Sharp Corp president Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) yesterday said he will forgo his salary as a member of Sharp’s board of directors, and cancel a base and managerial salary reduction as part of efforts to boost employee morale.
The cancelation of salary reductions is to take place next month at the earliest, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun and Nikkei Shimbun quoted Tai as saying.
Tai’s remarks came before the second day of Sharp’s internal two-day meeting in Japan.
The event was Tai’s first meeting after taking over from former president Kozo Takahashi on Aug. 14, when Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) injected ￥388.8 billion (US$3.86 billion) capital into the company.
Sharp in August last year trimmed base salaries by 2 percent and cut managerial salaries by 5 percent in an attempt to return to profitability.
According to the reports, Tai said the company will compensate employees by offering subsidies and will pay managerial staff a bonus based on their individual performance.
The company will carry out a large-scale corporate restructuring plan to return to profitability, with hopes of restoring Sharp’s brand image as a provider of innovative consumer electronics, Tai said.
Sharp is to aggressively invest in research and development, while Hon Hai is to provide support for components purchases and manufacturing, the reports said.
Tai said he wants every employee to stay with the company if possible, but it might be necessary to make cuts if business operations do not improve.
In a bid to encourage employees to work harder and take individual responsibility, Sharp is mulling individual performance evaluations instead of it usual team evaluations, the reports said.
Shares of Sharp surged 2.2 percent to close at ￥138 in Tokyo trading yesterday.
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