In 1919, at a time when there were only 204 trucks in Japan and the major means for parcel transport was by carriage, the Yamato Group was established as Yamato Transport with the purchase of four trucks. Subsequently, as with the start of Japan's first route operations in 1929 when mainstream truck transport was based on the reserved truck, and as with the start of TA-Q-BIN express door-to-door delivery service in 1976 when the mainstream was based on route operations, we became a business group that created new services in each new era with distribution services at our core, making every effort to provide satisfaction to our customers.
In its present form, the Yamato Group has 41 businesses under the umbrella of Yamato Holdings, a pure holding company, and consists of six business segments in accordance with the functions of each of these businesses. With this system of organization, each of our companies not only provides independent services, but also combines its management resources with those of the other companies of the group, making it possible to create one-of-a-kind services that can be imitated by no other company.
The Yamato Group has two main management philosophies: "Service First" and "Management by All." "Service First" refers to precisely identifying customer needs and then developing and providing services that can satisfy those needs. "Service First" also refers to providing services that cannot be imitated by any other company and establishing standards of service that cannot be met by any other company. On the other hand, "Management by All" refers to all employees sharing the same goals which are oriented toward the same business objectives while each employee independently and autonomously thinks and takes action to achieve those goals. In other words, "Management by All" refers to thoroughly developing services that will satisfy customers, and, through the independent and autonomous thinking of all employees, continually providing services that satisfy customers. These management philosophies have never and will never change.
Masao Ogura, the second President of our company, promoted development based on the belief that the Yamato Group will win the support of customers if it provides good TA-Q-BIN door-to-door delivery services, and thus developed the TA-Q-BIN service. At that time, the only available means for delivering a parcel from one individual to another was by rail freight and postal package, services in which the service itself was defined in the interest of the provider. The number of inconveniences to the user was considerable. While the number of parcels handled on the first day of TA-Q-BIN door-to-door delivery service was a mere eleven, the number gradually grew as the Yamato Group dedicated itself to developing and providing services that were highly convenient from the viewpoint of the customer. All employees in the Yamato Group developed and provided customer satisfying services that had not been provided by the rail freight and postal package services to date, exploiting latent demands. The field of the TA-Q-BIN market has since continued to expand. Needless to say, this expansion has been spurred by services such as the refrigerated delivery service, collection service, and time-of-day delivery service.
At present, under the Satisfaction Creation Three-Year Plan (a medium-term management plan), we are incorporating the following major policies in our business activities: the creation of a solution business that makes life more convenient for the customer, and the expansion of the business to the Asian market. By bringing together the three functions, i.e., management resources, of the TA-Q-BIN business, namely: information technology (IT), which makes it possible to track parcels; logistics technology (LT), which realizes finely intricate delivery; and financial technology (FT), which supports reliable and highly convenient bill collection, the Yamato Group has already created new services, including the Today Shopping Service and Net Super Support Service.
In January 2010, we launched the TA-Q-BIN service in Shanghai, China and Singapore. We will continue the rapid development of high quality distribution services that have previously not existed in Asia to date, such as the refrigerated delivery service and time-of-day delivery service of TA-Q-BIN developed in Japan, and improve the conveniences for the people in the Asian region.
Since our company's founding, each and every one of us of the Yamato Group has been involved in the creation of new services to provide satisfaction to our customers. We will make every effort to continue to improve the foundation of our services and provide added value by creating new value and, through business expansion in the Asian region, earn the world's acceptance and promote activity that will benefit the world, continually providing satisfaction to our customers.
We look forward to your continued support and encouragement.
January 2010
Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd.
President
