April 1, 2009
It gives me great pleasure to welcome a total of 87 new graduate employees here today. No doubt you have been waiting for this day with anticipation, ready to start your careers at Furukawa Electric with great personal dreams and ambitions. I look forward to watching you develop your careers, becoming irreplaceable members of our Company and playing important roles for many years to come.
As you are all well aware, the global economic downturn means that we are confronting an extremely challenging economic environment, and the future outlook is uncertain. Right now, Furukawa Electric is concentrating on riding out this very rough storm, adopting structural reforms that will position us for rapid growth in a number of businesses, and instituting emergency initiatives. This year is a milestone for Furukawa Electric, as it marks our 125th year in business. But it is also a critical year for the Company, as we chart the course of future growth. I hope that the fact that you have joined our Company in such a momentous year motivates you to tackle your work with determination, without being bound by the conventional expectations of new employees.
We have adopted five key initiatives, which we have been pursuing since I became the president in June last year. They are bolstering global development, strengthening manufacturing capabilities, developing “ultra” technologies, improving the ability to propose solutions, and bolstering the development of human resources. We aspire to become a company with a global presence by executing these initiatives into practice and achieving innovation. Please remember these five objectives and adapt them to the work that you are assigned.
I would like to ask you all to do three things starting today.
First, please channel your full potential without imposing any limits. The corporate climate here at Furukawa Electric is based on freely enabling our staff to take on new challenges. Our personnel systems also contain components that are designed to recognize efforts to take on new challenges. So I ask you to constantly approach your work with a spirit of inquiry, without allowing yourself to be tied down by constraints and precedent and without fear of failure.
Second, please ensure that you communicate fully with those around you. I know that you all belong to the generation that has grown up accustomed to cell phones and email. Email is good for communicating facts, but it is only by meeting people and talking with them face to face that you can develop power of persuasion and negotiation. Rather than relying on just one means of communication, you will do better to maintain a flexible approach, capitalizing on the strengths of each.
You will no doubt encounter many obstacles in your careers. At such times, please follow the “report-contact-consult” work procedure and share your problems with those around you. This will usually help you come up with a solution.
Third, please ensure that you work openly and fairly. When you encounter challenges in your work, confront them squarely. Because we operate on a global basis, universality and rationality are important criteria in our decision making. Whereas all companies need to make a profit in order to survive, a company’s main purpose is go beyond that and contribute to society through its business activities. At Furukawa Electric, we have a maxim called “corporate virtue,” which means that we want to become a company with virtue. Please ensure that your own business behavior is always beyond reproach, operating with fairness and diligence, and with the highest sense of ethics as employees of Furukawa Electric.
Finally, I would just like to remind you that the basis of a happy life, including your life at work, is ensuring that you stay in good mental and physical shape. Please take good care of your health so that you can have a full and active career.
As employees of Furukawa Electric from today onwards, I hope that you will bring new strength to the Company as soon as possible and play an active part in the development of the Furukawa Electric Group.