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Hitachi
Research & Development

(August 9, 2017)

Section 1

What sort of company is Hitachi?

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

Hitachi, Ltd. was founded over 100 years ago in 1910. Since the beginning, R&D has been the heart of Hitachi, a cornerstone on which Hitachi built its business and at the same time, leading the direction for its future.
 The R&D Group finds its roots in the Research Team established in February 1918 and so it is almost as old as Hitachi itself. Starting with the development of the 5 HP motor, Research has contributed to addressing the needs of society of the day, and well as looking to what society might need in the future. In that way, it has contributed to major products in Hitachi’s business portfolio throughout its history. Today, the focus has shifted to Social Innovation Business, so research is more important than ever, and having experience and know-how in IT, OT and products is a key differentiator for Hitachi.
 We already have substantial know-how and expertise accumulated through our products and collaboration with our major customers in Japan. As Hitachi moves to expand its global business, Research is leading and supporting this move by enhancing our global capabilities through our Global Center for Social Innovation (CSI). This April, I established the Insights Laboratory to integrate and accelerate the efforts of the regional CSIs established 2 years ago, in North America, Europe, APAC, China and Japan, so that we can provide a global showcase of use cases for "Lumada".

Global Research driving Social Innovation

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.