Creating innovative pharmaceuticals, which is the basis of our value creation, is Daiichi Sankyo's top material Issue
To create innovative pharmaceuticals as a global healthcare company, it is important for Daiichi Sankyo to build a business foundation that supports its efforts. To do this, the company needs a workplace in which people can perform at their best. In this article, Hironobu Furuta, Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit for the Daiichi Sankyo group of companies (Daiichi Sankyo Group) and the person leading efforts to enhance the group’s “One DS Culture,” shares his perspective.
Aiming to Create Shared Values Beyond Organizational Boundaries
The Corporate Affairs Unit of Daiichi Sankyo globally promotes our established Materiality issues on business foundations, including “promoting environmental management," "promoting compliance management," and "promoting the success and development of a diverse range of people who create competitive advantages.”
The latest 5-year Business Plan calls for policies in support of "sustainability" and "environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management." To implement these policies, the entire value chain must accelerate its efforts. In addition to cooperation among employees in each unit or company within Daiichi Sankyo, collaboration with partners and outside stakeholders is essential. While considering the sort of values that Daiichi Sankyo should create and how it should communicate these values to society, we are also undertaking worldwide activities in a diverse range of fields. The role of communicating shared values is the responsibility of the Corporate Affairs Unit, and to accomplish this we will continue to promote the “creation of shared values” beyond organizational boundaries.
The creation of 'shared values' by the Corporate Affairs Unit is key to supporting Daiichi Sankyo’s efforts within our 5th 5-year Business Plan to deepen specialized roles and functions and deliver new types of value to society.
- Hironobu Furuta, Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit
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Tackling Environmental Concerns
A company's growth should not only be determined by its financial results, but also by its contributions to society. By "promoting environmental management" as its top priority, Daiichi Sankyo in turn promotes "early realization of a decarbonized society," "solving of the marine plastic problem," and "contribution to the development of a sustainable living infrastructure through prevention of environmental pollution" as three targets that should be attained.
As part of such efforts, we have conducted a Daiichi Sankyo-wide scenario analysis on climate change to assess related risks based on recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), setting targets for the current 5-year Business Plan based on the results. In addition to our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, we began operating a self-consumption solar power system (producing and consuming power at the same site) at the Onahama Plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, in December 2020, and a similar facility at our Pfaffenhofen Plant near Munich, Germany, in October 2021. Through such activities, we are accelerating the use of renewable energy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Eight Material Issues for Value Creation
Tackling Compliance Management
Compliance is another important theme that covers a broad range of issues; among these issues, I would like to emphasize our efforts in the field of human rights issues and diversity.
Human Rights
In FY2020, Daiichi Sankyo conducted surveys on the potential risk of human rights violations at 37 locations around the world, and based on the responses we received, we detected no serious risks across the Daiichi Sankyo Group.
However, it is important to establish a warning/alert system in which we can swiftly implement measures when faced with a risk. A reporting channel inside and outside of Daiichi Sankyo is always in operation, but we are also enhancing our efforts to promote our company's "Speak-up Culture," which encourages employees who observe a problem to speak up without hesitation.
With regard to adherence to human rights by our business partners, we conduct a survey once every three years that incorporates our evaluation criteria. This allows us to address any risks raised by our business partners and helps us evaluate and address any feedback. As Daiichi Sankyo may be implicated when problems arise with our business partners and agents, we continue to take appropriate measures to minimize such risks.
Promoting Diversity
We promote a corporate culture in which all employees, as well as group member companies, benefit from diversity. Effective promotion of diversity requires the involvement of not only the human resources or legal affairs departments, but of all employees.
In particular, since our company has gone through the integration between Daiichi Pharmaceutical and Sankyo, we have a deep-rooted culture of accepting people from different backgrounds. As part of our efforts to become a sustainable organization, we hope to use this culture to support increased advancement opportunities for diverse candidates.
A United Daiichi Sankyo Group
Daiichi Sankyo is continuously working to improve each employee's engagement and will continue to conduct an annual worldwide survey as of FY2021. We aim to understand and analyze employees' opinions as we seek to improve our corporate culture and labor environment.
To achieve the ambitious goal of "contributing to the development of a sustainable society," we need a positive working environment in which each employee feels motivated. In such an environment, we hope to grow into an organization in which each one of us can take the initiative to think and act on our own and can create values that resonate with the company's Vision.
Currently, we are conducting workshops for employees in leadership positions with the purpose of promoting our corporate "One DS Culture" across Daiichi Sankyo beyond national and regional boundaries. We will continue to step up and implement similar efforts with the goal of forming an organizational culture in which the company and all of its employees work seamlessly across regions and cultures to create shared values.
Mr. Hironobu Furuta
Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit
Executive Officer and CISO
Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.
Joined Daiichi Pharmaceutical in 1984. After first gaining a bird's-eye view of the entire company in Corporate Planning, Mr. Furuta gained further experience overseeing organizational strategy, the personnel system, corporate pension system reform, and other areas in Human Resources. Following his involvement in the merger with Sankyo in 2005 and after subsequently working as General Manager of General Affairs, Procurement and Human Resources, he has been in his current position as Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit since April 2020.