In the first half of the 1990s — an era of continuous growth — the basis of corporate activities lay in making continuous improvements day by day and creating advanced innovation, while strengthening productivity over the long term.

Today, however, we see drastic changes in the environment surrounding companies, such as the evolution of disruptive innovation from the “internet of things,” artificial intelligence and the development of sweeping globalization. In addition to working on improvement, companies are required to take a reforming approach to create a tomorrow different from today, including thoroughly selecting business areas and producing discontinuous innovation.

After all, these changes mean that corporations need to squarely address the essential question of, “For what purpose do we, as companies, exist?” This causes them to think about what additional values can they make in contributing to society and how they should operate to prevent them from excessive self-interest. We can say that we are in an era that requires companies to incorporate the philosophy of ESG investment into their management, while communicating with all relevant stakeholders.

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