Hitachi appoints new chief executive for Asia Pacific

Iino will succeed Kiyoaki Iigaya, who is returning to Japan to assume the post of president of Hitachi Document Solutions Ltd.

He will also take over the role as new chairman of Hitachi Asia Ltd. and Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. from Iigaya.

Both appointments will be effective from this April.

Under the 2015 mid-term management plan, Hitachi aims to achieve an overseas sales ratio of more than 50 per cent, while expanding business in the global market for its Social Innovation Business.

Iino will develop regional growth strategies, promote localisation and will be responsible to effectively utilising management resources.

In addition to having overall responsibility for regional profitability, Iino will have the authority to make investments in new business areas where growth is expected and will be accountable for achieving positive returns on these investments.

This is part of Hitachi’s transition to an “autonomous decentralised global management” structure in which each region is able to lead its business autonomously.

Iino most recently served as managing director of Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. and has been proactively expanding business opportunities in India for the past four years as the first managing director.

In this short period of time, he has successfully transformed Hitachi India into a full-fledge regional headquarter by restructuring the organisation to generate new businesses addressing regional needs.

He also led Hitachi group companies in the South Asia region under the “One Hitachi” initiative, to provide customers with the full value chain of services as one entity.

In his new role, Iino will be responsible for business development in four key areas: healthcare solutions, collaborative solutions with developers and conglomerates, and home appliance business targeting the B2B market, and financial solutions.

“Previously, Oceania and Korea are not under the purview of any region’s chief executive. The fact that they are now under my responsibility is testament of the growing importance of the APAC region to Hitachi, and proof of how the company is accelerating its globalisation and transformation into a global major player,” said Iino.

“The “autonomous decentralised global management” structure is necessary to resolve a variety of global issues that are becoming increasingly complex and borderless. With the autonomy to act as a control tower, I will be able to better develop solutions with Hitachi’s customers through “creative collaboration”

“In addition, I will be able to expand our investments in the Social Innovation Business, where growth is expected particularly for social infrastructure related business to increase our profit,” he added.