DoCoMo's New CEO Meets the Press
On Monday, 21 June, NTT DoCoMo’s newly minted President & CEO Masao Nakamura held his first press conference in Tokyo. Previously, Nakamura was an official of NTT Corp. in charge of personnel management. He was appointed as a managing director of NTT DoCoMo in 1998, and became the company’s senior executive vice president in 2002. He also held other prominent positions, such as executive manager of the Accounts and Finance Department, senior executive manager of the Mobile Multimedia Division and managing director of the Marketing Division. WWJ subscribers can view the entire 30-minute Q&A session and please note — in the spirit of these changing times — we have upgraded our video codecs in the hope of delivering an even better product to WWJ subscribers. Wow, all the recent mobile kaizen must be contagious!
From the WWJ Viewpoint, 20 May 2004:
DoCoMo President-Elect Nakamura: A Man with a Mission
In an interview with Nikkei BP, NTT DoCoMo’s new president Masao Nakamura has said he has three major goals: increase 3G FOMA subscribers, dig out new revenue sources — such as mobile e-commerce, and enhance customer satisfaction.
After posting its highest ever operating profit (1,103 billion yen in the year to March 2004), it certainly looks as if Nakamura has his work cut out for him, especially since, on the surface at least, KDDI/au seems to have consistently knocked the socks off DoCoMo in terms of gleaning 3G subs.
If you look at the strategic picture, it appears that it’s all downhill now for Japan’s three wireless carriers; the argument being that penetration is topping out and there are only so many bells and whistles that DoCoMo et al can add to its services to induce customers to pay anything more than fixed fees for commoditized services.
Message from the President and CEO of DoCoMo:
During this fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, we will strive to achieve a steadfast expansion in our strategically important FOMA business, with the goal of increasing its subscriber count to over 10 million by the end of the fiscal year. At the same time, leveraging the flat-rate billing plans introduced on June 1, 2004 — which enable users to access “i-mode” from “FOMA” handsets for a fixed monthly charge — we plan to create and offer services truly useful for people’s life and business in a bid to expand the horizons of our business beyond the conventional business models based on revenues from metered communication charges.
Meanwhile, we will also work to improve and enrich our tariff plans, service offerings and product lineup so as to better respond to our customers’ ever diversifying needs and win their satisfaction. Through these measures, we intend to improve our results after posting a decline in operating revenues and operating income this fiscal year, due to the rate cuts aimed at strengthening our competitiveness and propelling growth for the future. We are committed to making further efforts to maximize our enterprise value, and we hope we will enjoy the continued support and patronage of our valued shareholders.
Fair Warning Folks, looks like we are in for some interesting times ahead..!!!
— The Editors