Ricoh Celebrates 70 years in Business
February 2006
RicohRicoh Celebrates 70 years in Business : Ricoh Co., Ltd. was founded on 6th February 1936 by Kiyoshi Ichimura, who was the son of a poor farmer. He was born with no privileges or advantages. Quite the contrary, all that he achieved was born of his own intelligence, determination and vision. Over the last 70 years, Ricoh has been helping businesses do business better. Established on 6th February 1936, and beginning with diazo photosensitive paper we have been building and servicing machines to help organisations function smoothly and efficiently ever since. Included within Ricoh’s product range are photocopiers, printers, fax machines, optical disk drives and media, digital cameras and electronic devices.
Ricoh Celebrates 70 years in BusinessRicoh 70 years in Business
For much of Ricoh’s history we have been ranked Number One by the world’s most demanding customers – the Japanese. Every year since 1994, we’ve achieved consecutive record highs in net profits, repaying the support of our loyal global investors. Over the same period, our adoption of resources conservation and environmental protection as a central tenet of the Ricoh corporate mission has reaped us benefits in greater efficiencies while winning plaudits for global citizenship.
Ricoh – World Environment Centre Gold Medal
In 2002 Ricoh became the first Asian winner of a World Environment Centre Gold Medal for achievement in sustainable development. But our proudest success is at ground level, the service built into every machine that Ricoh sells anywhere in the world. We call it ‘oyakudachi’ or “walking in the customer’s shoes”. It means anticipating needs, responding fast, and building trust. “Customer satisfaction is more important than money. We’ve learned that by getting customer satisfaction right – through high reliability and excellent service – inevitably sales and profits grow” Ricoh Group President and CEO Masamitsu Sakurai.