On the afternoon of February 27, 2023, Casio Computer suddenly announced a change in its President and CEO, effective April 1.
The new president will be Yuichi Masuda, currently Senior Managing Executive Officer and General Manager of the Watch Business Unit. Newspapers and financial media have focused solely on the fact that he will be the first Casio executive to be appointed from outside the founding family.
However, as someone who has been covering Casio on-site since the 1990s, I believe that the reports miss the point. So, what should we focus on with this change in president? I would like to decipher the significance of this top-level personnel change.
(Article published on October 9, 2023)
The company name is "Calculator" but...
The official company name of "Casio" is "Casio Computer Co., Ltd." Why this name?
This is because the company originally achieved success and growth in the electronic calculator business. Its roots lie in the Kashio Manufacturing Company, founded in 1946, the year after Japan's defeat in World War II. In 1949, brothers Tadao and Toshio Kashio saw a foreign-made electric calculator at the first business show held in Ginza, Tokyo, and decided to develop one themselves. In 1957, the four brothers, including their two younger brothers Kazuo and Yukio, commercialized the 14-A, the world's first compact, all-electric calculator using relays. By expanding sales of electronic calculators developed from this to the global market, Casio grew rapidly into a global company.
Casio became known to everyone, from children to adults, with the release of the world's first personal calculator, the Casio Mini, in August 1972. This calculator, which sold one million units in the ten months since its release, was a fifth-grader at the time and I vividly remember it because my homeroom teacher, Mr. I, showed it to me in class and declared, "I bought it!" Because of the company name and this history, many people in their 60s and older still think of Casio as "a company that makes calculators and other calculating machines."
It's true that scientific calculators remain one of Casio's core products, and although it withdrew from the consumer market in 2018, Casio's unforgettable achievement was developing and releasing the world's first consumer digital camera with an LCD monitor, the QV-10, in 1995, which made digital cameras a popular and personal item.
However, today, approximately 60% of Casio's total sales come from its watch business, and the majority of its operating profits also come from the watch business. The watch business, which began with the release of the first model, the Casiotron QW02, in November 1974, when Casio was the leader in the calculator market, has now become Casio's core business. In other words, today's Casio is, first and foremost, a "watch company."
Since joining the company, he has been dedicated to the watch business.
Yuichi Masuda, who will assume the role of Representative Director, President and CEO from April 1, 2023, graduated from Keio University's Faculty of Engineering in March 1978 and joined Casio Computer Co., Ltd. in April of the same year, and has since dedicated his career to the watch business. He is two years younger than Kikuo Ibe, the "father of G-SHOCK," and was in charge of product planning for the legendary original G-SHOCK, which was released in 1983. He was instrumental in growing G-SHOCK into a unique brand with no rivals in the watch industry. In other words, he is the "foster father of G-SHOCK."
Furthermore, Masuda was a central figure in developing not only G-SHOCK but Casio's entire watch business into a core business through brilliant strategies. A major turning point came with the end of the first G-SHOCK boom. In 2001, sales in the watch business had fallen to one-third of its peak, and the company was on the verge of breaking even. At that time, it was Masuda who spearheaded a bold shift in product strategy, from "digital to analog," "from resin to full metal," and even "from wristgear to wristwatches."
