Yakult Web Site(Japanese)
Entering the New Year 2012
(Abstract of the President's New Year Lecture delivered at Yakult Hall on January 5, 2012)
IntroductionSince today is the first time for me to deliver the New Year message as president, I would like to mainly talk about my core views.
My basic stance
My basic stance calls for inheriting the management policy laid down by Chairman Hori.
In other words, I intend to pursue steady and patient “agricultural-style” marketing while appreciating “Shirota-ism” and our corporate philosophy which are the roots of our business. Needless to say, I always keep in mind that we should never forget to breathe new life into this pursuit.
Necessity of a strategy to enhance competitiveness in Japan and abroad
The Yakult brand has now become a global brand and faces international competition. I believe that it is indispensable to have a strategy and measures to enhance competitiveness in various situations in Japan and abroad through initiatives such as the proposal of solutions for energy conservation and environmental issues as our corporate social responsibility, in addition to pursuing product research and development that can create a competitive advantage in the market as well as production and distribution that can provide safety and security.
Realization of “Yakult Vision 2020”
“Yakult Vision 2020” is our medium- to long-term plan which indicates the future direction of the Yakult Group. Our objective is to realize this Vision by having each business division promote their plans. I am acutely aware that this is one of the major tasks assigned to me.
CSR
Now I would like to touch on corporate social responsibility.
No matter how outstanding a product may be, if the company that manufactured that product engages in social wrongdoing or simply pursues profit for itself and does not return anything or contribute to society, people will not consider purchasing that product. I think this will be a growing trend in the future.
In that sense, I believe that CSR pertaining to corporate stance and corporate philosophy is one of the management policies we must focus on more than ever.
Specifically, the company proactively promotes compliance management and discloses detailed and accurate information through investor relations.
In addition, under our corporate slogan, “in order for people to be healthy, everything around them must also healthy,” we recognize that protecting the global environment is one of the key management issues for coexistence with society. With this recognition, we give due consideration to environmental preservation in all types and aspects of our corporate activities and focus our energies on activities aimed at promoting greater awareness and education regarding environmental preservation.
Furthermore, social contribution activities unique to Yakult, such as courtesy visits known as “Ai no Homon Katsudo” and cooperation in regional crime prevention activities mainly by sales companies, are being praised by people outside the company.
Conclusion
In the short story “Hometown” written by China’s Lu Xun, there is a line that reads, “it’s [the path’s] not there to begin with, but when lots of people go the same way, it comes into being.” *1
The path of Lactobacillus did not exist from the beginning, nor did the path of preventive medicine and the concept that a healthy intestinal tract leads to a long life.
Dr. Minoru Shirota, the founder of Yakult, advocated those ideas, thereby marking the first step of that path. From the days of our founding until today, our predecessors pursued “Shirota-ism” and repeatedly used creativity and carried out a process of trial and error. And as a consequence of such efforts, the wonderful path of Lactobacillus was created, resulting in average sales today of 30 million bottles per day worldwide.
I believe that my mission is to augment “the path of 30 million bottles” to “the path of 40 million bottles,” then to “the path of 50 million bottles,” and still further to “the path of 100 million bottles.”
With that, I conclude my New Year message. Thank you very much for your attention.
Takashige Negishi,
President & COO
*1 Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, trans. William A. Lyell (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1990), 100.
