That is where CSR activities have a useful role to play. CSR activities are social contributions, but they are not welfare activities. To engage in donations and volunteering pure and simple would be to go beyond our bounds as the Kobelco Construction Machinery Group. Because CSR activities entail returning some of the revenues of the Group to the places they came from, the activities should be rooted in locales where we are expanding our business.
It is fundamental for CSR activities to support the Kobelco Construction Machinery Group employees in the locales where they are undertaken, and to be of service to them in their hearts and in their actions. That is why we consider proposals emanating from any factory and do not grudge assistance even for small activities. Even undertaking some small activity will give opportunities for understanding the country concerned. Gathering opinions from operational domains before one climbs to the next stage in them is what generates footholds for growth as a global enterprise.
The happiest thing for Kobelco Construction Machinery Group as a company will be if its employees feel truly "glad to have worked for the company all the way to retirement". I think that it will be enough for us to be a "good company" that is capable of sympathy for its employees – we do not have to be a fine and grand "best company".
Achievements of the Medium-term Business Vision, and our next task
The basic goal of the Medium-term Business Vision, which this year is in its final year, was to "build business entities that are strong in the face of change". This was because amid the period of recession when I took office, we desired to build foundations that would bring in fixed revenues in periods of any kind. But in actual fact our business underwent expansion due to growth far exceeding the projections, causing us to introspect on how we had failed to prepare for this explosive growth.
What makes managing a business difficult is being unable to see what lies ahead. The issues facing Kobelco Construction Machinery Group at the moment are, however, plainly visible. These present issues are so large as to be embroiling the industry as a whole, and how to cope with the impacts and cost increases that they threaten is a problem.
It is the same with regard to global environmental preservation. Environmental problems need to be thought about at the global level and can no longer be solved through superficial technology sharing. For the Kobelco Construction Machinery Group, this means we must pour our energies into product development that can contribute to environmental preservation, such as hybridization of excavators. In order for us to go on meeting environmental challenges as a business, I would like each and every one of us to carry forward the spirit expressed in our "That's Kobelco!" slogan.
|
