Technology Development Strategy “R&D²”(Research, Development and Design)

The JVCKENWOOD Group has been promoting the “Connecting People with Space and Time to Create the Future” as a technology development strategy, while returning to the origin of Monozukuri (Manufacturing). We are conducting research and technology development with a view to the next generation based on the core technologies of visuals, audio, communication and design cultivated since the JVC and Kenwood era.

In 2021, we established the Future Creation Research Laboratory which is committed to making contributions to daily life and creating new value in the future, with a priority on the topics of solving societal issues, enhancing incubation, creating intellectual properties and advancing technical skills.

In 2023, we established the Innovation Design Center as a new organization to practice design management to develop an interface for the creation and discovery of new business opportunities as well as implement the development of service infrastructure.

In addition to expanding its existing business, the JVCKENWOOD Group also aims to expand in adjacent and new business areas by actively promoting its original core technologies as well as open innovation in collaboration with partners in various industries, and developing new technologies that lead to advanced “solution business” services for resolving social issues. Initiatives include implementing human-centric design with a focus on user experience and user interface, and responding to drastic changes in security technologies.

With emphasis on a design management perspective, we will create new value and promote the realization of a connected world by applying a design perspective to our core technologies. Through collaboration and co-creation by the Future Creation Research Institute, Innovation Design Center, JVCKENWOOD Design and Intellectual Property Department, We will drive initiatives for creation of expanded diversity of human capital and enhancement of intellectual capital in anticipation of the next generation. We promote management that links the proactive disclosure of these important human and intellectual capital with our technology development strategy.

Innovation brought about by such initiatives will be accumulated as a portfolio of intellectual property expected to be used in the future, and utilized in our business and management as a source of creating new value and strengthening our competitive edge. 



Message from the CTO

The Beginning of Challenges for the Future

When I was appointed CTO in 2019, I delivered the technology strategy of “the creation of a future connecting people and spacetime” as my message. In order to achieve this message, in 2021 we established the technology development strategy of “R&D²”—Research, Development, and Design—together with New Medium-Term Management Plan VISION 2023. This strategy and plan are defined as one of the essential elements of the JVCKENWOOD Group's value creation: how to design and deliver research and development results to the world.
Furthermore, in the VISION 2025 Medium-Term Management Plan for 2023, we have declared "strengthening customer-oriented design management," as a challenge to create new value. We will accelerate the open innovation sparked by the chemical reaction between the R&D function axis, which contributes to business through our proprietary technologies and intellectual properties, and marketing that is specialized in the market and customer-oriented.

The JVCKENWOOD Group has been introducing the world’s first and industry-leading products that create excitement and peace of mind one after another since its founding as an electronics manufacturer. To respond to the rapidly and intricately changing needs of the world and the fierce market environment, our R&D will focus on technologies that honestly respond to the five senses and sensibilities of people. We aim to achieve "design management" by strengthening our human resources and intellectual property to generate innovation and discover new business opportunities and then disclosing this externally.


Establishment of Future Creation Research Institute and Innovation Design Center

In July 2021, we established the Future Creation Research Institute as a cornerstone of R&D². While we have had a technology development department, the Future Creation Research Institute aims to be a more future-oriented, social problem-solving organization, as implied by its name. The topics addressed by the Future Creation Research Institute are all linked to SDGs, and a clear explanation regarding how contributions will be made to society can be provided.

Based on our core technologies of visuals, audio, communication and design, the Future Creation Research Institute will work on hypothesis testing more than ever before with an aim of creating new value that connects people, time and space without being bound by our existing business. While it may take time for our initiatives to take form, or we may at times fail, the accumulation of such efforts will become an asset. Making effective use of this asset is also a key point. I would like the Future Creation Research Institute to work toward achieving social prosperity, and to this end, we need to proactively consider how to enhance the market value of our accumulated technologies and intellectual property. We will not only focus on the implementation of products and services of our business but also consider utilizations in different domains as required, and as a research institute, strengthen collaborations with external parties, including industry-academia collaboration and partnerships with different industries. By securing multiple ways of utilizing new technologies and intellectual property, we hope that our engineers will be able to spread their wings for new creations without fear of failure. 

In October 2023, we established the Innovation Design Center as a new organization to develop an interface for the creation and discovery of new business opportunities and implement the development of service infrastructure. By multiplying the new ideas generated from friction at the interface with people through thorough marketing by the Company's technological capabilities, we will implement customer-oriented design management, creating a chemical reaction in an accelerated manner and realizing customer needs.


With a view to the future

In order for the JVCKENWOOD Group to become an essential member of society, we will return to the origin of our foundation and promote research and development activities that genuinely address the instincts and desires of people. In order to solve social issues using technology while continuing to be an organization that constantly looks to the future, we believe that our greatest responsibility is to create an environment where all engineers involved, from the planning and development to the production and quality assurance of products and services, can hold free discussions and absorb themselves in Monozukuri, while achieving the goals we establish as a company.


 

Yoshio Sonoda

Director of the Board, Managing Executive Officer
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)