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President's Message
Aiming to become a good partner in building a sustainable society
In 1949, when DENSO was spun off from an automobile manufacturer’s component division, we had only a handful of clients. Today, we have grown into a global corporation that supplies key components and systems to the world’s top automakers and employs more than 110,000 people in 32 countries around the globe.
We appreciate that our customers and our stakeholders have supported us in the midst of a constantly changing era with their understanding of our sincere efforts to contribute to both the automotive industry and local communities, under our corporate philosophy of “contributing to a better world by creating value together with a vision for the future.”
In recent years, together with the efforts to build a sustainable society, the expectations for corporations have increased and the stakeholders have diversified. Also, there are demands for corporations to comply with legal and ethical standards and to contribute to local communities. Thus, we are required to use a management style that explores ways towards solving a wide variety of social and environmental issues in partnership with our many stakeholders. In other words, a corporation earns its reputation as a social member welcomed by people in the process of achieving social responsibilities, while increasing economic value.
In 2006, DENSO took its first step towards becoming a corporation that is trusted and supported by society. Now, I would like to introduce three propositions based on the activities detailed in this report.
Driving the DENSO Spirit to promote CSR management
In April 2006, we formulated the “DENSO Group Declaration of Corporate Behavior” as a new policy. We have shared this as a proposition to practice the corporate social responsibilities (CSR) throughout our group companies. This Declaration is our promise to proactively contribute to a sustainable society through all of our business activities and promote our management, setting CSR the as the core of our action. Also, the Declaration raises the awareness of the relationships among different stakeholders, including customers,shareholders, suppliers, local communities, and our associates, thereby mapping out what DENSO can, and should, do for each stakeholder.
Our individual associates are the central players in practicing CSR. In other words, the awareness and behavior of our more than 110,000 associates working in the countries and communities around the globe are especially important. As such, I have personally assumed the chair of the CSR Promotion Committee, which was established anew to properly diffuse and embed CSR within the Company. I am proceeding respective activities, incorporating a cycle of “Plan (proposal, procedure) － Do (implementation) － Check (assessment, examination) － Action (review, improvement) into their management.
Fortunately, the DENSO Spirit (Foresight, Credibility, Collaboration), a handed down faith and values since the foundation of the Company, has deeply diffused into our corporate culture. This spirit will drive a continuous improvement of our efforts for CSR.
Contributing to build an advanced automotive society
Participating in the creation of a sustainable society through “monozukuri” (manufacturing) is a vast proposition for DENSO, an automotive component maker. However, this proposition is a roadmap for presenting our significance through creative technologies. We have set “DENSO Vision 2015” as a guideline to realize this proposition and we are spreading out the activities of development and manufacturing that “contribute to building an advanced automotive society.” In this society, cars are in harmony with people, as well as the environment, without having a negative impact on them and people can truly feel content.
Among other things, we especially emphasize “environment” and “safety.” In fiscal 2006, we contributed to fuel efficiency and purification of exhaust gas from gasoline, hybrid, and diesel vehicles, with our automotive components and systems resulting from sophisticated technologies of control and manufacturing. In the area of safety, DENSO’s unique sensors and electronic control technologies helped bore a new safety system for detecting pedestrians. Furthermore, in order to make group-wide efforts against global warming, the DENSO group strengthened energy-saving activities at the manufacturing sites across the world. On top of that, in March 2007, an energy reduction technology stemming from our manufacturing part was approved by the Japanese government as a “Clean Development Mechanism*” in Malaysia, whereby we plan to contribute to the prevention of global warming. These results are described in the “DENSO CSR Challenge” and “Environmental Reporting” sections of this report.
* A system enacted as a part of the Kyoto Protocol for furthering the prevention of global warming. Under the system, an industrialized country supports a developing country in reducing CO2 emissions, and then the reduced amount can be added to that of the industrialized country.
Evolving into a truly global corporation
The third proposition is the evolution into a truly global corporation by establishing community-rooted business bases, thereby becoming responsive to the expectations and the trust of customers worldwide. In order to realize this, our basic policies and sense of value must be shared throughout the group, above all. Then, our entities in each location must autonomously promote their management in accordance with local market needs, restrictions, and cultures. Thus, our uniqueness must be exercised in our all business activities encompassing manufacturing, employment, human resource development, environmental conservation, and corporate citizenship.
We believe that “hitozukuri” (human resource development) is the driving source of the evolution. The hitozukuri, which is based on a long-term employment and designed to draw out the maximum potential from our associates of each personality, is one of DENSO’s strengths and assets. There is an urgent need to furnish the background to develop future local leaders in our foreign sites. In fiscal 2006, we poured our efforts into building a base for this background. From now on, we intend to strengthen more and improve hitozukuri.
Recently, we at DENSO have been recognized by a variety of organizations for our steadily continuous environmental activities and social efforts. Inspired by this recognition, we plan to deepen communications with more people and explore new ways for coordination and cooperation. This report and our website are important means to initiate these plans.
After you have read this report, please feel free to share your candid thoughts and opinions with us.
Koichi Fukaya
President and CEO
DENSO CORPORATION
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