MESSAGE FROM TOP MANAGEMENT We aim to transform ourselves through flexible ideas in response to the changing times.

2012 is a year Canon embraces new challenges. In 2011, we faced many ordeals, beginning with the Great East Japan Earthquake. But Canon has always viewed a challenging environment as an opportunity for great advances. Addressing the needs of the changing times flexibly and with inspired ideas, we aim to return to a path of growth. And to promote further growth, we will steadily move forward with Phase IV of the Excellent Global Corporation Plan, the company's medium-to longterm management plan launched in 2011, in accordance with our corporate philosophy of kyosei. We aim to achieve the overwhelming No. 1 position in the world in our current business domains by bringing to market attractive new products and services in a timely manner. In our marketing activities, we will work to strengthen our solutions and services businesses while boosting sales in rapidly growing emerging markets. In research and development, the source of Canon's competitive strength, we are focused on creating innovation in the U.S. and Europe, further developing our next-generation medical business and cultivating new technologies in the field of industrial equipment. We will also work to achieve globally optimized production, the total optimization of companywide operational processes through the full implementation of IT systems, and the acceleration of the commitment to quality first. At the same time, we will give thorough consideration to environmental and compliance issues and work to cultivate human resources capable of leading efforts to realize these transformations as part of our activities to fulfill our corporate social responsibilities. Through these activities, Canon seeks to grow and prosper over the next 100, or even 200, years with the goal of becoming a truly excellent global company that is admired and respected the world over. As we move forward, we look forward to your continued understanding and support.
HISTORY OF CANON COMPANY The whole history of Canon, one of the largest corporations in the world and a leader in the manufacture of photographic equipment, linked to the history of the family Mitarai. Mitarai Canon has always been in since its birth until today, and not just have - they managed it, often giving themselves to this work entirely, to put her story, not separated from it by their own destinies. Now is somehow incorrect, referring to the Canon, do not recall Mitarai. When back in 1937 Takeshi Mitarai and his comrades organized the Precision Optical Industry Co., Ltd., Fujio Mitarai his nephew (Fujio Mitarai) filled the entire year. And who would have thought that after nearly fifty years, the company was renamed at that time, under the name of one of its most famous cameras in the Canon, is one of the world's largest corporations, and Fujio Mitarai, who has worked to this point in the Canon in various positions more than 30 years, will become its president and chief executive officer. It so happened that Mitarai, coming in then Joined Canon Came (the company changed its name to Canon only in 1969) in April 1961, a young man, according to Japanese tradition has never changed jobs while remaining loyal to Canon, and passed her way from a modest company, known only within their own countries, up to a huge corporation. To say that it started hard, it would be wrong - indeed, it is difficult, but not hard. Apparently, the leaders of the company was destined to become the winners. The founders of the company themselves as inventors, have created some really good camera and registered his own company. Things went very well, and before the war the company is developing dynamically. But we all remember how the end of the Second World War for Japan: the defeat, destruction and a severe economic crisis. Precision Optical Industry Co., Ltd., As the Japanese economy, helplessly drifting in the ocean raging crisis for some time it even stopped its activities. And to bring it (in this case a company) out of it destined to be just Mitarai - one of the founders of the Canon, Takeshi Mitarai, who became president in 1942. By taking such a big post, Mitarai, and before distinguished impressive capacity for work, shook the country to promote the wonders of the company's already bled dry and losing war market. He developed and applied in their companies completely revolutionary approach to managing management (especially the patriarchal Japanese). In 1943, Mitarai has introduced a new system of monthly payroll, and even later - the mandatory health checks for employees with companies in the developed X-ray machine, which is in the TB epidemic was significant. The latter course, of course, difficult to be attributed to marketing victories, but he confirms the oneness and innovation Mitarai, by the way, doctor of education. In 1946, Takeshi Mitarai has initiated a transition of Japanese enterprises in the five-day working week, and he set an example by introducing the fiveday period in the company. Another truly brilliant marketing ploy Takeshi Mitarai as president of the company became, as it is not surprising in the current stalemate, the expansion of business. Despite the fact that the camera Canon used steady demand, especially from representatives of numerous occupation corps, Mitarai has decided that the company can not survive, producing only cameras. In this regard very soon established two subsidiaries: Akatsuki-Musen Co., Ltd., Producing and selling radios, and pharmaceutical company, Kashiwa-Yakugyu Co., Ltd. This, apparently, does not have a photo sphere to the facts actually played crucial for Canon - namely the discovery of these companies helped the company survive, and As a result, a fact that it represents a date. After the economic crisis, both businesses were closed. And in 1947 began a new era of the company, at least formally: it was in this year's Board of Directors approved the filing of Takeshi Mitarai new company name - Canon Camera (several years later and the word Camera is missing from the title). The event, which occurred after 2 yearsin 1949, only confirms this fact - Canon Camera shares were first listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, today one of the largest stock markets in the world. Star Takeshi Mitarai, the first Mitarai of Canon, gradually sinking, but it was in these years, began his ascent to the heights of success Hajime Mitarai, son Takeshi, who had held the same post until his death in 1995, and Fujio Mitarai, the current president and chief executive officer, last Mitarai, who gave his life to the corporation. Subsequent years were marked by the emergence of new giant photo industry - but the path was not easy, and Canon, as they say, the more difficult. Led by Takeshi Mitarai, and later his son, Hajime Mitarai, the company entered the U.S. and the European markets. Then there was competition on all fronts, the rivalry with Xerox in the market copiers, invention technology bubble-jet (a fundamentally new way of printing), rises and sometimes even fall.

But Canon's respectable purely Japanese stubbornness continued to innovate, sell, promote their products on the market and eventually it became the Canon, which we know today - the world leader in business and a model for every entrepreneur. So what is the success of the company? This question could ask the current President of Canon Inc. Fujio Mitarai, who, without limiting the merits of his predecessors, is perhaps the most talented and successful CEO in its long history. That led Mr. Fujio Canon, prosperous, major companies, elite of global business, with a very short time. In the finished fiscal 2001 total net sales of Canon Inc. amounted to almost 25 million euros, exceeding the previous performance in 2000 by 7,8%. The impressive growth, is not it? Like any company, managed by visionary leader, Canon invests considerable sums in science (in recent years at least 2 billion euros, or about 7% of the aggregate amount of annual sales). The secret lies in the personal qualities most Fujio Mitarai, the last 20 years held senior positions in the North American branch company. Part of the American experience and helps Mr. Fujio deal - he was a Japanese businessman, the new formation (in spite of its age). Fujio Mitarai's manner of behavior in the market as possible "nonJapanese", but not an American, too, he combines the best aspects of each type of business. Analysts innovative thinking and a good sense of unpredictability, Mr. Fujio, Western determination and prudence, brought long time cooperation with American partners. So, coming to the leadership of the company in 1995, Mitarai dismantle forthwith the units included in the PC market, as non-core, focusing on promising, in his view, the direction of IT, as well as the production of printers and digital cameras (running forward, we can say that sales as a result of this decisive turn up to 23%). For Japan, this type of cases new, atypical, perhaps even revolutionary, but now hardly anyone remembers it risky and controversial step. But perhaps the most revolutionary in the history of Japanese business has a different solution, completely changed the policy of the employer in relation to office workers: Fujio Mitarai, again applying the western model, this time in politics staff, established a new pay system, directly dependent on the profit received by the company. For the Western world, this approach is a traditional and natural, but in the patriarchal Japan since the post-war years is another form of remuneration: a fixed and not dependent on the financial success of the company. And if in a serious economic crisis, this approach was clearly justified (and thus the government, pushing for business, provided the rank and file employees in Japan and at least the minimum, but constant fixed wages), the modern Japanese market, this approach to the issues of management markedly inhibited . Fujio Mitarai and became the man who turned on the shoulder to solve this problem. However, despite some revolutionary approach to business (and not only by the standards of Japan), Mr. Fujii is just a Japanese businessman. Only by removing most outdated aspects in the eastern model of doing business, to date, it has become a leading manager of the new formation. Moreover, Mitarai in some areas follows a classical Japanese manner of building marketing and management. So he preaches the traditional form of relationship between employer and employee, relations in our team as a whole. According to him, namely lifetime employment in a particular company provides employees solidarity, good, almost family relationship within the company, which, in turn, significantly affect the position of the company in the market and its profitability, and always for the better (looking at Canon , such an approach could not agree more). This approach should ensure the engagement of the staff member and the required minimum level of professionalism - factors which can then be repelled by building a company that would storm the highest peaks of the world market. However, this is only the original requirements for staff placed in the Canon. Manager, according to Fujio Mitarai, must be a professional to the bone, the real winner, and thinking global categories that can predict the processes of the world market and properly manage them. That is why the staff Canon constantly taught by top industry experts, usually in the U.S. - having worked in this country for more than 20 years, Mr. Mitarai is well aware the U.S. market and its possibilities, and do not trust him in this matter there is no reason. And it is the western way of doing business, injected them in the Canon and the last 7 years actively pursued in life. Another feature of the western model of doing business in the nature Fujio Mitarai, and hence the Canon, are global thinking, aggressive behavior in the market in all its manifestations. In fact, these are the main components of a modern company policy. After becoming president of the corporation, Mitarai first got rid of unprofitable and non-core areas, heavy load hauling company down, reorganized the structure of the Canon (this procedure was subjected to three directions) and then fixed their gaze to the west. With invaluable experience in the U.S. market, as well as the strong U.S. subsidiary, which he personally presided over several years, Fujio Mitarai has geographically expanded area of the Canon. Thus, for a few years the corporation has acquired several companies in the U.S. and Europe. And then it appeared the very same golden rules of business that Fujio Mitarai studied for 23 years in the U.S.: results orientation, good planning of all business processes, aggressiveness and activity in any situation. Now the challenges to the company and a personal 66-year-old president and CEO Canon (it sounds so full title of his post) Fujio Mitarai (award winner, incidentally, the Legion of Honour and medal with a blue ribbon for his services to Japan), a truly Napoleonic : to become the undisputed leader in all markets in which the products of his company. And, taking into account its nature, the nature of each Mitarai, unless someone would doubt that the way it happens. And a few years later we're likely to witness a miracle in the new financial performance unsurpassed Mitarai. Fujio Mitarai of Canon.

Canon Inc. (?) is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers,steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in ta, Tokyo, [3] Japan. [edit]Origins

The original Digital IXUS

The company was originally named Kwanon by Goro Yoshida after the Buddhist bodhisattva Guan Yin, known in Japanese as Kannon. In 1934 it produced a prototype for Japans first-ever 35 mm camera with a focal plane shutter. In 1947 the company name was changed to Canon.

[4]

[edit]Company

milestones

Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory is the predecessor of Canon Inc. and was founded in Tokyo in 1937 by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida and Takeo Maeda.

1934 logo depicting BodhisattvaKwan'on

[edit]1930s

1960s
[5]

1933 1936: The Kwanon,

Japans first 35 mm focal plane-shutter camera, was produced in prototype form.

1940: An indirect X-ray camera, also a first for Japan, is developed. 1947: The company is renamed Canon Camera Co., Inc. 1958: A field zoom lens for television broadcasting is introduced. 1959: Reflex Zoom 8, the worlds first movie camera with a zoom lens, and Canonflex are introduced. 1961: Canon creates an outstanding Rangefinder camera, Canon 7, and 50mm 1:0.95 lens in a special bayonet mount. 1964: 'Canola 130', the first Japanese made 10-key calculator, is introduced. It was a substantial improvement on the design of the British Bell Punch company, which introduced the first fully electronic calculator two years earlier with the Sumlock Anita Mark 8 unit. 1965: Canon introduces Canon Pellix, an SLR camera with a semi-transparent stationary mirror which enables taking pictures through the mirror. 1969: The company's name is changed to Canon Inc.

[edit]1970s

2010s

1971: F-1, a top-end SLR (single lens reflex) camera, and FD lenses are introduced. 1976: AE-1 is launched, the worlds first camera with an embedded micro-computer. 1982: The "Wildlife as Canon Sees It" print ads first appear in the National Geographic magazine. 1985: The worlds first Inkjet printer using the bubble jet technology is introduced. 1987: Canon introduces Canon Electro-Optical System (EOS). EOS is also the name of a goddess of the dawn. EOS 650 autofocus SLR camera is introduced, and the Canon Foundation is established. 1988: Canon introduces 'Kyosei philosophy'.
[6] [7]

1989: EOS 1 Flagship Professional SLR line launched.

1989: EOS RT is unveiled, the world's first AF SLR with a fixed, semi-transparent pellicle mirror. 1992: EOS 5, the first-ever camera with eye-controlled AF, is launched. 1992: PowerShot 600 Canon's first digital Camera
[8]

1995: Canon introduces the first commercially available SLR lens with internal image stabilization, EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. EOS-1N RS, the world's fastest AF SLR camera with a continuous shooting speed of 10 frame/s at the time. Based on the EOS-1N, the EOS-1N RS has a fixed, semi-transparent pellicle mirror with a hard coat. 1996: ELPH (America) IXUS (Europe), a pocket-sized digital camera with the Advanced Photo System, is introduced. 1997: Canon enters the digital video camcorder market. 2002: Fujio Mitarai, president and CEO of Canon Inc., is named one of the worlds top 25 managers by BusinessWeek. 2003: The worlds first portable digital X-ray system is used to reconstruct the face of an Egyptian mummy believed to be Queen Nefertiti. 2004: The XEED SX50 LCD projector is introduced. 2005: Canons first high-definition video camcorder is introduced. 2007: Canon Europe celebrates its 50th anniversary. 2009: Canon acquires Oc.

2010: Canon acquires Tereck Office Solutions, Inc.

[9]

Today, the company produces digital compact and SLR cameras, photographic lenses, video camcorders, printers and analog and digital copiers for the office, including its line of imageRUNNER and imagePRESS digital multifunctional devices. Canon was granted more than 2000 patents in the U.S. in 2008. It regularly places in the top five in the total number of patents granted. [edit]Proposed

gTLD
[10]

On 16 March 2010, Canon announced that it was seeking to acquire a new .canon generic top-level domain. [edit]Products

Canon is a manufacturer of business and consumer imaging products which includes printers, scanners, binoculars, compact digital cameras, film SLR and digital SLR cameras, lenses and video camcorders. The Business Solutions division offers print and document solutions for small and medium businesses, large corporations and governments. These include multi-functional printers, black and white and color office printers, large format printers, scanners, black and white and color production printers, as well as software to support these products. Lesser known Canon products include medical, optical and broadcast products, including ophthalmic and x-ray devices, broadcast lenses, semiconductors, digital microfilm scanners, and Handy Terminal Solutions.