I am co-founder of BORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION,a company that only engages in social businesses.
BORDERLESS JAPAN offers a platform that sociallyminded entrepreneurs can use to work toward resolutions to social issues, such as poverty, discriminationand prejudice, and environmental destruction, throughtheir businesses.
I was appointed as sustainability advisor of MARUIGROUP in 2019. I believe my role at the Company is toidentify issues and help illuminate the path MARUIGROUP should take from the perspectives of socialchange and social businesses. To date, President Aoiand I have discussed a variety of subjects based on
my background.
One topic we have discussed is the formulation ofimpact targets. BORDERLESS Group companies definesocial impact, or the degree to which they are contributing to the resolution of social issues, as their mostimportant indicator. This indicator is symbolic of ouroverall business goal of contributing to the realization of
our envisioned society through the resolution of socialissues. All of our colleagues are committed to social
impact and work to guarantee a better impact throughtheir daily activities. I therefore recommended thatMARUI GROUP set its own impact targets based on
the type of society it hopes to realize.
MARUI GROUP agreed, setting three impact targets
in its new medium-term management plan. MARUIGROUP embraces a philosophy focused on inclusion.
This meant that it was important to define indicatorsthat account for its overall business goals, including
those related to social issues. I have high praise for how
the three impact targets were decided based on anearnest examination of the future that MARUI GROUP
envisions. After all, it is crucial for impact targets to be
directly linked to the ideals that one hopes to pursue.

THREE IMPACTS,ONE COMMITMENT

Determining one’s goals, charting a path toward
accomplishing three impact targets

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An intuitive understanding of the people you workwith is imperative to achieving impact targets. In otherwords, you have to be able to share their goals and feela connection with them as such. When the efforts offrontline employees contribute to a company’s desired
impact, they will feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that they are helping to realize their envisioned futurethat cannot be measured in numbers like sales andprofit. As a platform holder, MARUI GROUP is working tocreate opportunities that allow diverse individuals totackle new challenges in order to have a positive impact
on society in a variety of ways. It will therefore be important for employees who are passionate and committed
to realizing their envisioned future to maintain an intuitive understanding of those around them and assert
themselves so that they can pursue their ambitions.
Over the next couple of years, management will need tobe patient. Employees should be allowed to experienceand overcome failure through an ongoing process oftrial and error and to work together with their colleagues
to produce one success at a time. I am confident that
this process will make MARUI GROUP into an even more
independent and autonomous organization and eventually evolve the Company into an ecosystem capable ofachieving its envisioned future.

Masayoshi Suzuki
Executive Vice President, BORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION
Sustainability Advisor, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
Masayoshi Suzuki was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1979. After graduatingfrom a graduate program, Suzuki joined Misumi CO., LTD., at the same time as
Kazunari Taguchi, with whom he would later go on to found BORDERLESS
JAPAN CORPORATION in 2007. As a company that only engages in social
businesses, BORDERLESS JAPAN seeks to contribute to the resolution of social
issues, such as poverty, discrimination and prejudice, and environmental
destruction. As of October 2021, BORDERLESS JAPAN had 43 subsidiaries in15 countries. Through a unique “one good turn deserves another” system,
43 socially minded entrepreneurs pool their funds and know-how to drive thecontinuous development of social businesses via a social entrepreneurshipplatform. Suzuki became a sustainability advisor to MARUI GROUP in 2019.
www.borderless-global.com

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