Management strategy

The MTI Group understands that creating services required at any given time in this time of constant change and delivering them to every part of the world are of particular importance in the process of create a society in which customers can live more freely and be who they are. Under the vision of “Making the world move a step forward,” we will continue to be our customers’ partner, supporting them in their daily lives, and will contribute to the betterment of future society by providing services that make our customers’ lives more convenient and affluent.

The MTI Group believes that sales growth rate and degree of improvement in operating margin are important management indices. Through the sustained improvement of these indices, we aim to continuously enhance corporate value. In addition, the Group’s policy regarding the total return ratio is to return profits to shareholders targeting a payout ratio of 35% over the medium term.

The MTI Group invests a portion of the stable earnings from its content business in the healthcare business, since the latter is believe to have high growth potential for the future. We thus foster several businesses that will develop into new sources of stable earnings and we also invest in business areas considered to have high growth potential from a medium- and long-term perspective.

We will also strive to increase the number of subscribers in new fields amid the rapid growth in the market for smartphone services. Additionally, we will aggressively work to create business opportunities by developing new services targeting smartphones and we will work to realize sustained sales and continuous growth of profits.

Medium- to long-term management strategies for each contents category are explained below.

1) Suppressing the earnings decline in the content business

Our content business is seeing a decrease in the number of paying subscribers. Meanwhile, we are actively investing part of our stable earnings in the healthcare business where the growth potential is believed to be high. We will endeavor to suppress the decline in paying subscribers and to develop businesses that are expected to grow.

The expansion of paying subscribers to security-related apps has yet to hit its limit. We will continue our intensive efforts to increase the number. In the business of offering original comics content to comic distributors, we will increase our titles in a bid to achieve business expansion.

2) Sales growth in the healthcare business

The healthcare business has great potential for future growth. If we build a service of providing long-term support for medical institutions, namely hospitals, pharmacies and health check institutions, as well as health insurance societies, local governments and other customers, it is expected to be a more stable stock-type business. We will therefore work on it for the medium and long term.

The Company provides an array of services related to the medical and healthcare fields and will work to make each service profitable at an early stage. At the same time, the Company will strive to establish services that are convenient for customers by integrating services in which multiple organizations such as medical institutions, dispensing pharmacies, medical checkup facilities, health insurance associations, and local governments collaborate with one another.

As evidenced in the penetration of advanced technology into society such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), the fifth-generation mobile communications system (5G), electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) authentication, circumstances surrounding the company have been constantly changing. Demand for digital transformation (DX) has been also increasing, and has involved government, as seen in establishment of the Digital Agency.

Quickly adapting to ever-changing circumstances, the MTI Group will work to ensure the continued provision of value-added services.

1) Enhancing the development system and increasing data security

The increased use of technologies that make up DX, such as advanced digital services based on the cloud, AI and other technologies and the development of inter-system collaboration technologies, have changed the system infrastructure that supports industry and all of society. At the same time, needs for security measures required for the systems are increasing.

Therefore, to support the latest technologies and securities, the MTI Group is focusing on strengthening the organization as well as cultivating and employing human resources who possess advanced specialist skills. While actively securing excellent human resources from around the world, we are also working to provide more value-added services.

2) Enhancing marketing capacity

The growing sophistication and prevalence of digital technologies in society has led to people across more generations using the Internet. As a result, customers’ needs are constantly changing and diversifying. Advanced digital services and DX have proliferated rapidly with the implementation of measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19. We believe that this trend will persist. The MTI Group understands that it is important to continue to enhance our marketing structure to quickly grasp major changes in the environment and the diversification of customers’ needs, and to provide services that satisfy them.

We are therefore striving to further enhance our strength, our marketing structure, by actively understanding customers’ needs, promoting the use of data, and building a system that allows for the planning and implementation of strategies even in a teleworking environment.

3) Enhancing design skills

For a diverse range of people to effectively use advanced services based on sophisticated digital technologies, it is necessary to provide instinctive user interfaces (UI) that are easy for anybody to view and understand. The MTI Group understands that advanced UI design and visual design (VD) are absolutely necessary to achieve an excellent user experiences (UX). A structure that fully considered these aspects from the design stage is a significant factor in encouraging customers to choose our services from among a large number of competing services.

We are therefore continuing to study excellent designs and also endeavoring to develop more capable UI and UX designers to pursue the designs customers wish to keep choosing.

4) Promoting work style reform

Amid the prolonged spread of COVID-19 infections, we shifted to teleworking at an early stage and are currently introducing teleworking standards.

Although the office attendance rate has become 5%, we are continuing our business operations as before. The introduction of the teleworking standards has enabled us to move and work outside commuting distance, and to work with people not only living in rural areas but also those living overseas.

We also introduced a super flex system around the same time. Using the system together with the teleworking system has enabled various work styles that are tailored to individuals’ lifestyles. This has also had a positive impact on our productivity.

Further, to build an environment in which female employees can continue to work with a sense of security, we have been establishing systems for each stage of “pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare” to support working mothers.

Going forward, to continuously address new issues associated with these changes, we will build a flexible organizational structure and improve operation processes.