Kanjiro Okada
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He appears as Representative Director and President on the board list as of January 1964, having previously worked at Furukawa Mining. As of March 1961 Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing's largest shareholder was Fuji Electric Manufacturing with 48.4%. The only individual among the top ten shareholders at that point was Yataro Ishikawa; Okada's name was not there. Fuji Electric Manufacturing was also the largest shareholder as of September 1955. He was a President entrusted with management by the Furukawa group without any shareholding behind him.
Selection
By October 1959 IBM's application to enter Japan had already been filed, and building a cooperative framework was considered the first step toward speeding up domestic production. He became President of Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing the following month, in November, and in June 1960 the outline of the trade and foreign exchange liberalization plan was decided, forcing preparations for liberalization. The gap in personnel was also large: in 1962 IBM had 75,000 employees and had posted sales of $1,694.96 million the previous year, while the computer divisions of Japan's seven makers combined had fewer than 7,000 people. The appointment installed an outside executive as President upon his joining the company.
Initiatives
The company listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in December 1960 and the Nagoya Stock Exchange in October 1961. In May 1962 it established Fujitsu Laboratories, bringing development capability in-house. In 1963 he defined the essence of management as responding to change, that is, steering according to circumstances. In 1964 the company exhibited the all-Japanese FACOM 231 computer at the New York World's Fair. In June 1967 it changed its name from Fuji Tsushinki to Fujitsu, and in the fiscal year ended March 1968 its sales mix was 50% communications equipment and 42% electronics.
Career
Career
Fujitsu
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Nov 1959 | President, Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing |
| Jun 1967 | Renamed Fujitsu |
| May 1970 | Stepped down |
| May 1970 | Stepped down as President |