Skip to main content

Hitachi
Research & Development

(August 9, 2017)

Section 3

Global strategy and the Global Center for Social Innovation

Norihiro Suzuki
Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO and General Manager of Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd.

The R&D Group began in 1918, so we are soon reaching our centennial anniversary. Today we represent an organization of 2,700 researchers. In 2015, the R&D Group transitioned into 3 centers aligned under 3 innovation models. The first one is CSI, the Global Center for Social Innovation. CSI operates under a customer or market-driven innovation model, creating new value through co-creation with customers. The second is the Center for Technology Innovation. Their mission, like the name suggests, is to create innovative technology that serves customer needs as well as differentiates Hitachi's technology; that is, operating under a technology-driven innovation model. And the third, very important, is the Center for Exploratory Research. They operate under a vision-driven innovation model, pioneering new businesses by undertaking R&D for resolving future societal issues. Research activity is aligned with business side, and we are addressing the challenges faced by customers in each region through collaborative creation and technological development.
 As I mentioned earlier, we have 2,700 researchers worldwide. In terms of research portfolio, each region has their hot topics so there is a fair bit of region-driven research. For example, in the U.S., we have about 100 researchers working out of Santa Clara and Farmington Hills; in the Silicon Valley – obviously, IT is the area and big data, analytics, AI are hot topics. In Farmington Hills, which is close to Detroit, the automotive area –components, testing and simulation, and of course, autonomous driving. In Europe, we have research centers in 4 countries; U.K., France, Germany and Denmark. The focus area differs by country but Europe is a mature society as well as the center of standardization activity - so we are looking at the needs of a mature society as well as participating in standardization. Hitachi's main business in Europe is railway and power, so that is part of our portfolio too. In China, we have many initiatives running, such as healthcare and Made in China 2025 related projects. Asia is very big market with diversified needs so we have two research centers, in India and Singapore, and are actively pursuing PoCs especially in energy management and water. So each region is very different, and there are many topics.

Section 1

What sort of company is Hitachi?

Section 2

Hitachi's collaborative creation

Section 3

Global strategy and the Global Center for Social Innovation

Section 4

Role of the Insights Laboratory

Profiles

Norihiro Suzuki

Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO and General Manager of Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd.

Norihiro Suzuki joined Hitachi after earning his master’s degree from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 1986, and began his career as a researcher in digital image signal processing and embedded software systems. After serving in several management positions where he lead research in IT, he assumed the post of Senior Vice President & CTO of Hitachi America, Ltd. in 2012. He returned to Japan in October 2014 to assume the position of General Manager of the Central Research Laboratory, and also General Manager of the Global Center for Social Innovation from April 2015. He was appointed to his current position as head of the Research & Development Group in April 2016. Dr. Suzuki is also a Vice President and Executive Officer, and CTO of Hitachi, Ltd.
Doctor of Engineering.
Member of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, Institute of
Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), and IEEE.