Around the World w/Ricoh #3

Players gathered in Beijing competing for Ricoh Cup of Go Chess





In order to enlarge Chinese traditional culture of go chess and promote development of the cause of Chinese go chess, Ricoh Corporation, Ricoh China Co., Ltd. and Beijing Jin Hua Ming Office Equipment Co., Ltd. have been holding the “Ricoh Cup of Go Chess” every year since 2000 together with the China Academy of Chess. The forth competition of go chess has inaugurated in Beijing on December 9th, 2003.

Featuring in gathering well-known people and providing opportunity for more players, the competition has invited the players ranking the first 28 on the list of Chinese professional chess players including Gu Li, Kong Jie, Zhou Heyang, Chang Hao, Nie Weiping, Zhang Xuan etc. and lady and young players including the 14 winners of national competition of go chess for new players (competition of youngsters) and the two young payers who participated in competition of world cup. Ye Gui and Cao Cheng, champion and the second prize winner of the National Championship of Go Chess (female single) have been also invited in the competition.

By sponsoring the competition, Ricoh has actively built up an excellent corporate image. Just like the game of go which is a challenge of wisdom and courage, Ricoh’s sponsorship of such competitions reflects its determination of fighting for being the first in the circle in the fierce market competition by its advanced technology and service concept.

The first and second round of the competition have already been held in Beijing on December 8th and 9th in 2003. The finals will be held on March 14th, 2004. We believe this competition gathering 48 high level players will be marvelous than ever!

Neon lighted by RICOH in Beijing



On July 6 at 8:30 pm, on the roof of Landmark Tower located in East San Huan Bei Road where foreign companies gather, the neon sign was lighted up by the multinational company RICOH. RICOH, is an international campany that engages in manufacturing and selling office automation equipment such as copier and printer. Height of 7m and large of 42m, the red letters with white background glimmer in busy night, displaying alternately “RICOH” and its Chinese characters. This super neon sign in Beijing not only plays a role of advertisement, but also symbolizes the determination of RICOH to continuously seek better quality and create better performance in China.

A grand ceremony of lighting was held that day at Kempinski Hotel. Totally 50 guests including president of RICOH, leaders from Beijing municipal government, users of RICOH products and agents of RICOH attended the ceremony in a warm and pleasant atmosphere, reaching its climax at 8:30pm when the president of RICOH and the guests jointly pushed switch to light up the neon.

Since the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations on 1972, along with the development of Chinese economy, RICOH has been expanding its investment in China. At present, there are all together 14 companies belonging to RICOH Group in China with staff of nearly 7,000 and total amount of sales of RMB7.5 billions.

The lighting up in Beijing this time is a good promotion of RICOH’s corporate image and at the same time a symbol of RICOH’s all-out efforts in China. We believe RICOH’s development in China will be even more splendid like this glimmering beam of light.

Ricoh Paper & Office Supplies Lucky Draw Program






Ricoh paper and office supplies lucky draw program was successfully completed. We had 5,268 customers to be entitled one or more than one entry to the lucky draw of the following:

1st prize - one unit of Philips 170MT 17" LCD TV
2nd prize - one East Ocean Seafood Restaurant cash coupon HK$3,000
3rd prize - one unit of Ricoh Caplio G4 wide digital camera
4th to 10th prize - Jusco cash coupon HK$500
The lucky draw result of the competition had been advertised in Sing Tao Daily & The Standard on 18th Jun. A presentation ceremony was held on 28th Jun, Mr Samuel Ho, Director of Sales & Customer Service Department was invited to present the prizes to the winners and share their happiness at that time.

Saints Crash at the Ricoh


Coventry 2 Southampton 1


The Ricoh Arena
20/02/07
Attendance: 17194



Report
Less-than-Subtle Coventry Dash Automatic Promotion Hopes

Southampton`s playoff status was thrown into real doubt for the first time since their mid-October after 'new manager syndrome` seemed to affect most performances at the Ricoh arena. Instead of relentlessly and clinically building on Saturday`s victory over Barnsley, Southampton last night capitulated to a 2-1 loss and perhaps more worryingly, put out what was probably their worst performance of the season. Coventry themselves were no better, but were arguably more effective. The punts sent forward time and time again caused Lundekvam and especially Pele more problems than they should have done and resulted in two goals.

The formbook suggested that Southampton would be able to pick up another three points, with Coventry suffering a humiliating 3-0 defeat at rivals Leicester at the weekend. The arrival of Iain Dowie was always going to give Coventry an extra incentive to perform, but in all honesty Southampton`s defeat had more to do with their own mindset than Coventry`s.

It took less than five minutes for Coventry to break through; Lundekvam was beaten to a dropkick from Marshall and Pele`s sluggish reaction to the flick-on allowed Adebola to give Dowie an ideal start to his reign at the Ricoh. It was a catalogue of errors from the Southampton defensive triangle of Davis, Lundekvam and Pele, each of whom should have prevented the goal. For this, the trio can certainly be held responsible, although there was far more to this abject performance than just the defending. Even so there was almost an immediate reply from the Saints as Jones beat Marshall to a looping Surman cross but his goalbound header lacked the power to beat Hawkins on the goal-line. Coventry were clearly lacking any confidence in defending set-plays and it was from one of these that Southampton equalised on twelve minutes. Viafara met Skacel`s corner but his header was cleared high in the air. Marshall looked favourite to claim as the ball game down but spilled under pressure from Saganowski who turned the ball in from close range.

Southampton failed to pressure Coventry into any more mistakes and a series of misplaced passes from Wright and Pele frustrated Burley who could see that his side were missing the opportunity to take the initiative and put themselves in command of the match. Kevin Kyle and Adebola continued to panic Lundekvam and Pele and it was once again a defensive lapse that gifted the home side a half-time lead. Doyle aimed a cross to the back-post but Davis` indecision left him in no-man`s-land when Kyle left Pele for dead to guide his header just beneath the crossbar. Neither side threatened as the half drew to a close until Jones` inspired run and shot caught a slight deflection and flew just wide.

Burley re-organised his beleaguered side at the interval, sending on Ostlund in place of Pele and the anonymous Skacel was replaced by Belmadi, as the Saints boss tried to inspire some creativity in the second period. Baird was moved to centre half and his combative style stemmed the tide from the Coventry forwards, who found it increasingly difficult to link up as Southampton improved and began to impose themselves on the game. Despite this it was the home side who almost extended their lead with Doyle`s free-kick deceiving Davis but only clipping the post on its way past. Bale was at last beginning to cause Coventry problems and after being unceremoniously scythed down on the run several times he finally made his way to the byline and flashed the ball across goal. Jones had drifted to the far post but couldn`t direct the ball home from two yards. Saganowski`s trickery eventually came off as he bore down on goal after good work from Surman but his shot from the narrow angle was held on the second attempt by Marshall with Jones lurking.

Coventry were now hanging onto their lead and Bale robbed Osbourne on the edge of his own box but his shot was again saved well by Marshall. It looked as though Southampton`s final chance had gone as the final twenty minutes passed by in frustrating fashion for the Saints support, with Belmadi, Wright and Saganowski all guilty of needlessly conceding possession for Coventry to relieve pressure. Four minutes of stoppage time were added but in the last of these Bale broke through again, stepping past four players to create the best opening of the match for the Saints but his right-footed shot wasn`t enough to beat a relieved Marshall.

It seems that Southampton have succeeded in playing themselves out of contention for a top two spot, bar an unprecedented run of form in the final twelve games. There is, though, reason to hold onto hope: neither Cardiff or Wolves look capable of maintaining promotion form for long enough to deny Southampton of a playoff place. But by the time Southampton get there, they need to have learned to take their chances when they come and to go into every game as if it means something. If they do that, then they might just stand a chance of reaching the promised land. We need to learn and learn quickly.

Ricoh Launches Tree Planting Offset Program

Ricoh UK has joined the growing list of companies implementing tree growing initiatives by offering its customers the opportunity to plant fruit trees in a bid to offset carbon emissions.

The printer manufacturer is working with Seeds for Africa, which, according to Ricoh, educates young people in Africa about how to farm their own fruit and vegetables.

The program monitors the printer and copier usage levels of businesses. For every 100,000 photocopies or prints generated by a customer a tree is planted. Customers will then be given a certificate at each stage of the program to assist in their own corporate social responsibility activities.

“The program will not only work towards negating carbon emissions caused by printing and photocopying, it will also help combat the massive deforestation affecting parts of Africa,” according to a Ricoh statement (via Green Business News).

“100,000 prints may sound like a lot but we overestimated the emissions in the calculations to ensure that we can say with confidence that the scheme covers the emissions generated,” Chas Moloney, associate director of marketing at Ricoh told Green Business News. “We have already dedicated thousands of trees through other programs; this scheme takes it one step further by supporting local communities.”

The news came as a new report from the Centre for Economic Business Research claimed that UK organizations waste £1bn a year on printing through a combination of poor print management processes and ill-conceived print outsourcing contracts.

Earlier this month, Dell began offering customers the opportunity to offset the emissions associated with the electricity used to power their computers through its Plant a Tree for Me program.

The reaction to the announcement has been positive, but at least one article wondered why Dell wasn’t paying to plant the trees themselves.

Studies have questioned whether planting trees is an effective way to fight global warming.

Just yesterday, Grist had an article about the human toll to carbon-offsetting tree plantations.