CEO Message
Develop people who can adapt quickly to such changes
and create effective strategies for the future.
What does people mean to Mitsui & Co.?
Since the establishment of our company, we have continued to contribute to the development of society by creating new value through the resolution of social issues. In order to continue creating value by responding flexibly to unpredictable and drastic changes in the business environment going forward, I believe it is important to develop people who can adapt quickly to such changes and create effective strategies for the future, and to fully realize their respective potential. This idea is also represented in the words of the first president of the former Mitsui & Co.,* Takashi Masuda, who said, “Mitsui develops its people. They are our most important asset,” which has been passed down from generation to generation. The title of this brochure, “Empowering People to Build Brighter Futures,” is also a representation of our firm belief which dates back to that era.
Please tell us about Mitsui & Co.’s unique way of enhancing and drawing out the value of human capital embodied in its keyword phrases such as “Mitsui is People,” “Challenge and Innovation,” and “Open-mindedness.”
In order to empower people to reach their full potential, we have always emphasized the importance of the attitude toward work as well as corporate culture, which are expressed in “Challenge and Innovation” and “Open-mindedness,” respectively. We continue to place importance on these values today, and they have been incorporated into the four values as defined in our Mission, Vision, Values (MVV): “Seize the initiative,” “Thrive on diversity,” “Embrace growth,” and “Act with integrity.”
In a social environment where change has become the norm, it is becoming difficult to create new value using conventional methods alone. As people from diverse backgrounds, including their careers as professionals, ages, genders, and nationalities encounter different opinions and mutually recognize each other, they also come to realize what they are lacking. I believe that this kind of inclusive environment, which, in fact, is synonymous with culture with open-mindedness, is a key for our people to sustainably create new value.
Also, in an increasingly complex world, it is becoming more difficult to arrive at the right answer from the beginning. But even so, we still need an environment in which people are encouraged to take on challenges. Things may not always work out perfectly, but at Mitsui & Co., we have always believed it is important to better ourselves by learning from mistakes, and leverage such experiences for tackling future challenges. People grow stronger by taking on challenges, and people empowered in this way create value: Such a virtuous cycle of personnel growth and new value creation is, indeed, the vision for Mitsui & Co. carefully handed down by our predecessors and expressed in the words, “People make business, business cultivates people.”
What do you think about the qualities employees should have, such as aspiration, ability and skills, and the roles that employees should fulfill?
The strength of our human resources lies in the fact that each one of us joined the company with our own aspirations and unique individuality, and that we are a group of independent thinkers who are capable of thinking things through and genuinely analyzing business autonomously.
To maintain this strength, the first thing required of employees is to be a professional. Through the experience of delving into the business domains they are responsible for, our employees come to empirically understand that they cannot become professionals in their field without doing their utmost to hone their skills. At the same time, everyone, myself included, knows that we need to stay humble, given that we are still only midway through the journey of personal development. We need to maintain this awareness, be hungry for new knowledge, and continually refine ourselves. These approaches naturally foster mutual respect for each other’s careers. Since we are true professionals, we can apply our skills in a wide range of fields, and realize flexible horizontal collaboration across fields of endeavor.
We also need to cherish curiosity, have the resilience to learn from failure, maintain our focus on the business frontlines, and follow our belief in the five senses, in other words, valuing insights gained from what we directly see, hear, and touch. I ask our employees to pay as many visits as possible to the business frontlines and make decisions based on their five senses, while actively leveraging new technologies such as AI as tools.
What do you focus on in terms of the executive structure and governance system in order to effectively promote the human resources strategy?
We have adopted a global matrix structure based on the business unit system. This lowers organizational boundaries between business units and regional offices, and enables flexible and agile collaboration. By combining our region oriented insights and strengths generated by our cross-industry approaches, we aim to provide the best real solutions possible to increasingly complex social issues, at that point in time.
Similarly, in our human resources strategy, local offices (place of recruitment) and business units coordinate closely to strengthen employees’ expertise as professionals, provide training and transfer op-portunities that are not restricted by business unit or region, and thereby create optimal career paths for our employees. In order to put our concept of talent management into words and ensure the shared understanding of it among our global employees, we formulated a global talent management policy in July 2024. In addition, our global talent management system Bloom is set to be introduced globally by the end of December 2024. I believe these will further visualize our talent management processes, and ever accelerate the active involvement of diverse human resources through appropriate allocation of human resources.
Our HR strategy is also constantly being discussed as a major topic by the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. With a particular focus on inclusion, we have established a system that allows us to carefully consider the development of line managers and succession plans within the organization. We are also promoting well-being initiatives, and in addition to providing physical and psychological safety and security, which is the basis for ensuring employees’ performance, we seek an environment in which each person can work in their own style with enthusiasm, and thrive together with their colleagues. Also utilizing the Mitsui Engagement Survey, which is conducted every year, we are working to accurately grasp and improve the state of our organization.
People from diverse backgrounds create value
in an inclusive environment.
Please tell us about any insights you gained through dialogues with stakeholders and your approaches for promoting human capital management.
The ultimate goal for a company is to create value together with its stakeholders. To that end, it is crucial to show the company’s future path over the long term, and to obtain support and understanding from each stakeholder. In that sense, the Medium-term Management Plan 2026 offers us a platform to communicate how we will allocate the valuable corporate resources entrusted to the company and how we will link them to value creation.
For example, with respect to the energy transition promoted under the Medium-term Management Plan 2026, it is necessary to promote the energy shift serving as a bridge to a future low-carbon society, and to translate it into a business model that is sustainable and meets our revenue standards. Means to realize that and corporate resource allocation plans for generating innovation must be clearly presented to our stakeholders along with specific timelines, and we will execute our plans after gaining their under-standing and support.
This approach does not change at all even when it comes to our human resources strategy. As evidenced by the recent rise of social interest in human capital management, I am convinced that putting people first among other business resources is fundamental for corporate management. Therefore, in our dialogues with internal and external stakeholders, we actively share our approach, envisioned direction, strategies, and ongoing measures related to human resources, to deepen their understanding. The same goes for management’s engagement with employees.
Could you once again explain the reason for publishing the report entitled “Empowering People to Build Brighter Futures”?
For Mitsui & Co., which has always placed people at the core of its management, it is quite natural to issue a report focusing on human resources information for communication with stakeholders. Our stakeholders include not only shareholders, investors, customers, business partners, and local communities, but also our own employees and people who are interested in our business. To those who are interested in working at our company in the future, I would like to explain in detail the importance of people for Mitsui & Co., and the kind of growth they can experience here.
In this report entitled “Empowering People to Build Brighter Futures,” we will continuously update and communicate our human resources strategy and concrete progress toward our future vision, in order to convey Mitsui & Co.’s people-oriented approach and initiatives to stakeholders.
* From a legal perspective, there is no continuity between the former Mitsui & Co. and the present Mitsui & Co., and they are totally separate entities.