On March 25, Ricoh announced Mid-Term Management Strategy ’26, looking ahead five years to fiscal 2030. Until now, the company had formulated mid-term management strategies every 36 months. However, because market changes have become extremely rapid, and unforeseen events can easily occur within three years, Ricoh has switched to a rolling strategy in which it updates its plan every year while keeping in view what kind of company it wants to be five years into the future.
The first key point of Mid-Term Management Strategy ’26 is for Ricoh to continue evolving as a digital services company. In the workplace, which it identifies as its main battleground, the company aims to become the world’s leading integrator, contributing to customers’ competitive advantage and differentiation. It will do so by providing customers with combinations of Ricoh’s own products and services as well as those from other companies along with software systems.
The second key point is ETRIA, where Ricoh aims to add more partners and expand engine share to 30%.
The third is to generate stable earnings in commercial and industrial printing. As stable earnings increase, a more flexible capital structure will become possible, ultimately enabling ROE (return on equity) to continuously exceed the cost of shareholders’ equity, increasing corporate value and improving TSR (total shareholder return).
In the workplace business, the sales and service companies in each region are expected to nearly double ROIC (return on invested capital) from 6.9% in fiscal 2025 to around 13% in fiscal 2030, while growing business scale by approximately 1.15 times. Through workplace integration, as well as through ETRIA and commercial and industrial printing, Ricoh intends to steadily build up stock profits and target growth of more than 15%. For fiscal 2030, the company has set targets of companywide ROIC of 7% or higher and ROE of 10%. To achieve these goals, Ricoh is also targeting growth investments of ¥350 billion and a human capital ROI of 25%.
“Our medium- to long-term vision is to become a ‘workplace integrator’ as an evolved form of digital services,” said Ricoh President and CEO Akira Oyama (pictured above).
Ricoh’s 4 digital services
Specifically, Ricoh will provide four digital services. The foundation consists of:
- IT Services, which provide planning, construction, and operational services for IT infrastructure and deliver highly secure environments;
- Managed Services for office equipment and related areas. Based on these, Ricoh will provide:
- Workplace Experience (WE), which offers not only workplace construction and operation but also spaces and services that foster creativity; and
- Process Automation, which provides services that improve productivity and strengthen competitive advantage through business process automation.
Ricoh’s strengths are a strong global customer base; customer contact capabilities and co-creation capabilities with customers through its direct sales structure; and proprietary IP in various products and in AI development. Incidentally, proprietary IP refers to intellectual property such as unique hardware, software, and related technologies that differentiate the company and provide a competitive advantage. Ricoh will focus on growth investments to strengthen its proprietary IP and customer contact capabilities.
Leveraging these strengths, Ricoh headquarters will focus on expanding GMA (global major accounts), thoroughly rolling out its own products, and deploying common platforms and modules. To this end, it will strengthen its role in promoting standardization and improving profitability, and will implement this under a new organizational structure starting April 1.
In its regional strategy, Ricoh will particularly expand the digitalization of BPS (business process services) in the North American market. As part of customers’ business outsourcing, Ricoh operates approximately 2,000 sites in North America, and it will develop a business that introduces digital workflows to those sites to digitize them. It will also focus on expanding MIF for commercial inkjet printers. Currently, about half of commercial printing sales come from the U.S. market. However, demand is declining because uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased, triggered by the U.S. tariff policy for fiscal 2025, causing customers to hold back on capital investment.
In the office printing business, Ricoh’s five-year vision is to secure the No. 1 position in the printing industry through collaboration with ETRIA. Through expanding sales, thoroughly managing MIF, and reviewing and strengthening channel strategy, it aims to become No. 1 in A3 color MFP share. In addition, starting in fiscal 2027, ETRIA plans to develop a highly competitive new engine by bringing together, from a zero base, the technologies of Ricoh, Toshiba Tec, and OKI. Through this, it aims to secure a 30% engine share within five years.
In expanding businesses centered on its strength in inkjet technology, Ricoh’s vision is to make the commercial and industrial printing business an industry-leading, stable-profit operation and to cultivate new businesses that will transform manufacturing through “functional printing.” New businesses utilizing Ricoh’s functional materials and inkjet technology include low-cost production of perovskite solar cells, digital painting technology for vehicles and other applications, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and healthcare. Ricoh aims to establish these as high-profit business models within five years.
In addition, under its expense reduction plans, Ricoh aims to generate more than ¥40 billion in savings and asset compression effects through expense structure reforms and asset-light initiatives such as reforming back-office operations and global SCM reform.
Of the ¥350 billion in growth investments, Ricoh plans to allocate ¥250 billion to M&A and ¥100 billion to new capital expenditures.
In addition, under Mid-Term Management Strategy ’26, Ricoh intends to focus on governance reform to support the enhancement of corporate value, fostering a corporate culture that contributes to higher corporate value through human resource development, and contributing to a sustainable society by aligning ESG (environmental, social, and governance) with business growth.
