Dubai: Panasonic has chalked out its growth strategy for the next three years in a bid to cut its reliance on consumer electronics and focus more on the business-to-business (B2B) segment.
Hiroki Soejima, managing director of Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News that businesses and organisations are now constantly innovating and utilising technology to streamline operations, drive efficiency and achieve better growth and this trend is seen across multiple industry verticals.
Moreover, he said the digital transformation drive and the rise of educational technology in making learning collaborative and interactive through projectors, video walls, AR and VR technologies is gaining traction.
According to recent industry reports, UAE education market forecasted to grow at the rate of 4.74 per cent during the period 2018-2022.
“The retail industry is also inclining towards audio-visual innovations to provide consumers with unique shopping experience while the GCC tourism industry, which is currently outperforming the global tourism indicators in terms of growth and spending, will also boost the leisure and entertainment industry,” he said.
Moreover, he added that the enhanced security will also play an important role that will trigger demand for security-related products.
Soejima said the region’s wide-ranging reforms to build diversified economies will create huge opportunities for Panasonic’s B2B solutions, which currently contributes to almost 20 per cent of its total revenue.
“We see a huge growth potential in B2B business as multiple projects are being announced across the region that we are closely following up for providing our expertise based on mega to small-scale projects we have executed globally,” he said.
The company expects its consumer business to grow at an annual rate of 120 per cent during the 2018-2020 period. In the region, he said the growth will come from the business-to-customer (B2C) segment.
The Japanese giant, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, said it missed its growth expectations in the first half due to socio-political changes in the region.
“We are looking to maintain our annual target of 110 per cent growth this fiscal year as oil prices are gradually gaining strength and the festive season and New Year period are around the corner,” he said.
On whether Panasonic is keen to focus on AI as other vendors are, he said that organisations across the Middle East are making a rigorous effort to change the way IT is consumed and delivered, adding that AI is without a doubt playing a huge part in ongoing technological advancements.
“As a company, we are in sync with the importance of AI and will introduce products and solutions as per the demands of the market,” he said.
