Tsutomu Kanai
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Kanai was a Hitachi career insider who became president in 1990. The Hitachi he grew up in organized itself around plants: in February 1968 it made the Sawa, Tokai and Odawara Works independent, and from 1969 to 1974 it set up the Software, Ome, Omika, Takasaki and Tsuchiura Works one after another. Reorganizing this cluster of plants became the substance of his tenure.
Selection
He succeeded Katsushige Mita as president in 1990. Under his predecessor, Hitachi had expanded its overseas bases with Hitachi Europe in June 1982 and Hitachi Asia in February 1989, and had opened the Advanced Research Laboratory in April 1985. In the fiscal year ended March 1992, soon after he took office, consolidated net sales were ¥7,765.5 billion and consolidated net income ¥127.6 billion; from there profit fell to ¥65.2 billion in FY ended March 1994.
Initiatives
Beginning with the integration of the Sawa Works into the Automotive Products Division in February 1991, in August that year he moved the Katsuta, Totsuka and Naka Works into the materials, information and telecommunications, and instruments divisions respectively. In February 1993 he combined the Musashi and Takasaki Works into the Semiconductor Division, shifting the organizational unit from plants to divisions. In February 1995 the company organized four businesses as groups: power and industrial systems, consumer products and information media, information systems, and electronic components. In fiscal 1998 it fell into its first operating loss since its founding on both a consolidated and non-consolidated basis, and reduced headcount by more than 5,000, just under 10% of parent company employees, through secondments and transfers centered on heavy electrical machinery, semiconductors and home appliances.
Career
Career
Hitachi
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1990 | President |
| Apr 1999 | Stepped down as President |