To reaffirm the direction of Omron's CSR strategy and its future vision, and to incorporate new ideas into its future activities, Omron engaged in a dialogue with external experts under the theme of “sustainable development in a global recession.”

The following summarizes the views of the participating experts regarding three subjects. A keynote speech by Mr. Takashi Kiuchi, chairman of E-Square Inc., is also included, along with remarks by Omron participants.

Participating stakeholders

• 

  Ms. One AkiyamaPresident, IntegreX Inc.

• 

  Mr. Naoki AdachiPresident, Response Ability, Inc.

• 

  Ms. Yoko IshikuraProfessor of Graduate School of International
  Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University

• 

  Mr. Takashi KiuchiChairman, E-Square Inc.

Facilitator

• 

  Mr. Peter D. PedersenChief Executive, E-Square Inc.

Participants from Omron Corporation

• Fumio Tateisi　Director and Executive Vice Chairman
• Hideo Higuchi　Managing Officer
• Takuji Yamamoto　Managing Officer
• Kazunobu Amemiya　Managing Officer
• Kojiro Tobita　Managing Officer
• Masaki Teshigahara　Executive Officer
• Takeshi Miyamoto　General Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility Management Department, Corporate Strategic Planning HQ

Excerpts of Mr. Kiuchi’s keynote speech
Toward a new “life-sized world”

In the past, we put the highest priority on economic development due to self-centered value perceptions. Today, we are seeing a growing interest in sustainable development that emphasizes development of our society, or development of local communities. I’d like to use the phrase “size of life” as the keyword for this move. I feel that the key requirement today is to create a “life-sized world” in which the power of nature, people and communities are in complete harmony, and people will again be able to restore the brilliant energy of life.

I think it is very meaningful to engage in a discussion regarding the theme of today's dialogue, “sustainable development in a global recession,” and draw conclusions from the discussion. In the future, we will need as many opportunities as possible to think and exchange views, so that we can awaken ourselves to new discoveries.

“Specify a mission and make good use of resources to address social issues.”-Ms. Akiyama

The days are gone when CSR meant that companies needed only to maintain compliant and ethical behavior. I believe that CSR today requires demonstrating leadership to actively address social challenges. Companies are now expected to utilize various resources proactively and effectively to solve social issues, rather than simply meeting the requirements of society in a passive manner. Only companies that can fulfill this expectation and address social challenges through their business will be able to build a sustainable competitive edge.

It is important for each company to identify its own mission from among the many issues and requirements of society, and take action to realize this mission. You should first declare your goal and put yourself in a situation that gives you no choice but to commit to addressing social issues. You should then consistently report the progress of your efforts. In this way, you’ll be able to clarify the signifi cance of your activities and address stakeholders in a more convincing way. In that sense, continuous communication of your commitment both internally and externally will be very important for the fulfi llment of CSR.

“Companies are now asked ‘what can you do?’ in response to various situations.”-Mr. Adachi

CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility, and the inclusion of “responsibility” may give you an image of “something that you must do.” But “responsibility” is a combination of “response” and “ability,” so to me CSR is something that tests companies' ability: how they can respond to various situations in society, and what they can do.

For example, welfare services provided by the government will always be subject to cost constraints once a certain limit is exceeded. However, companies can secure a fi nancial source for people in need of assistance, or offer job opportunities to help them achieve self-dependence by creating a new business platform. I believe that activities of this sort are possible only by companies, and thus can be called CSR in its true sense.

CSR should not be an add-on activity such as simply giving profi ts earned through business back to society. Rather, it should be a contribution to society using business resources themselves.

“I expect unique CSR practices that only Omron can perform.”-Ms. Ishikura

I basically think that CSR must be a part of corporate strategies. In that sense, CSR activities should be active, not passive, and they should be distinctive or unique, not general.

With that in mind, the key is to embed CSR into each company’s value chain, that is, the process of creating added value and delivering it to customers. In other words, you should make CSR one of the factors for creating value. Moreover, instead of limiting value creation processes to in-house activities, it is important to develop a value chain through collaboration with external partners. There, a “win-win” relationship should be established in which all participating parties can enjoy benefits. I hope Omron will aim to develop quintessentially Omron solutions to address social issues by taking advantage of its core competencies and assets, which I believe is exactly what is meant by Omron's principle, “innovation driven by social needs.”

“CSR is the key to realizing company optimization or social optimization.” -Ms. Akiyama

If all employees dealing with a diversity of tasks have a common mission and philosophy of “fulfilling CSR,” it would not only unite everyone's thoughts and intentions, but also serve as the key to optimization of the entire company, transcending the partial optimization of each department. It is important to advance a step further on this approach to lead to social optimization. But as long as your company's philosophy is aligned to the mission of the entire globe, which is to achieve continuation of the earth and sustainable development of society, company optimization should naturally lead to social optimization. In that sense, it is important to see whether your company's philosophy is in fact aligned with the global-scale mission to begin with.

“Utilization of solar energy is the most important point for business transformation.-Mr. Adachi

The only resources that can be sustained several hundred years into the future are biological resources. One hundred years or so from now, the economy will have been transformed from a system based on minerals such as oil and coal to bio-based alternatives. And solar energy is the key factor supporting these biological resources.

Humans use a vast amount of energy, yet the solar energy used by plants on Earth is ten times that of our consumption. Moreover, the sun casts as much as 1,000 times this energy down to the Earth. The question of how to use this inexhaustible energy source will be the most important point for future business transformation.

“Initiatives from a long-term perspective such as infrastructure development will be essential.”-Ms. Ishikura

In today's world, industrial, national and organizational boundaries have been weakened. At the same time, “flat” power relationships have emerged between advanced nations and developing nations, and between suppliers and consumers. In this situation, it is important to seek originality at the local level along with global movements.

For example, suppose you not only sell products and technologies to a certain country but also provide educational assistance for using them. That kind of activity will help boost that country's power while also promoting your company's business. Activities from a long-term perspective such as this will be essential.

“Defi ne your goal first, then seek measures needed to achieve it.” -Ms. Akiyama

In times like today, it is important to break away from the traditional idea of “building up what you already have” and adopt the concept of “backcasting.” This begins by defi ning a desirable near-future, then working backwards to identify measures needed to achieve it. The foundation for this approach is corporate philosophy. In the future, businesses will be required to have an unshakable philosophy, and to demonstrate the commitment of executives to fulfill global-scale missions such as environmental preservation and energy conservation. Doing so may be a risk, but it also offers great opportunity.

“The biggest risk is a delay in response to changes in the business environment.”-Mr. Adachi

As situations around us change, we must also change the rules of our society and our companies. The biggest risk we face may be in delaying our response to these changes. What are common rules that can be shared in the new world? I believe it is vital to find the answer to this question. With respect to corporate activities, a global perspective will be more important than ever. Above all, Asia, which is closest to us in regard to people, resources and geopolitics, will hold an increasingly important position.

“Companies will play a leading role in addressing social challenges.”-Ms. Ishikura

A single situation can be interpreted as a risk or an opportunity depending on your point of view. In the future, it will be important to maintain a balance between these two opposing factors and embrace both, rather than relying on the “either-or” structure. Instead of choosing between the masses or the individual, competition or collaboration, open or closed, etc., changing “or” to “and” will open up new possibilities.

In addressing social challenges as well, it is important to combine profi t and non-profi t rather than making a choice between the two. In that sense, companies will play leading roles in addressing social challenges. Resources for creating value, technological resources in particular, are in the possession of companies. Companies also have valuable experience in competing and developing with each other in a highly competitive global marketplace. I hope that Omron will take the lead in efforts to address social challenges by leveraging its resources and experience.

In response to the above comments, participants from Omron Corporation made the following remarks:

• Beginning some 20 years ago, CSR has consistently served as the backbone of Omron's corporate activities, based on the awareness that fulfillment of our responsibility of offering benefits to society is the very purpose of a company's existence. We will continue to keep asking ourselves what we can do for the benefit of society in our day-to-day work.
• We have been engaged in a wide range of businesses in order to meet society's needs, but I sometimes feel that these diverse businesses may have become unconnected from one another. We should again return to the starting point - who we are - in order to define clear-cut criteria upon which these diverse businesses should be integrated.
• In the past, we have pursued scale and quality, but from now on it will become more and more important to contribute to the sustainability of our company, and ultimately to the sustainability of society. The criteria for evaluating companies will also shift from such profitability indicators as profit-and-loss statements, to indicators showing the level of investment oriented toward sustainability of society. We will also have to respond to that change.
• I think the most important aspect of corporate social responsibility is creating employment opportunities. We should thus continue promoting this endeavor. There are various benchmarking models for employment. We will actively learn from these models and adopt what we learn for our internal operations.
• I'm currently dealing with the environmental business. Recently, I have been thinking about the importance of carefully promoting business so as not to make the environment a temporary fashion or a “bubble.” As such, Mr. Kiuchi's talk of “returning to the size of life” was very thought-provoking for me.
• When we aim to approach CSR by leveraging Omron's distinctive characteristics, I believe it is important to incorporate CSR into the axes of business, product and technology strategies which are shared in common by all business companies.