Minoru Yamada
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He was the second president from the founding Yamada family. In May 1970 two individuals from the Yamada family ranked eighth and ninth among major shareholders, and as of November 1974 he himself was the tenth-largest shareholder with 1.02%. In the same snapshot the largest shareholder was Sumitomo Metal Industries with 18.34%, and the founding family's holdings were not large enough to underpin control of management.
Selection
He succeeded Yoshio Tsuchiya as president in 1971. In the fiscal year ended November 1970, the year before he took office, net sales were ¥50.5 billion and net income ¥2.04 billion. For the 1972 room air conditioner season, appliance makers expected shipments of 1.35 million units, 20% above the previous year, and the market was still expanding. After an interlude with a president brought in from Sumitomo, management returned to the founding family.
Initiatives
The oil shock of 1975 pushed the company to an ordinary loss of ¥2.3 billion, and it dismissed about 700 people in total. In fiscal 1976 it halted all hiring of university and high school graduates, that autumn seconded over 250 people including managers to sales companies, and imposed a ten-day temporary layoff on about 800 people in the industrial air conditioning division. The dealer development carried out by the seconded staff initially swelled losses, but by 1978 the sales companies' revenue reached 31% of air conditioning sales. In 1979 the company opened an electronics technology center within the Kanaoka Plant, and by the fiscal year ended November 1983 it had recovered to the point of expecting ordinary income of ¥5.5 billion, up more than 40% from the previous year and its first record profit in nine years.
Career
Career
Daikin
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1971 | President |
| Jun 1994 | Stepped down as President |