Setting the Agenda: Hirofumi Osawa, Yamaha Features 12/03/2018 Hirofumi Osawa from the UC department at Yamaha talks to Hurrairah bin Sohail about Yamaha’s Revolabs acquisition and how that move is beginning to bear fruit.Acquisition is a tried and tested strategy for companies to grow and bring on board expertise that they might not have previously possessed. In recent years, acquisitions have become common place in the AV industry as manufacturers look to offer products across technology verticals and become a ‘one stop shop’ for AV systems. In 2014, Yamaha announced the acquisition of Revolabs, a manufacturer of uniï¬ ed communications and collaboration products. Takuya Nakata, president of Yamaha Corporation, commented on the deal: “Revolabs’ ethos of creating products that provide value for customers with strong technical capabilities as a base meshes well with Yamaha Group’s corporate philosophy. By combining Revolabs’ wireless microphone systems and wireless conference phones with Yamaha’s voice communication devices and professional audio equipment, we expect to be able to create even more appealing solutions for our customers. In the future we aim to accelerate our progress in expanding sales in the electronics business domain, one of the goals announced in the Yamaha Management Plan 2016, our medium-term management plan, by combining the technology and know-how of both companies.” Hirofumi “Hogan” Osawa, operating ofï¬ cer, senior general manager of audio business division and general manager of the UC department at Yamaha, talks about the decision to acquire Revolabs: “Yamaha’s internal aim was to expand its uniï¬ ed communications and collaboration business in APAC. With Revolabs, the audio technologies and total sound solutions we could offer would differentiate us from other manufacturers. Revolabs has brought its expertise in the global UC industry to Yamaha.” He also discusses the rationale behind entering the uniï¬ ed communications and collaboration market: “Yamaha Corporation deï¬ nes the enterprise conference market as a strategic growth segment in its audio products business group. It is a growing market and we also believe the market demands match what we can offer as our core competency, which is superior and high quality audio technologies.” Acquisitions alone are not a guarantee for success and there are many examples where the results are far from perfect. The transition, as two companies merge and become one, has to be managed carefully if the process is to be successful. Osawa says: “Revolabs is 100% consolidated under the established Yamaha UC department. It has been and will be playing a key role in order for the Yamaha UC business group to expand global business including the APAC region. Yamaha maintains a very strong position in the Japanese market.” To further integrate Revolabs into Yamaha, Masanori “Mick” Kamihara, who was the group manager of communication system development group at Yamaha, was appointed as CEO of Revolabs in 2017. As Osawa mentioned, the acquisition has allowed Yamaha to differentiate itself from the competition. He comments: “One of Yamaha’s unique points in the UC market is that it can offer a wide range of audio technologies and solutions vertically and with high quality performance. These range from desktop speakerphones to installed audio systems including DSPs and microphones. We believe that with Revolabs on board, the total solution we offer across applications with uniform user experience will benefit all enterprise customers and technology partners.” Osawa rightly highlights vertical integration as a core reason for the success of the Revolabs acquisition. Understanding your own business competencies and realising how acquired talent and technology will help you evolve is the key. Yamaha already possessed unified communication and collaboration products. By acquiring Revolabs, Yamaha expanded its product portfolio. The aim of the acquisition was to allow the product stables of both companies to leverage the natural synergy they would have when deployed together. The acquisition of Revolabs has already borne fruit for Yamaha. Osawa says: “We have released products that benefit from a synergy of technologies from both companies. The CS- 700 videoconferencing system is a product that both Yamaha’s and Revolabs’ engineers worked on together. The unique solution achieved with synergy of both companies will provide value to the customers. We have to continuously develop products for the market that combine technology from both Yamaha and Revolabs.” It goes without saying that Yamaha will continue to pursue development in the unified communication and collaboration market. Osawa outlines the future vision of Yamaha: “The communication environment will evolve to be more secure and intelligent in order to enhance every person’s creativity. Yamaha will continue to develop various products and solutions with high quality audio technologies, to realise the new era of communication together with its technology partners.”