Morio Ikeda
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined Shiseido in 1961 and, after serving as Director and Executive Vice President, became Representative Director and President in 2000. He was a career employee who spent 39 years inside the company before becoming President, and his predecessor was Akira Gemma. His appointment appears to have rested not on a record of hitting numbers in sales or product development but on a career supporting successive presidents up close from headquarters administration.
Selection
In 2000 he became President, succeeding Akira Gemma. Resale price maintenance had been abolished in April 1997, retail discounting had spread and low-priced brands were gaining strength. Consolidated revenue peaked at ¥620.9 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1998 and then stagnated, and in FY ended March 2001, the year after he took office, the company would post a net loss of ¥45.0 billion, its first since it began consolidated reporting. As a sales system that had been protected by price lost its foundation, the task of rebuilding relations with retailers appears to have fallen to him.
Initiatives
Having launched 20 to 30 new brands a year from around 1994, the company had swollen to about 100 brands, scattering its management resources. Ikeda aimed his reform not at developing new sales channels but at reviving the existing retailer network, narrowing down brands into a structure centered on skincare, the company's focus since its founding. He changed the basis for rebates from purchase volume to in-store sales, shifting from pushing product onto stores to selling together with them. In April 2003 the company absorbed Osaka Shiseido and Shiseido Kako to consolidate production, and that December set up the holding company Shiseido (China) Investment Co., Ltd. in Shanghai. Consolidated net income returned to profit at ¥24.4 billion in FY ended March 2003.
Career
Career
Shiseido
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Representative Director, President |
| Jun 2005 | Stepped down as President |