President's Message
Engaging with stakeholders and helping to build a sustainable society through the collaboration and cooperation of employees
Ever-greater expectations and responsibilities of global corporations
My name is Nobuaki Katoh, and I assumed the post of President and CEO of DENSO Corporation in June 2008. Thank you for taking the time to look over our CSR Report. When I joined DENSO in 1971, Japan had already begun its period of rapid economic growth. The following year, however, an international think tank called the Club of Rome published a research report titled Limits to Growth that asserted:
If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years … It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on Earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.
While international society has collaborated and cooperated through a variety of frameworks during the 36 years that have passed since the report’s publication, the world today continues to face numerous challenges, including climate change and other environmental issues; population problems, particularly in developing countries; soaring resource prices; food crises; and poverty. It seems clear that we have entered a time when we can scarcely avoid concluding that the Earth, too, has its limits.
At the same time, global corporations, which exert a significant influence on regional and international society, are finding themselves subject to the expectation that they will fulfill a reasonable level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in such areas as employment, respect for human rights and diversity, environmental conservation and corporate citizenship. In this climate, those corporations that grasp their own role and actively fulfill their responsibility garner high levels of support, while those that fail in their response or commit anti-social behavior find themselves fading from the center of their business arena.
Against the backdrop of these developments, DENSO conducted an internal re-examination of how we could best contribute to the creation of a sustainable society as a global entity with approximately 120,000 employees in 32 countries and of how we should conduct ourselves as a corporate citizen, incorporating feedback from our stakeholders. As a result of that process, we set forth a series of medium- and long-term goals in 2006 and placed CSR squarely at the base of our corporate management.
As a manufacturer that plays an important role in the automotive society
The primary theme of DENSO’s social responsibility as a manufacturer of automotive parts lies in contributing to progress in automobiles, which are expected to be a mode of transportation that is both safe and environmentally friendly. The DENSO Vision 2015 long-term management policy adopted in 2005 makes explicit our commitment to developing innovative technologies in order to help create an advanced automotive society which is accident-free with minimal environmental impact.
Traffic accidents remain a serious social issue, and their elimination is one of the most important challenges faced by society. DENSO is addressing these issues by improving the safety performance of numerous vehicle models by developing industry-leading products that take advantage of our advanced sensing and electronic control technologies to detect pedestrians and maintain a safe following distance while driving.
The environmental issues of energy and resource depletion, global warming and air pollution have also become urgent challenges for the automotive society. In order to resolve these issues, DENSO is developing technologies such as a common rail system that provides a revolutionary level of purification performance for diesel vehicle exhaust emissions, a control system that provides optimal distribution of motor and engine output for hybrid vehicles and a refrigeration cycle system with dramatically improved energy efficiency, thereafter applying them to a variety of products in vehicle, housing and other market segments.
In addition to these efforts directed toward developing product technologies, in fiscal 2008 we have redoubled our Eco Factory Plan, which seeks to expand initiatives to minimize the environmental impact of monozukuri (manufacturing) by more aggressively promoting energy conservation, resource recycling and reductions in the use of chemical substances at manufacturing bases worldwide. In fiscal 2009, we must accelerate and leverage these initiatives to implement our vision.
As a corporate citizen participating in the building of a sustainable society
In addition to contributions through business activities, an increasingly essential component of CSR is to contribute to the building of a sustainable society as a corporate citizen.
Since opening our first overseas site in 1966, we have worked to practice management that is firmly rooted in each community in which we have a presence, while learning to be a corporate citizen in accordance with a variety of local cultures and customs. The driving force behind this effort has been the willingness of each of our employees to face social issues together with our many stakeholders and address them in good faith. This willingness draws its strength from the DENSO Spirit (characterized by Foresight, Credibility and Collaboration), an intangible asset that has grown out of the experience of our predecessors since the Company’s founding.
This report’s special feature entitled “DENSO CSR Challenge” introduces employees who are dealing with local and international social issues as corporate citizens. In each case, their participation in these activities gives them an awareness of the issues facing society and of the expectations to which we are subject; in each case, they collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders and are involved in issues on an ongoing basis. I believe that these experiences provide a means for understanding individual social responsibility (ISR), and in the process, pave the way for new ideas and actions. That is the real meaning of CSR, and I am confident that it will take us on a growth path toward becoming the kind of truly global corporation that a sustainable society requires.
By reporting on DENSO’s CSR initiatives, this report aims to solicit a variety of suggestions and opinions from a larger base of stakeholders so that we can better make improvements and work together with our stakeholders as we discover new issues and challenges. I welcome your candid feedback.
Nobuaki Katoh
President and CEO
DENSO CORPORATION |
 |
|
|
