helps to improve
productivity based on operational KPI’s and characteristics. They also undertake various
initiatives. Their focus is always to aspire to solve a problem, and that is what they did with the
manufacture of the magnetoencephalography which can be used to diagnose children who have
autism from the age of 3 years old. The diagnosis allows parents, doctors and schools to better
plan for the development of the child, a considerable step in societal goals.
In environmental success, they have accrued so many successes which some may deem as
coincidence. This success is no coincidence since the environment section was created in 1976
with a focus of dealing with the challenge of pollution. When global warming and disruption to
the ozone layer came to the fore in the late 1980s, Ricoh set up six in-house committees, each
headed by an executive officer, to deal with environmental issues. Each committee covered a
specific issue:
(1) elimination of chlorofluorocarbon gas,
(2) development of eco-friendly product designs,
(3) promotion of new businesses and technologies that contributed to the conservation of the
environment,
(4) acquiring the eco-label from Blue Angel, a German certification given to services or products
that are environmentally friendly,
(5) promotion of recycling, and
(6) reduction of environmental impact caused at the company’s plants and offices places.
These initiatives prompted various environment-related activities throughout the company. In
1998, the company-initiated efforts to collaborate with its suppliers to realise green
procurement, which refers to the purchasing of raw materials, parts, and products that were
manufactured in environmentally responsible factories or certified with international
environmental labels. The green procurement strategy was generally well accepted by Ricoh’s
suppliers and vendors, and many cooperated with the strategy. In 2000, the Japanese Ministry
of the Environment (MOE) issued guidelines that defined each cost item. Economic benefits
referred to benefits which contributed to the company’s profits in some form. There were no
detailed guidelines on the benefits given by the MOE, so Ricoh formulated its definitions for the
ways that expenditures on environmental activities affected the company, to provide more
transparency about managers’ decisions. These were classified into five categories:
(1) substantial effect (incremental cash revenue or savings generated),
(2) estimated substantial effect (estimated cash impact, for when exact measures were
infeasible),
(3) a secondary effect (anticipated financial impact),
(4) incidental effect (decrease in environmental risk), and
(5) social effect (effect on society)
how it has affected its relationship with customers
The relationship with customers is impacted positively since customers benefit when products
are developed that consume less electricity and also that they live up to the promise that they
can be recycled and less than 1% of the components can be sent to waste. This is viewed
positively by those companies who have chosen to go green and those looking for green suppliers
as rated by organisations such as CDP. This means that these huge global companies would then
turn to green certified companies such as Ricoh to do business with as they are partners focused
in the same direction. Customers are satisfied with RICOH because the company does not focus
on selling a product but rather on selling a solution to a problem and improving their customer’s
operations. There are several cases posted on their website to support this. In one such case, it
speaks of a global company that had several providers which made it difficult for the company to
follow up maintenance contracts, fleet management and other areas which were led to lost
revenue and dissatisfied customers. With the Ricoh Solution deployed, the company only had
Ricoh to deal with network, printing, imaging document management and workflow
improvement which brought efficiency back to the operations as well as customer confidence. In
the case of a significant tractor manufacturing company, they were able to produce the tractors
but were facing delays due to manuals for the tractors not being ready for the tractors to be
shipped. With Ricoh, they were able to meet the demands of the manuals being printed in
different languages and meet the promised shipping dates. These were accomplished with
workflow improvements and also having the appropriate machine for the task at hand., partners
and the market
Ricoh is not only solution oriented but also works on ways to ensure working with them is a
pleasure. Each customer is assigned a team headed by a Global Account Manager, who acts as a
central contact. The team is constructed around the needs of the project, and is likely to include:

• Global Account Manager

• Global Contract Manager
• Global Solution Consultant
• Global Technical Project Manager
• Global Project Manager
• Global Service Delivery Manager

They keep listening to the customer and adopted a culture of Change and included it as part of
the corporate tagline “Imagine Change.”
Their logo was designed to represent the three ideas defined for Ricoh Brand Benefits:
“Harmonize with the environment” “Simplify your life and work” and “Support knowledge
management”. They embody their Values fully “CUSTOMER-CENTRIC, PASSION, GEMBA,
INNOVATION, TEAMWORK, WINNING SPIRIT, ETHICS AND INTEGRITY.

Ricoh imagines what the future could bring. They help companies and individuals transform the
way they work and harness their collective knowledge. They are always moving forward with new
ideas and new ways of improving lives. Change is driven by imaginative thinking. That is the
proposition of the Ricoh brand.

These two words “imagine change” describe they work with each other, the way they bring value
to their customers' businesses, the way they interact with the market. They express their belief
in the creative potential of individuals and organisations, their emphasis on forward thinking and
positive results. For those who want to transform their business and leverage the collective
knowledge and imagination of their people, the solution is as simple as “imagine. change.”

In conclusion, at Ricoh, they are helping eliminate much of the waste of analogue processes by
offering digital on-demand printing, which lets customers make only what they want when they
want it. Related customer benefits include greater product design flexibility and more consumer
choice. In other words, their printing technology can simultaneously resolve the social issues of
waste and cater to personalisation through more flexibility and choice. Mr Yamashita has made
cultivating businesses that resolve social issues a particular priority as the seeds of Ricoh’s future
success.

References:
https://www.ricoh.com/sustainability/report/download/pdf2018/all_E.pdf

Ricoh Group Annual Report 2008, p64 retrieved from https://www.ricoh.com

Eccles, G.R. Edmondson, C. A. Iansiti M. Kanno A. (2010), Ricoh Company Ltd.Harvard Business
Review