East & West – Bridgestone restructuring global management

The Board of Directors of Bridgestone Corporation today approved a resolution to implement a new global management structure. This structure will take effect on 1 January 2024 and divide Bridgestone’s business into two regions, Bridgestone East and Bridgestone West. Each region will have its own Chief Executive Officer who will report to Global Chief Executive Officer, Shu Ishibashi.

Within these two regions, the current Strategic Business Units (SBUs) will be organised into six new SBUs. Bridgestone West will consist of two SBUs, BSEMEA (EU, Middle East and Africa) and BSAM (Americas). The company’s business in India, which is presently part of Bridgestone EMIA, will become part of a SBU within Bridgestone East.

Bridgestone East will include four SBUs, BSJP (Japan Tire), BSDP (Diversified Business, Exploratory Business), G-MICA (Global Mining, Industrial, Construction, Aviation Tire Solutions), and BSAPIC (Asia Pacific, India, China).

Bridgestone’s two joint Global Chief Operating Officers will lead the regions. Paolo Ferrari will become Chief Executive Officer of Bridgestone West and Masahiro Higashi becomes Chief Executive Officer of Bridgestone East. Alongside their new roles, both remain Joint Global COO.

Bridges & local management areas

All six SBUs will reside under the umbrella of a Global Bridge Integration organisation whose role is to ensure consistency between global and regional strategies and to maximise the group’s efficiency and effectiveness. Within this organisation, Masahiro Higashi will serve as Global CAO (Chief Administration Officer) and Paolo Ferrari as Global CXDO (Chief Digital Transformation Officer).

The four Bridgestone East SBUs will additionally be connected via an East Bridge Integration organisation while the two Bridgestone West SBUs will form a West Bridge Integration organisation. Furthermore, to help Bridgestone become “more deeply involved in local specific issues,” the company is restructuring SBUs into 28 local management areas, 15 within Bridgestone East and 13 in Bridgestone West.

Passion for Excellence

Commenting on the upcoming restructuring of Bridgestone Corporation’s global management, Shu Ishibashi, Global Chief Executive Officer and Representative Executive Officer, stated: “We have been driving management by balancing the three management axes – ‘tackle past negative legacies without delay’, ‘focus on execution and delivering results for immediate issues’, and ‘lay foundation for future growth’, while responding to change.

With these axes, we will evolve to the next stage by reforming our management approach from ‘Crisis’ triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic starting from 2020 to the next stage with ‘Passion for Excellence’. The Bridgestone group will continue striving to boost corporate value based on the reinforcement of its New ‘Glocal’ management structure, accelerating its transformation through 24 MBP (Mid Term Business Plan 2024-26), by ‘focus on execution and delivering results’, having our focus on respect for being on-site, promoting agile Plan-Do-Check-Act, enhancing business quality through innovation and continuous improvement, and pursuing operational excellence.”