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Aiming to become a "sustainable company" to contribute to a "sustainable society" |
The Hitachi Cable Group regards the year 2006 when the
company celebrated its 50th anniversary since its spin-off from
Hitachi, Ltd. as the "starting year of its second foundation," and
took a new step forward toward development and expansion for
the next 50 years. However, the financial crisis triggered by the
bankruptcy of a major US securities company last year caused
an unprecedented global economic crisis, and we are now facing
harsh and adverse business environments in turmoil.
At the same time, when we consider CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibility), sustainability is a very important element,
and in order for a company to contribute to the realization of
a "sustainable society," it must essentially be a "sustainable
company." Following the spirit of Hitachi's founders with the
concepts of "harmony," "sincerity" and a "pioneering spirit"
and under the corporate vision of "Empowering Energy &
Communication," we announced we are tackling the challenge
of communicating and "transmitting" information and energy
in a faster, more secure and efficient manner. By putting the
vision into practice, we are committed to become a "sustainable
company," making efforts to realize a "sustainable society."
The most important thing in becoming a sustainable
company is to fulfill CSR through business activities, and we
adopt the following two approaches for this challenge:
The first approach is to contribute to society through our
Group's business, i.e. by providing products and services. The
second approach is to fulfill responsibilities for society through
the process of promoting our Group operations.
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To contribute to society through products and services |
In order to contribute to society through products and services
as our first approach, we believe it is most important to put the
following three points into practice.
The first is "cultivating market acumen." In order to
sustainably grow and develop by overcoming current harsh
business environments, cultivating market acumen to steer the
direction of the Group is essential. It is critical to identify the
markets in which we are directly and indirectly involved and
where we can expect growth. We need to identify what business
fields we can make further contribution to a future society and
sustain growth, for example, business operations to contribute
to the protection of the global environment and ecosystems
through the realization of a low-carbon society and an elimination
of hazardous materials; business operations to support childrearing,
care, parenting and education in response to the aging
society with a declining birthrate and to promote a work-life
balance; and business operations to promote diversities and
solutions of global poverty issues. We need to have the power to
consider and make judgments on how we can get involved in such
business fields, what we should do and what investment action
we need. This is what we call marketing power. All divisions and
departments including Sales, R&D, and Design make efforts
to properly grasp the markets, aggressively exchange opinions
across divisions and departments and determine what market we
should target and what business direction we should take.
The second is "further advances in manufacturing." The
manufacturing power of our Group has steadily improved with the
introduction of the "Hitachi Cable Just-in-Time (JIT) Production
System." We will establish stable corporate strength through
having the activity more widely and deeply rooted in our Group and maximizing such achievements as shortened leadtimes
and reduced inventory as sources of corporate strength.
Other critical themes of manufacturing, include how we create
environment-friendly products, how to promote eco-friendly
designs in response to EuP directives*1, how to deal with REACH
regulations*2 and RoHS directives*3 with thorough management
of chemical substances contained in products and how to reduce
the amount of final disposal by enhancing waste recycling.
The third is a materialization of our Group's corporate vision,
"Empowering Energy & Communication." In order to survive in
a globally linked market across borders and regions or the socalled
global single market, we need to have ultimate power in all
aspects of our operations, including sales, marketing, production
technology, quality and R&D. It is our belief that by creating
products with our commitment to "communication" one by one
and continuously launching them to the world, we can enhance
customer satisfaction and establish the Hitachi Cable brand as a
company "Empowering Energy & Communication."
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Critical to fulfill responsibilities in promoting business |
For the second approach, our concept of fulfilling social
responsibilities in the process of promoting our Group's
operations is as follows:
In the supply chain in our operations, we believe it is
important to promote initiatives in consideration of the global
environment such as CO2 emission reductions through fuel
conversion and modal shifts and to promote the respect of
human rights and diversity by securing health and safety and
by realizing a work-life balance for the people working in the
chain. We also commit ourselves to exercise responsibilities in
our promotion of operations one by one, including coexistence
with the communities near our works, strengthening of proper
information disclosure and communication for shareholders
and investors, and an establishment of a compliance system by
reinforcing internal control.
To achieve this, we established the "Hitachi Cable Group CSR
Policy" (see page 16) and make efforts to reinforce its thorough
understanding among individual Group employees and to
promote an understanding among a wide variety of stakeholders
concerned with our Group.
A shortcut to our corporate vision is realized by promoting
bi-directional communication with customers, shareholders,
investors, suppliers and society and local communities and
disclosing information in a proper and timely manner.
In June 2009, we experienced an on-the-spot inspection
under the suspicion that we had unfairly limited transactions
of fiber optic cables and associated equipment for
telecommunication carriers.
Taking this opportunity, we stick to the "straight and narrow"
by promoting a thorough compliance of laws, regulations and
corporate ethics.
We position this report as a tool to communicate with
stakeholders in order for the Hitachi Cable Group to contribute
to the realization of a "sustainable society" through its corporate
vision of "Empowering Energy & Communication." We would
appreciate your frank opinions on the report and its contents.
| *1 | EuP directives: EU directives requiring environment-conscious design for energyusing products |
| *2 | REACH regulations: EU rules concerning registration, assessment, certification and restriction of chemical substances |
| *3 | RoHS directives: EU directives concerning restrictions of the use of specific hazardous materials in electronic and electric equipment |
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