Overseas customers account for 75% of Murata窶冱 total sales. As befits a global corporation, this is a well put together report, which this year broadened its scope to include not only all employees in Japan but also those at overseas operations. This report, which focuses on its employees as stakeholders, shows clearly that the Company treats them as important as it treat other stakeholders. Looking ahead, the Company will need to work on formulating and systematizing a global concept of corporate social responsibility.
Murata窶冱 窶弋op Commitment窶 this year was to contribute to the creation of a more affluent society by supplying the electronic components it needs. To meet this commitment, the company will need to achieve still higher levels of manufacturing competence. This year窶冱 Special Feature argued that raising manufacturing competence at the individual employee level was the key to creating quality through human input. I was greatly impressed by, and gained much insight into, Murata窶冱 philosophy of emphasizing creation of the human resources needed for better manufacturing, as evidenced by its production reform activities, the 窶廴eister窶 (master-craftsman) system and manufacturing dojo (academy) centered on on-site employees. In future, a key point will be what kind of status activities like this should have within corporate social responsibility.
I was able to form a clear idea of the kind of environmental management that Murata aims at in the Special Feature and Environmental Report sections. I clearly sensed the Company窶冱 resolve to implement Groupwide environmental management after completion in fiscal 2007 of the shift to ISO 14001 multi-site certification for the Murata Group in Japan. Currently many targets have been set per unit of production, but in future a much longer horizon will be necessary in considering the global environment, and it would be desirable for reduction targets to be set based on total volumes.
Murata has put in place a CSR management framework, with a CSR promotion office and committee with the President as its chairman. In the section titled Murata and People, major stakeholders are clearly identified and initiatives focusing on each stakeholder group are explained in an easy-to-understand way. In the future, I believe it will be necessary to further step up CSR activities, to gain a clearer idea of stakeholders窶 concerns, for example through stakeholder engagement, report-reading sessions and other two-way communication channels, and disclose results of measures to address such concerns when warranted. I believe it would be a good idea to set targets, even if they are qualitative, to reflect these efforts in CSR management, and evaluate the achievement of these targets. I sincerely hope that Murata will further step up its CSR commitments.
