Osamu Fujikawa, Chief Financial Officer (CFO; Representative Executive Officer) of NEC, says his credo is "staying focused on results." Reflecting on his career, which has included roles in sales, systems engineering, and new business development, Fujikawa describes it as having been marked by constant change. He now finds himself entering the final fiscal year of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 as CFO of NEC, a role in which he is looking back on the company's achievements and focusing on the future to ensure that the NEC Group further evolves.

A desire to revitalize Japan that arose while on assignment overseas

──You were appointed CFO in 2021.

Although I responded "yes" when the president at the time asked if I was interested in finance, I never dreamed I would be named CFO. Since being appointed, I have overcome numerous challenges. I'm now in my fifth year and keenly aware of my responsibility as we embark on this final year of the NEC Mid-term Management Plan 2025.

──You have experienced constant change throughout your career since joining NEC as a new graduate.

I spent 25 years in a division that provided IT services to financial institutions, during which time I was involved in sales, systems engineering, and business development. The biggest turning point in my career was my experience at NEC Asia Pacific in Singapore. I was posted there in 2010 and spent three and a half years promoting global business. While I had been told I would be in the No. 2 position, I found that I was virtually on my own at first. I took whatever measures were necessary—ensuring, of course, that compliance was strictly observed—to advance NEC's financial business internationally. Now, I can proudly say that the devoted efforts of those who came after me have made the financial business a top earner for NEC.

Upon returning to Japan, I was assigned to lead new business development. The Great East Japan Earthquake had struck in 2011 while I was overseas, and people from all over Southeast Asia mentioned to me over and over again that Japan seemed listless. This made me wonder if there was a way I could once again contribute to Japan as I approached the end of my corporate career, and I requested that I be given a chance to do just that. At the time, NEC found itself in a difficult situation as its stock price was on the decline, which meant that Japan and NEC were facing similar circumstances.

In 2018, I played a major role in establishing NEC X in Silicon Valley to support start-ups. Then, in 2019, I was involved in the launch of NEC's AI drug discovery and agritech businesses. I have also worked on advancing reforms deemed necessary to drive innovation, including the recruitment and training of human resources, restructuring efforts aimed at creating systems better suited to NEC's new businesses, and partial amendments to our Articles of Incorporation to accommodate new business domains.

Creating the figures we're striving to attain by thoroughly utilizing data

─The seeds you once sowed are now growing. What have you accomplished since being appointed CFO?

Based on my first-hand business experience, I am working to transform our Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Division into a business partner capable of contributing to management and business decision-making as a finance professional while exchanging ideas with accounting, finance, and corporate planning staff. Moreover, I am currently working on preparations for our next mid-term management plan—NEC's strategy for achieving further growth. I like the phrase "pay it forward" and hope to take what has been passed down to me by my predecessors, add my own unique value to it to build something that will drive future growth, and pass that down to the next generation.

──You have also been involved in data-driven management.

In my work, I try to stay focused on results while being proactive and looking ahead to the future rather than at the past. Take, for example, budget targets versus actual results. Instead of looking at results in the context of our original budget targets, I view figures as something we can create ourselves.

I like to take the approach of working backward from our ultimate goal of achieving a particular result by a specific date, establishing a milestone for each stage, checking the extent to which we have achieved those milestones and how this aligns with our timeline, and rectifying any deviations from that timeline. By repeating this process, we can create the figures we are striving to attain.

This is where data can be a powerful asset. NEC launched the KFP (Management Finance Process) Project to make it possible to visualize company-wide data in real time. When monitoring the profitability of a business and conducting on-site follow-ups, we can comprehensively present the data in real time, thereby giving those on the front lines a better understanding of the situation at hand and allowing them to take action independently. Ultimately, this creates a virtuous cycle through which profit margins actually rise.

Looking beyond the NEC Mid-term Management Plan 2025: "Becoming a driving force to elevate Japanese companies to a top-tier global standing"

────NEC has entered the final year of its mid-term management plan. All eyes must be on the company right now, especially those of its stakeholders.

Back when our stock price was still stagnant in the second year of the current mid-term management plan, we found ourselves on the receiving end of harsh criticism from investors who questioned whether we could actually achieve it, or wondered if we could do more to cut costs. However, as our stock price has risen, those criticisms have been replaced with high expectations. Recently, in fact, we have been receiving positive feedback about our investment in growth businesses. Around last summer, people started saying we would likely achieve the mid-term management plan, and I sense that their expectations extend beyond that.

Our domestic IT services business is thriving. I am confident that expectations will rise even further if we carefully convey why BluStellar—the value creation model aimed at leading our customers to success in their transformations that we unveiled in May 2024—can be used to achieve increased profitability of domestic IT services. Meanwhile, recent issues have sparked interest in the aerospace and national security domains, which are related to defense. While I can't even begin to list them all, we are also focusing on technologies and business areas unique to NEC, including generative AI or Agentic AI (AI agent), cybersecurity, submarine cables, and AI drug discovery, in our efforts to gain recognition from the market.

──NEC is drawing attention from not only Japan but also from around the globe.

Over the past four or five years, from the first fiscal year of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 to the present, we have improved our problem-solving abilities and picked up speed by facing various challenges, thereby boosting our resilience as a company. Going forward, we will strive to overcome whatever unforeseen situations come our way and do everything it takes to achieve our goals. We want to create social value and contribute to Japan and the rest of the world, while also ensuring that our employees can take pride in working for NEC. Through our next mid-term management plan, NEC will set its sights on becoming one of Japan's top companies and a driving force to elevate Japanese companies to a top-tier global standing.

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