WACOM VISION

from NOBUTAKA IDE

Allow me to indulge on the subject of Wacom

A message from the company s No. 1 fan
Wacom President and CEO Nobutaka Ide (Nobu) considers himself the company’s biggest
fan. Ever since he made the decision to dedicate his life to Wacom, he has become intimatelyfamiliar with the depth that the company possesses—and he now sees the company as asentient living being rather than a well-oiled machine. Nobu has long wanted to find a way toserve all humankind, and he is closer than ever to realizing that goal thanks to the support ofhis many Wacom colleagues—whom he considers team members rather than employees.
Here, Nobu describes the value that Wacom offers and what the future holds for the company.

06

07

WACOM VISION from NOBUTAKA IDE

Prologuemaking instruments that allow people
to draw / write . It’s the promise of Life-

incorporate our technologies in theirproducts, and partners who help us

To you who have picked up thislong Ink—a concept that is inextricably

explore how we can add more value

copy of The Wacom Story Book : This
book represents a new undertaking

linked to my life-long desire to support

to the customer experience. We enjoy
a close relationship with all of thempeople.

by Wacom to allow more people tobecause we are driven to provide
value based on a clear objective:

gain deeper insight into what we doand who we are. The pages are full of
characters who make Wacom what
it is today. They include customers
who use the products that we as
an instrument provider have refinedover the years; partners who help us
craft the life-long user experience;
investors who continuously
encourage us through both criticism
and understanding; and our teammembers (the phrase I liked to use
to call Wacom employees) who
walk alongside each other towards
the same goals. Each one of thesecharacters is important to us; withoutthem, we would not have the agility totransform our shape and appearance
to adapt to changes in the world—
just like a living being. The words
written by each person in this booktell a small story. We want you to readthese stories and find the spark thatglows brightly deep within each tale.
It is this wish that led us to title thisbook The Wacom Story Book . We
hope to produce a new anthology
on a regular basis and deliver more
exciting adventures for you to enjoy. I
would like to start off this first edition
with a few words from myself to tell
you about the timeless appeal of thiscompany. After all, I consider myself
Wacom’s No. 1 enthusiast.

How I became
a Wacom fan
I’m not the founder of Wacom, nor
did I receive any particular trainingat Wacom. The reason I became
Wacom’s No. 1 fan was because I fellin love with what Wacom as a livingorganism embodies, as well as withthe company’s boundless appeal.
Wacom’s mission is to continue

08

What is a human being? What can
I do to support all humankind? I’ve
been thinking about these questions
for a long time. Drawing / writing are
two of our most human activities, andno two people draw / write the sameway. Wacom’s business is stronglyintertwined with these two activities—
in other words, our business is abouthumanity and human creativity.
Perhaps by joining Wacom, I could
serve all humankind by supportingthem in their drawing / writing
endeavors. It was this hunch that led
me to join Wacom.
The reason that I became Wacom’s
No. 1 fan is that I recognized
the infinite potential in Wacom’s
business. While my goal was toserve all humankind through Wacom
technologies, I began my career at
the company at Technology Solution
Business. Here, I was involved inproviding Wacom technologies withenterprise customers as a component
manufacturer. Until then, I had
assumed that the acts of drawing /writing —particularly with the use ofdigital pens—were unique to those
involved in the production of creative
work. But my time in this businessmade me realize that everyday life
was overflowing with the act of
inscription—imbuing various surfaces
with pictures and words. By joining
Wacom and actually working in thebusiness, I was able to see the fullscale of what Wacom represents.
Wacom’s appeal and complexity aremostly due to one factor: the deep
bond the company enjoys with its
customers. Our customers include
individuals who use our pen displays
and pen tablets, OEM customers who

to facilitate creation, recording, andlearning through the acts of drawing/ writing . Because our goal is clear,our place in the world is also clear.
I am proud of the fact that Wacom
technologies can directly help somany different customers achieve theirgoals.
I think of Wacom as a single livingorganism. The company has beenaround for 40 years, and I’m still
excited about where it’s going next.
As CEO, I am in a position where I am
supposed to lead Wacom. Yet, I feellike what I am actually doing is being
nudged forward by Wacom itself in the
direction it wants to go; I simply help
the company get there.
I clearly recall feeling like this for the
first time during 2019’s Connected
Ink (see “Connected Ink,” pp.
68–69). Connected Ink provides anexperimental space for exploring thefuture of creativity through discussions
on topics related to “creative chaos,”
as well as new topics that arosefrom those discussions. I remember
attending this 2019 event andthinking, “This is not just a Wacom
event.” I saw how everyone attending
Connected Ink was moved bysomething important to leave an
impact on society—and it made me
feel as if Wacom was similarly moving
me and my colleagues, drawing us
into an enormous vortex of action. I felt
as if we were creating new cultures.
Out of a sense of duty, Connected
Ink and the event’s attendees were
working to develop cultural ideas thatwould benefit the next generation. I
feel that this notion of creating new
cultures is increasingly taking hold in
Wacom.
There is a promise to Wacom’s

09

WACOM VISION from NOBUTAKA IDE

customers: Life-long Ink (see “Life-

strategic initiatives in the Medium Termlong Ink,” pp. 18–19). It is a promise

Business Direction: "Wacom Chapter

can benefit us. We are confident in ourability to achieve this goal, which isthat Wacom will provide its customers

3.” This is about concentrating
business resources on technological

why we can confront the risks posedwith a life-long journey defined bytheir experiences with its products.

development so we can provide

them honestly.

These experiences, of course, areastounding user experiences. In otherprovided via the digital technologies
that Wacom is constantly refining. The

words, it is not about developing

Before I continue, I’d like tobriefly talk about the three types ofpromise is our way of saying, “We willtranslating those technologies into

walk with you throughout your life’s

experiences. We invest in technology
so we can provide extraordinary

journey, providing you with ink-based
experiences that can be achieved
with digital technologies.” Digitaltechnology is not bound by space ortime. Life-long Ink is a declaration that
Wacom is a provider of experiencesdelivered through products andtechnology. It is a promise that wewill support those experiences for as
long as our customers live—or evenbeyond, continuing their stories evenafter they have departed from thisworld.

The four things
I love about Wacom
Since there are too many things that
I love about Wacom I’d like to focus
here on four of them: its approachto technological innovation, its lovehate relationship with its customers,
its ability to be both independent andcollaborative, and its team members’care and pride for their work.

01

Wacom s business is strongly intertwinedwith drawing writing.
In other words, its business is abouthumanity and human creativity.

10

A simple but honest
pursuit of technology

Technology is the source of thevalue that Wacom provides. A rigorous
pursuit of technological innovation is
the most important contributor to ourgoal of providing new experiences
via the pen. When I was appointed
Wacom CEO, my first decision was todeclare that “Wacom is a technology
company.” I even listed “technology
leadership” as one of the five key

technology per se, but about

experiences.
In the long term, we should perhaps
think more about the future of drawing/ writing . As long as humans exist,
these acts will never stop being
important. However, we must at leastconsider the possibility that some kindof disruptive technology will completely
redefine these acts. The relationshipwe have with drawing / writing could
transform into something we can’teven begin to predict. Yet, this will notchange the fact that the need to draw
/ write is one of our most primevaldesires. What is important is that we
continue refining our technology inpreparation for such a disruptive event
so we can ensure that these acts canbe passed on to later generations.
But while we value technology, wemust also pay heed to the dangers
of digital technology. It promises us
immediacy, efficiency, productivity,
and reproducibility, but there is also afear that it could destroy—some might
say deliver a fatal blow to—the senseof humanity and human creativity
that we have developed since thebeginning of humanity. At Wacom,
we are mostly interested in making
information easier to move andallowing information to exist as bothsignal and noise. If we can somehow
visualize these concepts, I believe wecan create a set of brand-new digital
experiences. We want to explore how
to use digital technology to capture
the kind of information that isn’tbound by space or time—the almostimpossible-to-grasp thoughts andwords—and find ways in which thisby digital technology and deal withexperiences that we provide ourcustomers. The first is the experienceof freely flowing drawing / writing .
Creative Solution delivers theexperience in the form of Wacom
brand products. This is our ace inthe hole, the one that allows us toprovide creators and artists with thegreatest pen-based experiences in theworld. The second is the pen-based
experience that seamlessly becomesa part of your lifestyle. Business
Solution and Technology Solution
Business are responsible for having
our digital pen experiences permeate
the world. The former does so by
promoting the use of Wacom products
in a variety of business settings. The
latter’s approach involves adding
value to an OEM customer’s products
through Wacom’s digital pen and ink
technologies. To use another playingcards analogy, the two teams allow
us to hold all the cards, giving us theability to cater to any business needor setting. The third is the experiencethat goes beyond that of simply using
an implement. It's about unleashing
the power behind the inscribed words
or pictures and elevating it into a newkind of experience. This is the domain
of Ink Division. The fact that we hold
both an ace and all the cards puts
Wacom in a very strong position.
02 H
 aving customers who can beoverly passionate
Now, let’s get back to my second
reason for loving Wacom: its love-hate
relationship with its customers. To
me, love and hate are not in conflictbut opposite sides of the same coin,because when you love something somuch, even a small problem can easily

11

WACOM VISION from NOBUTAKA IDE

flip love into hate. Wacom’s customers

pp. 24–27). It is a flagship model

rigorously pursued digital pen and ink

come in many shapes and sizes.

developed with the ultimate goal oftechnologies. As a result, we have

There are creators and artists who use
Wacom products like extensions ofmeeting our customers’ demands.

not only refined our technologies andproducts but also cultivated an entirely

their bodies. There are casual users
who use Wacom products on a daily

responded: “What more can I say?

new market. But there are also things
we can accomplish by traveling withbasis as part of their studies or other

This is exactly what I’ve been looking

others—like forging relationships andactivities. Then there are the OEMfor. Thank you for creating suchcreating a community. Our ability

customers and corporate partners

a marvelous product.” I was sooverwhelmed, I began to cry tears of

to travel our own path as well as a

who work with Wacom to create new
products and experiences throughWacom technology. Every one ofthese customers directs both love andhate towards us.
Those involved in creative work
pour their souls into their creations. By
choosing our products, they are, in away, putting their lives in our hands.
It’s only natural for them to feel astrong mix of love and hate towards
us and our products. The same is true
with our OEM customers as well. Afterall, the livelihood of their businesses
depends on Wacom technologies.
But we at Wacom are equally driven
by strong emotions. Creators andartists pour their hearts into creating
something new; OEM customers are
driven by a sense of duty to deliver
the finest products to their customers;
and we are inspired by our customers’
passions to do everything we can tohelp them achieve their goals. It isbecause we and our customers are
so emotionally vested in each other’s
successes that we have developed
such a close relationship—one that
goes beyond a simple commercial
transaction.
Soon after I became CEO, acertain creative professional told me
something that was very painful tohear. “Wacom doesn’t understandhow much we creators sacrifice toproduce our work,” they said. “There’s
a lot more I want to say, but I’m notgoing to even bother. I’m never using
another Wacom product.” I didn’t havethe words to respond. So instead, I
launched development on the Wacom
Cintiq Pro 27 (see “ETC - a new
approach to product development,”

12

When we invited this same creatorto give this new model a try, theyjoy.
We often experience somethingsimilar with our OEM customers, withwhom we are constantly negotiating
day and night over their technologicaland cost demands. There wasan engineer in one of our OEM
customers, who was something ofa legend with an astonishing recordof achievements. After retiring, hetold me; “We gave Wacom a numberof difficult requests along the way,
but you always delivered, producing
something new and innovative.”
I could not have asked for higher
praise.
Wacom products and technologies
are mission specific—in this case,drawing / writing . It only takes asecond for a user to either love or hatethem; the feedback is instantaneous.
As a result, our R&D cycles tend to
be quite rapid. Because drawing /writing are entirely subjective activities,
a technology that completely satisfies
every user for all the same reasons
is like a dream. We could never craft
something so perfect—but getting as
close as we can is what drives us at
Wacom.

path shared with others is something
I consider to be one of Wacom’s
greatest strengths. It is also one of thethings that make Wacom stand out.
It is because we have proven we
can go our own way that we are able
to partner so successfully with theworld’s pioneers. Our technology is
unique, which is why it has attracted
so many players in completely
different sectors. We have developed
technology that provides real value,
and this is why we have been able toform alliances where we are on equal
footing with some of the world’s top
companies.
Our partners fall under one of three
categories: technology partners,
business partners, and cultural cocreation partners (see “Wacom and its
community,” p. 60). These categories
are not set in stone, and many ofour partners fall into more than one
category. What all our partners havein common is their ability to show us aworld we would have never discoveredon our own. There is much we havelearned through our partnerships.
Digital technology’s greatest
attribute is the ease with which

The third major reason I love Wacom
is its ability to travel its own path aswell as travel alongside others. We
at Wacom have long walked down
the path we believe in, fully prepared
to deal with any obstacles along theit can be combined with othertechnologies. This can be seen in
the new products and services thatare constantly being launched all
across the world. Look around you,and you’ll find a world brimming withtechnological innovations. Wacom
is in a unique position of being able
to spur innovations in digital pensand ink because their technologies
can be combined with just about any
technology. In theory, any technology

way. You can see this in how we havecompany in the world could become

03 A focus on bothour own path andcollaborations with partners

In theory, any technology company in the world
could become a Wacom.
This puts Wacom in an ideal business position.

13

WACOM VISION from NOBUTAKA IDE

a Wacom partner. This puts Wacom in
an ideal business position.
04

Life-long Ink is a promise that customers will
experience a life-long journey definedby their experiences with Wacom products.

The spark inevery team member

But a digital pen which never crashes
is desirable not just for creators.
Therefore, we are constantly refining
our technology so that our instruments

Our promise to our customers is to

do not affect productivity in businessdeliver a life-long journey—one thatand educational settings as well.

The fourth main reason why I loveis delivered via the instruments we

Wacom is that every team member

make. We at Wacom never forget

has a spark inside of them. Afterbecoming CEO, I traveled to ourthat we are an instrument provider
responsible for supporting those

offices around the world and talked

who use our instruments. As an

to various team members. I felt thateveryone I met approached their workat Wacom with a strong sense of
mission, that they take pride in slowly
but surely arriving at a solution that willmeet their customers’ expectations.
Listening to these team members, I
got the strong impression that theyknew they were good at their jobs andwere proud of it. Every office seemed
to function like a collective of bright,
skilled individuals—perhaps this is why
Wacom itself feels to me like a livingorganism.
The Social Initiatives at Wacom
represent our attempt to tap into thestrong emotions—joy, anger, grief,
excitement—located deep inside every
team member to motivate them into
action (see “Social initiatives,” p. 70).
Such initiatives ensure that the teammembers are acting based on theirown beliefs and passions rather thanbecause someone is forcing theminto action. These activities on theirown are not particularly special; they
won’t surprise you by dramatically

instrument provider, we are proud of
our ability to ensure that our users
can work without interruption, that
their pens flow freely, and that theircreativity is properly stimulated.

changing the world. Yet, I like to thinkof each activity as a little story about
one person doing something they
believe in—something that’s within
their own abilities—in their own uniqueway. The line between business andsocial contribution is blurring. In somecases, the line doesn’t even exist, withsocial contribution firmly embedded in
the business. In the future, we may beable to expand the reach of our Social
Initiatives, allowing our spark to travel
even farther out into the world.

14

Never forgetting to be
an instrument provider

We at Wacom consider ourselves
an instrument provider. We don’t
want to simply be a provider of coretechnology solutions. We want tobe an instrument provider. It’s notnecessarily difficult to become apure provider of technology; it’s justthat we want to be able to provide
experiences that originate with our
instruments.
As an instrument provider, we at
Wacom feel a duty to ensure three
things. The first is that our users cancontinue work uninterrupted. We
don’t want creators to have to pause
their thinking and creativity becauseof a problem with the instruments weprovide. We are constantly looking
for new ways to prevent such asituation—for example, minimizing
digital ink delay as much as possible
and reducing parallax in the touch
screen. The second is that users canlet their pens flow freely. We want toensure our users can simply let theirpens dance all over their screens
without thought or calculation. The
third is that we can stimulate ourusers’ creativity. There is nothing more
we would like than for our users tofind that their free-flowing pens help
them deepen their thinking and enrichtheir creativity. We want to provide
instruments that stir the imaginationand lead the creator to great ideas.

Can an instrument provider also
be a creator? Needless to say, thecreator or artist plays the main rolein any creative endeavor—and it isour duty at Wacom to support thesetalented people. However, I strongly
believe that this act of supporting
creative talent is also a very creative
type of work.

The future of Wacom
Although our mission is to continue
making instruments that support
the act of drawing / writing , it is nota permanent mission. As the worldchanges, technology evolves, and thenature of the competition transforms,
we must reshape our mission. It is by
doing so that Wacom has managed tosurvive for 40 years.

Wacom is in the middle of atransformation. It is evolving into a
provider of wide-ranging experiences
without losing its identity as an
instrument provider. We havelaunched a number of exciting
initiatives, such as KISEKI ART, which
can provide new insights to creators(see “New possibilities in digital ink,”
p. 48); Wacom Yuify, designed toprotect the rights of creators (see “Newpossibilities in digital ink,” p. 49); anda service that provides children with
better schoolwork feedback by using
visualization to understand not justwhat they write in the answers but
how they write it. What these projects
have in common is that they all bring
Wacom closer towards our promiseof Life-long Ink. These projects forma giant mandala with technology at its
core.

15

WACOM VISION from NOBUTAKA IDE

that they envision the same goal formake an appearance in Wacom’s

records as proof of the life that
Wacom has lived over the past

the company and are capable ofjourney towards achieving Life-long
Ink. I can’t wait to see where the story

40 years. Whether they go up or
down, they serve as evidence ofdiscussions.
It goes without saying thatthe highs and lows that Wacom has

management’s job is to calmly assess

experienced as a living organism. In
the Medium Term Business Direction:

the company’s current situation and"Wacom Chapter 3”, we introduce
our ROE and ROIC as guidelinesthat need to be done. However, thisis not enough. We are living in an age

for the efficiency of our investments

when sudden, unexpected change

and business operations. We thendescribe our envisioned growthoccurs frequently. A managementthat is too rigid is a terrifying risk
for a company. I am strongly awarethat my time as an executive is not
permanent. This is why I focus onenvisioning Wacom’s future and put
all my energy into advancing projects
that I believe will become key pillarsof the company in the future. It takes
time for technological development
to produce results. Until the timecomes for me to hand the baton
to the next generation, I want tocontinue promoting projects that willboth make Wacom stand out today
and provide the company with a solid
future foundation. I have seen the way
Wacom team members lead theseprojects with a sense of individual duty
and an incalculable level of passion. I
firmly believe that their adventures willend on a wonderful note.

At Wacom, we see our financial

through March 2025 and propose
how we will pass on this growth toour shareholders.A growing numberof companies around the world havebegun adopting an ESG management.
We are no different, but I do want tostress why it is important for us toadopt such a management. For us at
Wacom, initiatives for Environmental,
Social, and Governance are importantparts of the process for realizing Lifelong Ink. In April 2023, we announced
our support of the Task Force on
Climate-Related Financial Disclosuresand published a report that explained
our decision. We described how wewere motivated not by social pressure
for companies to adopt an ESG
management but by our belief thatsuch a decision was necessary for
us to be able to serve all humankind.
This is why we intend to develop our
initiatives for Environmental, Social,and Governance in a way that stays
true to what Wacom stands for.
Wacom’s mission is to continue
developing instruments for drawing/ writing . However, the nature of
our mission is inextricably linked tothe times and social mores. If thenature of our mission changes, thenwe will also need to transform ourcorporate strategy. I am proud of
our current management, especiallyour outside board of directors. Eachboard member believes in Wacom’s
mission and fully applies their skills
and expertise in their management
roles. I fully trust them and know

16

having open, yet at times pointed,

Nobutaka IDE
President and CEO
Wacom Co.

takes Wacom next.

Nobutaka Ide (Nobu) was born in Tokyo in 1970. Afterearning a master’s degree from the Division of Public
Administration of the International Christian University
Graduate School, he joined a Japanese homeappliance maker. Engaged in product planning andmarketing in the U.S. as well as mobile phone market
development in China, before joining Wacom in 2013.
After serving in various positions including Senior Vice
President of the Technology Solution Business Unit, heassumed the role of Representative Director, President
and CEO in 2018. In February 2021, he was appointed
Representative Director of Connected Ink Village asa general incorporated association, which supports
various artists, creator communities and education
communities. Nobu is an avid reader with extensive
interests, where one of his favorite authors include
Yukio Mishima. He also relishes and writes poem aswell as enjoys playing musical instruments and loves
Tchaikovsky and SION. Nobu also spends time increative collaborations with his daughter, performing as
a professional dancer, in his leisure time.

then plan and implement the things

Epilogue
The Wacom Story Book is justabout to begin. The story that starts
when you turn this page will help
you understand where Wacom finds
itself today. It will shed light on thepath that we intend to take towards
achieving the dreams and future I
mentioned above. There are things
that Wacom can already achieve,things that Wacom is on the verge ofachieving, things that Wacom has notachieved yet but is hard at work trying
to achieve, and things that Wacom
will someday like to achieve. All theseideas are swirling around in a vortex,
waiting for their turn to leap out and

The CEO’s message represents an elaboration of the five key strategic initiatives introduced in the "Wacom
Chapter 3": Technology Leadership, Community Engagement, New Core Technology and New Core Value
Propositions, Technology Innovation for Sustainable Society, and Meaningful Growth (see “Medium TermBusiness Direction” p. 87). We have defined our materiality that adheres to these strategies.

Wacom s materiality
1
2
3

Expanding our technology, product, and service portfolios to create new value and new
businesses as a technology company（For examples of technology innovation and new creative experiences, see pp. 24, 34, 42, 46, 48, 50）

Forming communities with our partners to create value and implement our corporate social
responsibility（For examples of community collaboration and co-creation, see pp. 60, 68）

Contributing towards a sustainable society through our technologies and products along with
our environmental initiatives such as our support of the TCFD and JCI frameworks（For examples of our sustainability initiatives, see pp. 72, 76）

Providing an environment conducive to individual growth

4（For examples of the growth-conducive environment we provide our human capital, see pp. 24, 70）

5（For an example of how our governance supports value creation, see p. 78）

Building a high-quality governance system based on diverse perspectives

17

“Life-long Ink” is a concept that closely relates

provides its customers so they can inscribe andcustomers not by explaining it in words but by

getting there in the fastest and shortest way

to a question I have constantly pondered: Whatetch their feelings and thoughts into a physicalpossible. It is about sharing a general goal with

can I do to provide deep-rooted support to themedium. This ink will be applied numerous

producing tangible experience that embodies
this life-long user journey. KISEKI ART is one

life of every person? Even when I first enteredthrough the doors of Wacom, I believed thattimes throughout a person’s life and then saved

example. Other examples include Wacom
Yuify, which involves creating a visualized log

own way and along your own route—choicesthat reflect your individuality. The pleasure andof a creator’s creative process and the stories

the company had a mission to embrace theand passed on from person to person overtime and distance. Perhaps this is the nature ofcreative expressions of all people—not just the

kotodoma—the ancient Japanese concept ofbehind the works they create, and a service that

excitement of a journey is not just in reaching thedestination but also in making new discoveries,

professional, richly conceived works of creators

finding power in words.

allows teachers to provide children with better

forging unexpected friendships and having

A life-changing drop of ink

schoolwork feedback through visualizations
that help them understand not just what the

serendipitious encounters, and finding new sides
to yourself. It is these small surprises that add

children write in the answers but how they write
it. By getting hands-on experience with thesespice to a journey. I want our customers—andmaybe even our Wacom team members—toand artists working in animation, comics, andother fields. I have spent my whole life asking
what it means to be human, searching foranswers in both the beauty of humanity and theto one’s life. It might be a vividly beautiful color;projects, our customers have been able toexperience many such surprises. And every time

Scramble Crossing when the term “Life-long Ink”
hit me like a bolt of lightning. All of a sudden,

or it might be the opposite. Either way, that

intuitively understand what Life-long Ink is about.
But Life-long Ink isn’t limited to the software-they look back on their user journey to date, I

based services we provide. It also applies toour digital devices—touch and pen tablets andother products. For us at Wacom, they are notsimply products but instruments that allow us topassionately support creators in their work foryears and years.
In my view, Wacom was offering Life-long Inklong before I came up with the concept—justlook at how we have embraced our professional
users in the creative and artist community.
But the closer you become with a professionaluser base, the more you begin to see it as yoursingular purpose to respond to their every need.
Eventually, the line between us and them mayvanish entirely, making us more or less one andthe same. Perhaps becoming too symbiotic
with our users is not compatible with the ideaof providing a service—which is at the heart ofthe concept of Life-long Ink. My point is that thereason I was so confident I was onto something
when I came up with the idea of Life-long Ink isthat I immediately realized that this was a service
that Wacom was already providing.

exist vividly in their memories.

The meaning behind the concept
I will now try to explain what this phrase—Lifelong Ink—means to me by separately exploringeach of the two words. When I hear the word“life-long,” what comes to mind is not the general
lifecycle of humans but my own life and the livesof the people to whom I am connected. Each ofthese lives has a bright side, as well as a darkside that we sometimes find difficult to express
in words. Each of these lives is an amalgamationof moments—fragments of memories. “Lifelong” is a term that encompasses all of this. It
is not a concept applied to some anonymous
life. It is about the specific stories of actual
people: myself and everyone with whom I sharea connection. Similarly, it is actual people weat Wacom have in mind when we create newexperiences and products.
And now, “Ink.” The word “Ink” to me means
more than just letters or lines. When I talk about
writing or drawing, I like to say “draw in” and“write in” to emphasize that these are acts oftransmission—of imprinting your thoughts andfeelings into a medium to create something new(a concept that is given physicality in the acts

Life-long Ink—the concept conjures images of a journey filled withexciting ink-based experiences; and now that Wacom is ready tounveil many of these experiences, the concept will begin to feel moretangible. Although newly coined, “Life-long Ink” could easily describe
Wacom’s past work as well, particularly in the way the company has
worked to support the creative output of its users. One might say thatthe company’s sense of purpose has simply been encapsulated into amemorable phrase. Wacom President and CEO Nobutaka Ide (Nobu)
talks about what the Life-long Ink is.

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I believe that a single drop of ink can add color

dark abyss that lies within us. I was at Shibuya

I could clearly see the line of ink trailing out of
the back of every person crossing that busy
intersection—lines of every shape and color,each one tracing that person’s life.

A Promise to Deliver
an Experience Journey

other people but making your way there in yourof inscribing, etching, and carving). Ink contains
thoughts and soul. When I talk about ink, I am
talking about the “instruments” that Wacom

single drop of ink might change your life. This
is what I pray for. I don’t expect ink to change
the world; but I do hope it changes your life. Life
isn’t all glitter and gold. There are ups, downs,
and violent crashes; for every great moment,
there is an equally bad moment. I want Wacom
to be the kind of company that embraces allthese moments as it works to change your life.
Anything that adds even just a bit of color toyour life—no matter what color—has meaning,wouldn’t you say? This is Life-long Ink: aperson’s life-long story with Ink.

A promise of an experience journey
Life-long Ink is neither the name of a
Wacom technology nor the company vision.
It is a promise. However, this is not some
vague promise made to an indeterminate
number of people. It is a personal promise
made by Wacom to actual customers. Whatis this journey? It is the accumulation of all
the experiences we deliver to our customers
throughout their lives via the technologies weare constantly refining. Our promise is to provide
our customers with experiences throughout theirlives that can only be achieved through our Inkrelated technologies. This idea is embodied byour ongoing KISEKI ART project, which involves
visualizing the path that a creative work takes tocompletion. Our technology is our foundation—
it is our medium for providing valuable newexperiences to our customers.
In the past few years, we have attempted toshare our concept of Life-long Ink with our

fervently hope that the instruments we develop

Memories filledwith Wacom instruments
The word “journey” is very important to me.
It is a very visual word, conjuring images of along trip in which you know the general directionin which you want to travel and make yourway there one step at a time, pushing past thevarious obstacles that get in your way. It is notabout having a specific destination in mind andLife- long Ink story
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WACOM’S PROMISETechnology
Partners

Wacom’s promise of delivering an experience journey

Seeking technologicaleminence together

Wacom pursues the following three axes in driving its daily business forward:
providing exceptional digital pen experiences to creators, contributing to awide range of customers through Wacom’s technologies, and refining thetechnologies that is Wacom’s lifeblood. By exploring these axes and producing
new experiential value, the realization of Life-long Ink awaits.

BrandedBusiness

Creative
Solution

Technology
Solution BusinessBusiness
Solution

CultureCo-creation
Partners
Exploring together toco-create new cultures

Business
Partners
Developing
new businesses together

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Ink Division

Every day, Wacom takes a few more steps
toward realizing Life-long Ink: a promise todeliver an experience journey to customers.
Three pillars of Wacom business—Branded
Business, Technology Solution Business, andthe Ink Division—are each contributing to therealization of this promise in their own ways.
Branded Business is composed of two areas:
Creative Solution and Business Solution. While
Wacom products play a central role in bothareas, the two are focused on different aspectsof Wacom’s business, and leveraging each other.
Business Solution deals directly withbusinesses, who are service providers and not
individual users. The decision whether to use
Wacom’s products is usually depends on how
much it helps the business; often, the businesschooses Wacom’s pen displays and pen tablets
based simply on their renown and reliability.
This reputation—the main driver behind thepermeation of Wacom products throughout theworld—is the result of years of work by Creative
Solution and Business Solution helps Creative
Solution as well. For example, by increasing thethe record of reliability and performance that
Branded Business has built up actually helps
Technology Solution Business convince OEM
customers to incorporate Wacom technology.
Meanwhile, Technology Solution Business’s
successful history of selling the technology to awide range of OEM customers helps Branded
Business make the case for the superiority of
their own products to artists and other creators.
The reciprocal relationship between the twobusinesses can be seen in other areas as well.
For example, Branded Business has started
sharing its own technologies with Technology
Solution Business. On the other hand, Branded
Business often benefits from the knowledge
that Technology Solution Business acquires in
the course of successfully meeting the toughest
demands of its OEM customers. With a new
initiative—Wacom KOBO—developing common
technology sharing between the two businesses,
we can expect Wacom’s technology to rapidly
evolve.
Both businesses are supported by the
Ink Division, which handles R&D for digitalrecognize the deeper meaning behind digitalwords and apply that meaning in a variety ofways. This technology has helped Technology
Solution Business expand its involvementin the education field. So, the Ink Division
primarily develops technologies to meet thebusiness needs of Branded Business andTechnology Solution Business; but sometimes,
the Ink Division independently develops newtechnologies that would lead to the launch of
new experience. This reciprocal relationship is
expected to bear fruit in the coming years.
Wacom is currently in the middle of atransformation, using its years of knowledge
and experience to transition from a productmanufacturer into a provider of new experiences.
These experiences can only be made possible
through close collaboration between Branded
Business, Technology Solution Business, and the
Ink Division. They include three experiences thathave already been made possible with Wacom
products: delivering immersive experience inwhich creators can draw freely, digital pen
experiences in everyday life scenes, and defining

number of businesses that incorporate Wacom
products in their services, Business Solution
can ensure that more people are using Wacom
products in their daily lives. As a result, when
one of these customers thinks about buying

ink technologies. Its primary responsibility
is to propose the solutions that meet thetechnological demands of Wacom’s customers,
whether they are individual users purchasing
Wacom products or OEM customers. It is not

the way forward. None of these experiences are
the sole domain of one business; they require
the kind of synergy that can only come about
when the three pillars are helping to enhanceeach other’s work.

a digital creative tool, they are more likely topurchase one of Creative Solution’s products.
While Branded Business deals with selling
Wacom brand products, Technology Solution
Business provides the technology with
OEM customers who may potentially createcompeting products. One might think this would

uncommon for the joint efforts of the Ink Division
and Branded Business to end up having an
impact on a Technology Solution Businessproject.
Sometimes, technology developed by the Ink
Division becomes a starting point for an entirely
new business. For example, the Ink Division has

Wacom’s goal is for Branded Business,
Technology Solution Business, and the Ink
Division to be able to work with each other evenmore organically so that they can heighten the
Wacom experience. In the following pages, wewould like to expand on the three experiences
we mentioned above.

put the two businesses in conflict. However,developed semantic ink, a technology that can

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