Keiji Kojima

Keiji Kojima became President and CEO of Hitachi in April 2022, succeeding Toshiaki Higashihara who had orchestrated the most dramatic corporate transformation in modern Japanese business history. Kojima, a career Hitachi executive with deep experience in the company's IT and digital solutions divisions, was chosen to execute the next phase of this transformation. Hitachi's turnaround is a case study in strategic focus. As recently as 2010, Hitachi was a sprawling conglomerate with interests spanning semiconductors, consumer electronics, construction machinery, chemicals, metals, automotive components, and rail systems — a structure that had produced a record ¥787 billion ($7.8 billion) net loss in fiscal year 2009. Under a succession of reformist CEOs, Hitachi divested more than 20 subsidiaries and non-core businesses, raising hundreds of billions of yen and dramatically simplifying the group. The acquisitions side was equally transformative. Hitachi acquired the power grid business of ABB for $6.4 billion (creating Hitachi Energy, a world leader in grid infrastructure), and purchased GlobalLogic for $9.6 billion (adding a major digital engineering and consulting platform). These deals reshaped Hitachi around two growth pillars: digital solutions (Lumada IoT platform, IT services, data analytics) and green energy & mobility (power grids, rail systems, nuclear energy). Kojima's mandate is to drive organic growth and profitability from this focused portfolio. The Lumada platform — Hitachi's IoT and data analytics ecosystem — is central to the digital growth story, helping industrial clients optimize operations through data-driven insights. On the energy side, Hitachi Energy is well-positioned to benefit from massive global investment in grid modernization driven by the renewable energy transition. The challenge is sustaining the momentum of transformation now that the easier portfolio simplification moves have been made, and demonstrating that Hitachi can grow organically at rates that justify its rerating from conglomerate discount to technology premium.