We will achieve sustainable growth toward 2030 by providing value that responds to changes in workstyles and lifestyles.

Hidekuni Kuroda,
Representative Director of the Board,
President and CEO,
KOKUYO Co., Ltd. 黒田 英邦

Formulation in 2021 of our Long-term Vision CCC 2030

The business environment surrounding KOKUYO is changing extremely rapidly. This means we believe it is necessary to work on management from an even longer-term perspective. We formulated our long-term vision of Change, Challenge, Create (CCC) 2030 in February 2021.

We have established what we want to achieve as the KOKUYO Group in our long-term vision of CCC 2030 assuming changes in society over the next 20 to 30 years. In other words, we have defined how we should change.

Although the course of the changes in the world is within expectations to a certain extent, my impression is that the speed of those changes has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. New trends such as digitalization in places of work and learning have become entrenched at a stroke by the “new normal.”

We must build a new management style that supports new ways of working and learning in the “new normal.” I believe the new 10 years will be that time to do that.

Update of Our Philosophy to “be Unique.” to Open up the Future

There were two themes we spent a lot of time discussing when formulating our long-term vision of CCC 2030. The first theme is KOKUYO’s value to society in the future.

We have expanded our business under our philosophy to “enrich the world through our products & services” since our foundation. However, the world is now entering an era of great change that we can say only comes once every 100 years.

The phrase to “enrich the world through our products & services” is an important idea that has continued to support our growth and development. Nevertheless, we came to the conclusion that we need to update it to open up a new future. Accordingly, we decided to update our philosophy by re-positioning that phrase as our entrepreneurial spirit to serve as our starting point.

Our new philosophy to “be Unique.” contains our desire to stimulate the creativity of our customers and to let their individuality shine through the value of experiences via our products and services. Such relationships with our customers are precisely the picture we envision for the future. Our role is to realize that.

Looking Back on Our Past Initiatives and Recognizing Anew Co-creation with Empathy That Is KOKUYO’s Strength As an Asset to Take on Challenges in the Future

The second theme we discussed repeated is recognizing anew our strengths. What should we recognize as a strength and use extensively as a asset to open up the future? We thought that the challenges we will undertake in the future would become an even stronger step forward by clarifying that.

Our strengths that we have recognized anew are co-creation with empathy. We have cultivated functions in marketing, design and product planning abilities as a comprehensive manufacturer up to now. In addition, we have built up various points of contact with customers and a variety of mechanisms to capture the needs of our customers. We have expanded our business based on these abilities in the past. However, with the diversification of values and lifestyles in recent years, there has been an increase in initiatives to create new value together with our customers. We have come to receive empathy and support from many customers. In other words, this is co-creation with empathy with our customers.

We will send new value out into the world while clearly defining our course of action by pressing forward with initiatives that utilize these strengths in the future.

Aiming for Sustainable Growth by Identifying Key Issues and Pursuing Them with All Employees

We have placed management from a sustainable and long-term perspective as an important point that should be pursued by the KOKUYO Group in our long-term vision of CCC2030. This is a concept that aims to improve both economic value (securing earnings) and social value.

We will continue to pursue the creation of new value looking to solve the issues of our customers. However, it is essential we secure steady earnings to achieve that. Nevertheless, if something would cause society or the environment a great disadvantage, we will determine it will not contribute to an improvement in the corporate value of the KOKUYO Group even if it produces profits. We will never pursue such things.

We are now starting to invest in various start-up companies to create new businesses. We will make investment decisions from the perspective of sustainable management in the same way at such times. We would like to make the creation of sustainable business in cooperation with the KOKUYO Group as a new strength by persisting with this stance.

We will continue to work with our whole group coming together as one to realize our new vision of transforming into a diverse “forest” of businesses that will grow sustainably. I ask that all our stakeholders look forward to the challenges we will undertake in the KOKUYO Group. Thank you for your continued support.