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Kyocera Corporation

Kyocera Corporation – The Journey of Growth and Innovation

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Kyocera Corporation is a Japan-based high-quality ceramic component manufacturing company. Kyocera is known for its development work in the field of insulator ceramics and has ties with companies like Sony and Qualcomm. It is known for its quality products and has always introduced innovative technologies to the world. Kyocera Corporation is one of the first companies to produce fine ceramic components, and for the past 60 years, it is also one of the top ceramic component suppliers in the world.

The Establishment of Kyocera Corporation

Kyocera Corporation is a Japanese ceramics and electronics manufacturing company, operating in multiple regions of the world. The company has its headquarter based in Kyoto, Japan, and was founded in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori. Kyocera is specialized in the manufacturing of ceramic products and includes printers/multi-function devices, satellite phones, mobile phones, solar power generating systems, and advanced ceramics as its main products.  Kyocera is one of the first companies to introduce a battery-powered portable laptop.

Kyocera Corporation
Image Source: global.kyocera.com

As per the 2018 records, the total annual revenue of Kyocera was ¥1.577 trillion, and 70,153 are working for the company. Apart from Japan, Kyocera has expanded its business to countries like the US, Germany, India, and the UK.

The Founding Story

The history of Kyocera Corporation dates back to sixty years ago in 1959 when Kazuo Inamori founded the company as Kyoto Ceramic Company, Limited. He, along with his 28 colleagues from his previous job, raised a capital of 3 million yen to start the business. The company started its journey as the developer of ceramic components for electronic devices. Its flagship product was a ceramic insulator known as a Kelcima, an insulator used in the picture tubes of TVs.

In the early 60s, ICs had been introduced and had opened doors for new opportunities for the companies. Taking advantage of it, Kyocera also began to ship ceramic semiconductors that helped hugely in the growth of the company. By the mid of 70s, the company started to expand its operations and was manufacturing solar photovoltaic modules, biocompatible tooth- and joint-replacement systems, industrial cutting tools, consumer ceramics as well as lab-grown gemstones.

By the end of the decade, the company also began to invest in electronic equipment manufacturing and radio communication technologies. Kyocera acquired Yashica Company in 1983, and entered the optical technology business, and started to manufacture film and digital cameras. In the 80s, the company also shipped CD players, receivers, turntables, and cassette decks. In 1989, Kyocera acquired Elco Corporation, followed by the acquisition of AVX Corporation in 1990.

By the mid of 90s, photovoltaic solar energy products from the company became very famous, and Kyocera established a separate unit named Kyocera Solar Corporation for the same in Japan in 1996. To further expand its operation in the solar energy system, Kyocera merged its operations with Golden Genesis Company in 1999.

Kyocera began the new century by acquiring Mita Industrial Company, Limited, and mobile phone manufacturing operations of Qualcomm in 2000. In 2003, Kyocera entered India and established a mobile phone subsidiary named Kyocera Wireless India in Bangalore. The company is credited for being one of the first companies to introduce Color displays on entry-level CDMA Handsets. It is also the first one to launch the EOS concept phone at CTIA.

In 2010, Kyocera acquired the thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) design and manufacturing business Sony Mobile Display Corporation. The company also acquired Optrex Corporation in 2012 and SGS Tool Company in 2016.

The Founder: Kazuo Inamori

Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera, was born on 30 January 1932 in Kagoshima, Japan. He completed a graduate degree in Science from Kagoshima University in 1955. His first job was as a researcher at Shofu Industries of Kyoto. His work at the company taught him a lot about ceramic insulators, and he was encouraged to start his own ceramic insulator manufacturing business. So in 1959, he left the company to start Kyocera with the help of 28 staff members from Shofu Industries.

Kyocera Corporation Founder
Image Source: cdn-japantimes.com

Other than Kyocera, Inamori also founded Daini Denden (DDI) Corporation in 1984. In 2010 he was appointed as the CEO of Japan Airlines. He is also into philanthropy works. Inamori is a recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal for his contribution to progress in science and chemistry.

Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard – The Journey From Bankruptcy to World’s Largest Gaming Company.

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Activision Blizzard is a famous gaming publisher based in Santa Monica, California, US. Though the company is only 13 years old, it has its roots related to the leading French media conglomerate, Vivendi SE, and 40 years old video game publisher, Activision, Inc. The two companies are big names in their industry, and Activision Blizzard is the result of an $18.8 billion merger held between the two in 2008. In the merger, Vivendi merged its game publishing unit with Activision and held a 52% majority stake in the new company. But by 2015, Activision acquired Activision Blizzard completely.

A Brief Introduction

Though the journey of Activision Blizzard has been quite small, it has been able to break many records in the field of the gaming industry. The company is now counted among the largest game companies in the world. In fact, it was the largest company in America and Europe based on its annual revenue in 2018. As of 2020, the recorded company revenue for Activision Blizzard was around US$8.09 billion, and 9,500 employees are working for it.

Activision Blizzard
Image Source: activisionblizzard.com

Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, Activision Blizzard Studios, and Activision Blizzard Consumer Products Group are some of its subsidiaries.

The Founding of Activision Blizzard

Despite Activision was a famous gaming publisher, as time went by, massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming was taking all the limelight around 2005-06 and had become really popular in a very small time. Activision was struggling to reach out to a larger audience as it was still selling single-player games. To deal with this situation, Activision went on to talk to the French media conglomerate Vivendi, which owned a small gaming division itself. The two gaming subsidiaries of Vivendi were Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment, and Bobby Kotick, the owner of Activision, offered to invest in the latter to have access to Blizzard’s successful MMO, World of Warcraft.

On top of the offer, the CEO of Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Lévy, proposed to merge Vivendi Games with Activision on the condition of Vivendi keeping the majority stakes in the resultant company. Despite Kotick was concerned about his position in the new company, he knew that the merger would open new doors for it in the gaming industry. After proposing the same to the board of Activision, finally, on 9 July 2008, Vivendi and Activision together built Activision Blizzard. It was a US$18.9 billion deal, and Kotick was named the President as well as the CEO of the newly formed Activision Blizzard. Lévy holds the position of the Chairman of the company after replacing René Penisson. Even after the merger, the headquarters of the company remains in Monica, California, US.

Only after two years of its founding, the company became the largest video game publisher in the world. The company did not publish the titles under its name but used the name of its studios to release those titles. Call of Duty was the first and the most famous title published by Activision Blizzard. Almost all of its parts broke its own biggest launch records. The first part of the game was launched in 2009, and it grossed $310 million in a day.

In 2011, Activision Blizzard started its Skylanders franchise, the creators of Spyro’s Adventure. Activision paid a sum of $5.83 billion to the partner Vivendi and acquired 80% of the latter’s share in the company, bringing Vivendi to 11.8% of the ownership of Activision Blizzard. In 2016, Vivendi sold the rest of its shares to Activision, exiting from the partnership. This way, Activision took the company under its control completely.

The next famous title from Activision Blizzard was Destiny, released in September 2014. It broke the launch day sales record by bringing in over $500 million in retail sales on the first day of its launch. In November 2015, the company acquired the social gaming company King, the developer of the famous Candy Crush Saga. The company listed in Fortune 500 in June 2017.

Titles Published by Activision Blizzard

Call of Duty series, Crash Bandicoot series, Guitar Hero series,  Skylanders series, Spyro the Dragon series, Tony Hawk’s series, Diablo series, Hearthstone Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch StarCraft series, Warcraft series, and Candy Crush Saga, are some of the most in-demand titles by Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard
Image Source: mms.businesswire.com

The CEO: Robert A. Kotick

Robert A. Kotick is currently serving as the President and the CEO of the company. He was born in 1963 and is a native of the US. Kotick is a famous businessman, and it was from his childhood when he started to show the qualities of a businessman. He was in high school when he ran a business renting out Manhattan clubs on off nights.

In the early 80s, he joined the University of Michigan, where he studied Art History. He was still in college when he started a software development company called Arktronics. He became part of Activision when he and his partner Brian Kelly bought a 25% stake in Mediagenic (which later became Activision) in December 1990. The company was at the stage of bankruptcy at that time. Kotick is responsible for the restructuring of Mediagenic into Activision, and later, into Activision Blizzard.

Vivendi

Vivendi – A Conglomerate that is successfully fostering Entertainment and Cultural Diversity Globally.

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Vivendi is a successfully established conglomerate in the mass media industry based in Paris, France. The company is currently pioneering in culture, media, entertainment, and communication by promoting the creations of more diverse groups of talented people. The main business of Vivendi revolves around music, television & camera, video games, and publishing. Vivendi has many different businesses and all of them work together to bring great content to people and reveal undiscovered talents. The founding story of Vivendi dates back to 1853 when an imperial decree of Napoleon III built a company called Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE).

The Founding Story of Vivendi

The origin of Vivendi started with the formation of the water company, CGE which after a year was granted a concession for supplying water in Lyon. Gradually the company started expanding and supplied water in many cities. From 1853 to 1976, the company remained exclusively focused on the water sector until Guy Dejouany became the CEO of the company. From the water sector, the company gradually expanded to waste management, energy, transport services, and construction. CGE acquired a series of companies and established the Energy Division of the company called Dalkia in 1998.

Vivendi
Image Source: midiaresearch.com

The expansion of the company in the media and telecommunication industry started in 1983 when CGE helped to establish Canal+ which was the first pay-TV channel in France. Later, the company acquired Babelsberg Studio and taking advantage of the deregulation of the French telecommunication market, expanded its growth in the media sector. In 1997, Compagnie Générale des Eaux was renamed as Vivendi and sold its property and construction division. After selling off the two divisions, Vivendi went on a spree to merge with companies like Maroc Telecom, Cendant Software, etc. From 1998, the company started launching digital channels in many countries like Poland, Italy, and Spain.

In January 2001, the media sector of Vivendi merged with the Canal+ television network and with the assets of Seagram Company Ltd formed Vivendi Universal SA. After forming the new company, Vivendi Universal acquired MP3.com and an American leading publisher Houghton Mifflin. In order to raise funds, the company decided to sell another two of its businesses.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Vivendi Universal sold off 80 percent of the company’s subsidiaries to General Electric which further formed NBC Universal. It sold stakes of other companies as well like Canal+, StudioCanal, Monaco Telecom, etc. The selling of stakes in these companies took place in 2004 and the company also let go of Babelsberg Studio. In 2005, Canal+ merged with TPS (France’s second-largest Pay-TV provider).

In 2006, the company changed its name from Vivendi Universal to Vivendi. The first partnership after the company renamed its name was Spiralfrog which was to distribute the company’s song online in the US and Canada. In 2007, the company decided to merge its game publishing unit with Activision for $18.8 billion. The deal was closed for almost half the actual figure and Vivendi got a majority stake for the newly merged company.

In the following years, the company acquired Global Village Telecom (a Brazilian phone operator) and Vodafone’s stake in SFR. But soon the company announced a demerger and SFR was spun off. From 2013, the main priority of the company became content and it started collaborating with content industries. We know the power of content marketing in today’s world and Vivendi took a very strategic decision back then. In recent years the company has acquired many companies like Flavorus, Paddington, The Copyrights Group, Editis, etc. Last year, Vivendi announced a deal to buy Prisma media and a 7.6 percent stake in Prisa (a Spanish company).

Vivendi Create Joy

Vivendi Create Joy is a program started in 2008 which supports and initiates training projects to help the sick, troubled, and disadvantaged young people from eleven to twenty-five years old. These projects are currently taking place in France, Great Britain, and Africa. These projects are initiated to help people take up vocational training and build up their professional networks. It is all about finding their talents and helping turn them into their passion.

Arnaud De Puyfontaine – CEO of Vivendi

Arnaud De Puyfontaine is the Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Vivendi. Arnaud completed his studies at ESCP Europe followed by the Multimedia Institute and finally Harvard Business School. Earlier in his career, he started working as a consultant for Arthur Anderson and in 1990 he became the Executive Director of Le Figaro. Arnaud also served as the Chairman and CEO of Emap France and many other companies. In 2014, Arnaud joined Vivendi and since then he is serving as the CEO of the company.

Telenor

Telenor: One of the Largest and Globally known Mobile Telecommunications Company

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Telenor ASA is one of the biggest mobile telecommunications firms in the world, with activities around the world but mostly in Scandinavia and Asia. It has 10-year-old research and business line for Machine-to-Machine technology, as well as vast broadband and TV distribution activities in four Nordic countries. Telenor manages and operates networks in nine countries.

Telenor, The Telephone Company

Telenor began as Telegrafverket, a state-owned monopoly provider of telegraph services, in 1855. Televerket started by linking Christiania (now Oslo) to Sweden, as well as Christiania and Drammen.

In 1878, the first telephone service in Norway was established between Arendal and Tvedestrand, and in 1893, the first international telephone service was established between Christiania and Stockholm. The telephone system was automated beginning in 1920 and completed in 1985.

Telenor
Image Source: typenetwork.com

Always Moving Forward with Telenor

In the Nordic countries, Telenor provides a wide range of telecommunication networks, including mobile and fixed telephony, Internet connectivity, and cable TV access and video. Facing competition from Telia and others, Telenor remains Norway’s largest player. The company has a significant presence in the Scandinavian broadband and television industry, both in terms of subscribers and service area. With operations in five Asian countries, Telenor is a major player in the region.

Telenor’s Asian business currently comprises around 1.2 billion people, of which around 150 million are Telenor subscribers. Less than 20 percent of them are active mobile data users. The company’s ‘Internet for All’ strategy aims to capitalize on this important revenue and growth potential in a region with low penetration of the fixed network and the decline in the prices of devices.

The company’s Asian markets have seen unprecedented growth and demand for mobile data over the past two years. The number of mobile broadband connections in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to double to 2.1 billion in 2017. Telenor Group is strategically managing the voice-to-data transition, focusing on delivering innovative telecommunications and digital services based on the real needs of people in their markets.

Thailand and Malaysia are currently leading Telenor’s growth in the region. 32% and 37% of customers, respectively, are active mobile data users. However, the pace is accelerating in all Asian companies. In Bangladesh, 5.2 million are currently active data users, or 11 percent, while Uninor in India and Telenor Pakistan have 4.7 million and 5.3 million active users, or 15 percent, respectively.

Working for the Crowd

In order to achieve a profitable expansion of the mobile Internet, the Telenor Group has identified four key elements: building efficient, faster, and more intelligent networks, right prices and packages, increasing device quality, and using digital services and partnerships for a quick introduction.

To promote usage and meet customer needs, Telenor works with social media and entertainment players like Facebook, Wikipedia, and WhatsApp, targeting other digital offerings, including financial services, access to knowledge, and affordable and accessible health services.

The CEO: Sigve Brekke

On December 15, 1959, Sigve Brekke was born. He is the President and CEO of Telenor Group, a multinational telecommunications firm with operations in 13 Nordic, European, and Asian countries.

He was formerly the EVP and Head of Region Asia. He has played a key role in expanding Telenor’s presence in the area. He has been a key driver and shaper in transforming Telenor into a leading power in key Asian markets since helping to set the initial trajectory in 1999.

He began his career with Telenor as an analyst, later rising to the role of Manager for Business Development, where he was instrumental in developing the company’s Asian growth strategy. He has been the CEO of Dtac and Uninor since then. He’s already been involved in mergers and acquisitions, and he’s recently entered the Myanmar market.

Fortive

Fortive: A Five-year-old start-up is named as one of the world’s most admired companies by Fortune.

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Fortive is a huge success in the technology industry currently controlling many businesses in Instrumentation, transportation, automation, franchise distribution, etc. The company was founded in 2016 by the current CEO of the company, Jim Lico. Fortive was a part of Danaher Corporation, an American diversified conglomerate that spun off the former in 2016. The headquarters of Fortive Corporation is based in Washington. For two consecutive years, Fortive was named as a Future 50 Company by Fortune. This young industrial conglomerate is also on the Fortune 500 list.

About Fortive Corporation

Fortive was created by Danaher Corporation by spinning off a few subsidiaries which include Matco and AMMCO-COATS. The main aim of Fortive is to deliver innovative technologies to its customers and solve pressing challenges.  Fortive works in various fields satisfying a wide range of customers. There are three main segments in which Fortive’s operating companies are divided. The first is Intelligent Operating Solutions which is responsible for ensuring better security and compliance and energy efficiency. Secondly, Precision Technologies solves very tough technical challenges thus a significant part of research and product development, and lastly, Advanced Healthcare Solutions ensures timely delivery of safe healthcare for the patients.

Fortive
Image Source: fortive.com

Growth and Strategic Acquisitions

Fortive is a very young company and since its foundation, the company has focused on acquiring other businesses from various fields. After it was spun off in June 2016, Fluke Corporation (a subsidiary of Fortive) acquired eMaint, a CMMS IIoT system. After a month, Global Transportation Technologies (GTT) was acquired which is a company in the traffic management sector. In July 2017, Fortive acquired Industrial Scientific, a Pittsburgh-based gas detection and safety-as-a-service company. The company also acquired Landauer for $770 million. It is a company that provides services to determine radiation exposure both at the occupational and environmental levels. Gilbarco Veeder Root, a subsidiary of Fortive acquired Orpak Systems which is known for delivering technical solutions to oil companies and commercial fleets.

In 2018, Fortive bought a software firm called Accruent for $2billion. This year Tektronix, another subsidiary of Fortive acquired Initial State which is a data streaming and visualization platform. Fortive Corporation has many subsidiaries acquiring companies in different fields which made it a big success within five years of its establishment. The company entered the healthcare sector after its acquisition of Johnson & Johnson’s Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) business. This deal was closed in April 2019 and in the same year, Fortive acquired Censis Technologies, which is a SaaS company providing inventory guides in the surgical field.

In September 2019, Fortive announced that it will be splitting into two different publicly traded companies. Last year, Vontier, the new company was announced. Fortive has a very strong working culture and it significantly invests its time and energy in doing social work as well. As a socially responsible company, it tries to minimize waste production and avoid pollution along with adopting sustainable practices. In 2020, Fortive was named as one of the 500 most responsible companies by Newsweek.

About Danaher Corporation

Danaher Corporation is an American diversified conglomerate with its headquarters based in Washington, D.C. The company is divided into four platforms, namely, Life Sciences, Diagnostic, Water Quality, and Environmental & Applied Solutions. Danaher is known as one of the best companies for diverse employees. The founders of the company are Steven M. Rales and Mitchell Rales. It was founded back in 1969 as a real estate investment trust. The company was on a spree to acquire new companies and currently has an arsenal of subsidiaries. Danaher became one of the first companies in North America to adopt ‘Kaizen’ which is a Japanese philosophy of lean manufacturing. Both Danaher and Fortive believe in a sustainable way of manufacturing products. 

Jim Lico – Founder and CEO of Fortive Corporation

Fortive Founder and CEO
Image Source: fortive.com

The full name of Jim Lico is James A. Lico who is the founding president and CEO of the Fortive Corporation. He was a part of Danaher since 1996 and joined the company as Vice President Operations of Veeder-Root in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He participated in a broad chain of responsibilities in Danaher which includes running Danaher Business System (DSS) for a year, executive leader for the Emerging Market Regional Boards of China, Japan, India and Middle East, etc. Jim graduated with a BS degree from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Management from Northwestern University.

Fujitsu

Fujitsu: The Makers of World’s Most Powerful Computers.

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Fujitsu is one of the leading IT services providers in the world and also ranked fourth by annual revenue among the largest IT service companies in 2018. The company has been in the business for the past ninety-plus years, and apart from IT services, the company specializes in hardware products manufacturing, like personal and enterprise computing products.

 Fujitsu has been ranked among the Global 500 companies by Fortune, and the latter has also named it as one of the world’s most admired companies. The company has expanded its operations in almost 100 countries, and around 132,138 employees work for the company in its global offices. The company recorded total revenue of $35.492B in the year 2020. The company headquarter is situated at Shiodome City Center, Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

Products and Services

Fujitsu started as a manufacturer and supplier of the automatic switching system, but later, the company tried its hands in products like computers, telecommunication equipment, cloud computing, AI as well as telecommunication IT services. The company is one of the largest computer manufacturers and also specializes in the development of the microprocessor. These microprocessors by Fujitsu include SPARC-compliant CPU (SPARClite), the Venus, Fujitsu FR, FR-V, and ARM architecture, etc.

PRIMERGY is the company’s computer line, and it launched its Windows phones under the ETERNUS series. LifeBook and Amilo are the famous notebook series from Fujitsu. The company is also in the cloud service business and has its data centers established in Japan, Australia, Singapore, the U.S, Germany, and the U.K.

The Establishment of Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a spin-off company that came out of a joint venture named Fuji Electric Company between Furukawa Electric Company and the German conglomerate Siemens, founded in 1923. The company was founded on 20 June 1935 as Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing. It started as an automatic switching system manufacturers, and in 1938, established its first manufacturing plant in Kawasaki. The next years, it entered into the radio transmission field and also started the production of the power-line carrier devices.

In 1954, the company launched FACOM 100 mainframe, Japan’s first computer. Only after five years, Fujitsu also started to work on second-generation computers, and in 1961, it came out with FACOM 222 mainframe. The company continued to manufacture mainframe computers till 2002 and experimented with all generation computers.

Fujitsu
Image Source: senseiprojectsolutions.com

Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing was rebranded as Fujitsu in 1967. In 1971, the company partnered with CCL, a Canadian company, and started the distribution of the latter’s data entry device, Key-Edit. The company also joined its hands with The Queen’s University of Belfast business incubation unit to form a joint venture named Kaino. In 1990, the company launched the series of the world’s fastest mainframe computers. Fujitsu also came with the world’s first 21-inch full-color plasma display in 1992. During the same time, it made acquisitions like ICL (a British company) and KME-CS (a Russian company).

Fujitsu established a joint venture named Spansion with AMD in 1993 and started to manufacture flash memory devices. By this time, the company had also launched its manufacturing units and R&D centers in countries like Texas, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. In June 1999, Siemens (previously the parent company of Fujitsu) partnered with Fujitsu to form a joint venture for their European computer operations with the name Fujitsu Siemens Computers. The two companies owned equal shares in Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

In 2007, the company partnered with Reuters Group to access its IT services. The same year, the company also established a development center in Noida, India. The company sold its HDD business to Toshiba and acquired the complete operations of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, turning the latter into Fujitsu Technology Solutions in 2009. It also acquired an Australian company named Supply Chain Consulting and the Telstra subsidiary Kaz in the same year.

In 2015, the company partnered with VMware and acquired USharesoft. The company started to manufacture the 5G telecommunication equipment in 2019, NTT Docomo and NEC being its major customers. In June 2020, Fujitsu manufactured the world’s most powerful supercomputer named Fugaku in collaboration with the RIKEN research institute. The company has also started to work on Artificial Intelligence and has built an AI monitor to recognize complex hand movements.

The CEO: Takahito Tokita

Takahito Tokita is the current CEO, President, and Chief DX Officer of Fujitsu Ltd. He has been working with Fujitsu since 1988, and since then, he has been appointed to many leadership posts. Tokita has got a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has years of experience as a systems engineer and in the financial services sector.