Nikkei Hosts Symposium on CSR
On 27 April 2004, Nikkei held a symposium at a Nikkei Hall in Tokyo on CSR: CSR for leading to new corporate management. A total of 689 people packed the hall for the symposium, which explored the meaning of a good company and a good organization and proposed CSR as the next stage of corporate development.
In the opening session, Iwao Taka, professor at Reitaku University and Chief director of R-BEC (Business Ethics and Compliance Research Center), delivered the keynote address, and there were also keynote reports from Kunio Ishihara, president of Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance, and Shin-ichi Koyama, executive vice president of Fuji Xerox.
In the second session, there was a panel discussion involving Katsuhito Iwai ( professor, Univesity of Tokyo), Kimie Iwata(general manager, CSR Dept., Shiseido), Hideaki Kobayashi (lawyer) and Hiroaki Niihara (director, information Technology & Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), during which the four discussed the prerequisites of CSR.
The panelists expressed a number of opinions, among them that CSR is the very essence of management, A corporate culture open to diversity is essential, CSR goes beyond governance, and Assessing short-term shareholder value is not enough. They also discussed to whom companies actually belong and the rationale behind their existence.
A survey that participants were asked to fill out showed that many are planning to redefine what their companies stand for. In reply to a question concerning what was understood by CSR, 48.5 percent of respondents (who gave multiple answers) saw it as improving long-term customer value, followed by altering employees outlook (30.8 percent),
it is clear that many business persons see CSR as a necessary element for the long-term growth and sustainability of their company.
Further, in answer to the question, What points do you consider important when introducing CSR? the answers were: a corporate philosophy (54.1 percent), followed by corporate culture (37.5 percent). Aspects such as corporate philosophy, corporate culture, and the motivation of individual employees, are not concepts to be taken lightly. Unless they are addressed conscientiously and with a view to the long term, many business people believe that CSR won't take root.
Based on the above results, a second symposium is now being planned for November 16, 2004. This will be on the topic of Employees Who Can Realize CSR, the point being that no matter what kind of CSR management system is introduced, in the end; people are going to be responsible for implementing it. In particular, one of the characteristics of Japanese corporations is long-term employment, which has a big influence on companies in ways both good and bad, and has a big influence on Japanese companies. Further, as the psychologist Abraham Maslow has written, work is what connects individuals with society. CSR is not going to come from employees who don't have the will to work. Good people make for a good organization, and a good organization makes for good people. This is what CSR is all about.
How CSR Is Perceived
Nikkei CSR project conducted a survey of the 689 business people who attended a symposium on Corporate Social Responsibility that it hosted on April 27 in Tokyo. Of the 344 who responded, 63 percent worked for companies with over 1,000 employees, and about 40 percent were executives above the rank of manager. The results show the high level of interest in CSR among Japan's major corporations.
