Core Theme 4

Co-Creation Corporate GovernanceDialogue

04

Multi-Stakeholder Perspective Enabling
Challenges into Unexplored Realms

Hidemi Tomita

Hiroshi Aoi

Director and General Manager ofBusiness Development Division
Lloyd’s Register Japan K.K.

President and Representative Director
Representative Executive Officer
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

The Great Potential of a Management Model Based ona Multi-Stakeholder Perspective
Tomita: I feel that MARUI GROUP’s idea of co-creation
management matches my concept of sustainability.
I understand that you define corporate value as beingborn out of the harmony between the interests and thehappiness of all of our stakeholders, which is mostintriguing. It is likely that people will come to view thissentiment as part of an ideal company in the future.
Taken to its extreme, the belief that companies are forshareholders can lead companies to reduce the incomeof employees and the profits of suppliers in order toimprove corporate earnings and make greater returns toshareholders. Company representatives often ask mewhat perspective they should take in management. My
answer is to adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective.
Aoi: The idea of a multi-stakeholder perspective is very
easy to understand.
Tomita: Company workers prioritize their company atwork, but when they go home, they become members of

the community, or maybe even shareholders of theircompany. They also pay taxes and vote, giving them arole in supporting the government. Moreover, someengage in volunteer activities. In this manner, each stakeholder does not fall into a single stakeholder category.
If employees adopt the perspective of a customer, forexample, they may see areas needing to be changed.
I have always thought that it was important to find a way
to reconcile the differing perspectives of all stakeholders.
MARUI GROUP’s idea of corporate value seems to exemplify
what I was thinking. This concept lends itself to amanagement model focused on expanding the intersection between stakeholder interests, an approach that
I think has great potential.

Sustainability as Key to Shifting Focus from
Growth to Evolution
Aoi: The timelines people use to view matters seem to begetting shorter, and this is not just limited to managers.

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Co-Creation Corporate Governance

Co-Creation Corporate GovernanceDialogue04

However, a short timeline makes it difficult to perceive
the possibilities that can be realized far into the future.
Having a longer timeline can be crucial.
Tomita: Employees are generally evaluated on a yearlybasis, meaning that they need to create results within asingle year. Managers are the same. However, if results
are expected to be created on such a short timeline,
I fear that the final destination companies find themselvesat may be quite bleak. Achieving harmony between theinterests and the happiness of all of our stakeholders isessential for a company to continue developing overthe long term.
Aoi: The question then becomes: How should a company
grow over the long term? However, I feel that the word“growth” is not ideal. “Evolution” may be more appropriate.
When thinking about how a company should evolve,corporate value and sustainability seem to be key to acompany’s evolution. It is not enough for one to profit atanother’s expense. Rather, the ideal form of evolution isfor something new, a great and unprecedented type ofvalue, to be born out of harmony, out of reconcilinginconsistencies between stakeholder interests.
Tomita: The word “evolution” is truly amazing. Whilesome advocate sustainable growth, others go further toclaim that, given environmental and other restrictions,simple economic growth is unrealistic, and that weshould instead be working to maintain stable performance that is sustainable, or even reduce performance.
The word “evolution,” however, has a strong nuance ofchange, whether in form or in thinking. Environmental
restrictions are thrusting us into an era in which we willneed to change prior conceptions of economic growth
and reexamine what true value is.

favorite artist. I envision a world in which this desire to
support something can be fully expressed via money or
virtual currency and in which participation in this economy eventually contributes to the happiness of participants and society as a whole. In this world, consumption
will become more like a form of self-expression.
Tomita: You speak of creating spaces, correct? I believethat your stores function by providing a space in whichcustomers and business partners can play a leading rolein creating vibrant new worlds. It seems to me that this isthe model MARUI GROUP is trying to create.
Aoi: I think you really summed up our model well. In ourconcept of corporate value, we are not present. This
concept is more based on interests and happiness,making it similar to the multi-stakeholder perspective
you mentioned previously. We remove ourselves and theCompany from the picture; what remains is a space. In
other words, it is the job of a company to operate thisspace. Companies are places for supporting the growthof people. You could even look at companies as a box
packed full of people and objects. If the box is emptied,Spaces for Driving Evolution Arising from Empathy

Going Beyond Governance for Shareholders toGovernance for Stakeholders
Aoi: If we were to redefine the concept of corporate
governance based on our view of corporate value, theresult would be governance for the sake of all stakeholders

that goes beyond traditional governance for the benefitof shareholders. Practicing this type of governance wouldentail stepping into the unexplored realm of stakeholder
inclusion. This realm echoes the idea of a multi-stakeholder perspective you spoke of, Mr. Tomita. In the past,customers that have participated in planning meetings
have ended up joining the Company or being employedby business partners. I want to have individuals such asthese participate in management. In addition, by offering
customers that participate in planning meetings sharesof MARUI GROUP’s stock as a form of thanks, we canmake them into shareholders. In this way, it is possible
for a customer to hold three perspectives, supporting us
as a customer as well as from their shareholder andother perspectives.
Tomita: I think you could also offer employees bonusesin the form of stocks. Such an initiative would increase
the number of shareholders supporting MARUI GROUP
and also create a situation where it would not be strange
to see employee or customer representatives at Board ofDirectors’ meetings. This is one step you might take inexpanding the intersection between the interests ofstakeholders.
Aoi: At MARUI GROUP, we strive to always be at theforefront of all of our pursuits, and we thus aim to worktogether with our stakeholders to create the society oftomorrow.

Hidemi Tomita
Director and General Manager ofBusiness Development Division
Lloyd’s Register Japan K.K.

Tomita: When people speak of the shift from consumption of goods to consumption of experiences, they aretalking about one type of change. We must next think
about a change that is not purely monetary, a changethat will truly create a new world.
Aoi: Looking at the example of music, some music fans
now buy 10 or even 20 copies of the same CD. This is
not because they want the CDs themselves, but rather
because they want to display their support for their40

and if its sides and top collapse, all that remains is thespace of the box. This is how I see our role as a company.
Tomita: I think that MARUI GROUP is creating such aspace through its co-creation activities. Empathy,
I believe, is of utmost importance in this undertaking.
Aoi: Empathy is indeed very important. Harmony,
I believe, is built through dialogue, and empathy is crucial
to effective dialogue as it opens lines of communicationand prevents people from becoming locked in their own
one-sided thinking. From dialogue, we can make many
new discoveries. Creating spaces in which this dialogue
can flourish will likely supply a strong driving force forour evolution.

Mr. Tomita served as head of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department at
Sony Corporation for roughly a decade following the establishment of thisdepartment. He later participated in the establishment of the ISO 26000 social
responsibility standard and the ISO 20400 sustainable procurement standard asa representative of Japan. He was also involved in formulating the new GRI
Standards as a member of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Global Sustainability
Standards Board. Furthermore, Mr. Tomita has been a member of committees onsimilar topics at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of theEnvironment; Cabinet Office; and The Tokyo Organising Committee of theOlympic and Paralympic Games.

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