Sustainability Strategy

Strategy

Sustainability Management

Our Approach to Sustainability

Toward achieving our mission of “making work more fun and creative” and our vision of “empowering everyone to work a step ahead,” we provide a cloud-based business chat tool and DX-related services that even small- and medium-sized enterprises in Japan—which have been stagnant in productivity for long and slow in adopting IT and efforts toward DX—can implement and utilize without IT specialists. In this way, we hope to contribute toward solving workplace issues and improving productivity as well as help create a society where people can enjoy their work and can express their creativity.

We believe that our unique social value creation—which encourages working people—will help achieve a sustainable society, including Goal 8 “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our Group’s sustainable growth.

Sustainability System

We have established a system for sustainability and ESG promotion, with the CEO Office, which reports directly to the CEO, as the main department in charge, and the CEO Office Manager as the person responsible. In addition, we establish cross-organizational project teams for sustainability-related activities and information disclosure to promote initiatives.

Materiality (Key Issues)

Key Issues to Achieve Mission

We examined key issues, from both financial and non-financial perspectives, that our Group should address over the medium-to-long term in order to achieve our mission. After deliberation and approval by the Board of Directors, we identified 11 key issues (materiality) to be addressed by 2030.

This materiality consists of three major categories: “value creation through business,” “enhancement of value creation infrastructure,” and ” solving global social issues.” We believe that addressing them will lead to the sustainable growth of our Group and the long-term enhancement of our corporate value.

Materiality to Achieve Mission

Materiality Identification Process

We established a project team in December 2021 and began analyzing the current state of sustainability and ESG. Based on the results of this analysis, we then began studying our key issues in April 2022.
We first created a list of candidate key issues, which comprehensively identifies social issues and needs that are relevant to our Group’s business. This list was created based on the following information: management issues related to our business as identified through interviews with the heads of key departments; issues identified through a survey of our current situation from a sustainability and ESG perspective; international norms and initiatives such as the SDGs, UN Global Compact, ISO 26000, GRI, and SDGs Impact Standards; SASB’s materiality and various ESG indices; key issues identified by fellow companies in the same industry and others; and other social issues and social needs related to the digital society.

We then developed a short list of 18 key issues based on this initial list, taking into consideration their relation to our company and the apparent and potential risks and opportunities for the sustainable growth of our Group. In preparing the short list, we held discussions with Mari Yoshitaka, the Representative Director of Virtue Design with deep insight into sustainability and ESG issues, kubell CEO Masaki Yamamoto, CFO Naoki Inoue, and others. Their opinions were taken into consideration and reflected in the creation of the short list.

The short list of candidate material issues was evaluated on a five-point scale of importance based on the two axes of “impact on the sustainable development of society” and “impact on the sustainable growth of the Group.” Based on this matrix, the project committee and management identified 11 key issues to be addressed to achieve our mission and vision after a series of discussions. These key issues were formalized after deliberation and approval by the Board of Directors. We are undertaking initiatives to address the key issues thus identified, appointing materiality owners responsible for addressing them.

Materiality Matrix

Reasoning behind Importance for Each Key Issue

*This chart can be scrolled horizontally and vertically.

Key Issue	Opportunities	Risks	Reasoning behind Importance
Improving Labor Productivity at SMEs through DX	Increased organizational cohesiveness and employee motivation Positive impact on brand reputation and sales Increased sales	Decreased organizational cohesiveness	The most important value provided to society that is directly linked to achieving our mission and vision; also contributes to SDGs Goal 8, etc.
Creating Human Resources Who Can Work in a Fun and Creative Way	Improved employee job satisfaction Improved labor productivity and value creation Positive impact on acquiring and retaining talented human resources Positive impact on brand reputation Improved employee engagement, reduced turnover	Decreased organizational cohesiveness (if philosophy not put into practice) Lowered employee motivation/engagement Reduced labor productivity Increased turnover	Directly linked to our mission and is the source of creating value and improving competitiveness over the medium to long term
Ensuring Reliable Quality as Business Infrastructure	Improved brand reputation Decreased churn rate Positive impact on sales	Decreased brand reputation Increased churn rate Reduced sales	Ensuring quality appropriate for business infrastructure (excellent usability and continuity of service) is essential for business growth
Advanced Information Security and Privacy Protection	-	Risk of operation stoppage Risk of litigation and damages Major loss for brand reputation Reduced sales	Ensuring information security and complying with local information protection regulations in each country is the foundation of our business activities
Achieving Corporate Governance that Drives Corporate Value Enhancement	Increased management efficiency, enhanced internal controls Positive impact on corporate value enhancement	-	Effective corporate governance that responds appropriately to changes in the market and society is essential for achieving our philosophy and enhancing our corporate value
Conducting Business Activities with Integrity for All Stakeholders	Positive impact on reputation Creation of good relationships with stakeholders Positive impact on organizational culture	Increased compliance risks Negative impact on organizational culture	Being an organization with integrity fosters stakeholder trust and is the basis for achieving our philosophy and sustainable growth
Conducting Sustainability Management to Achieve Corporate Philosophy	Enhanced non-financial competitiveness that supports sustainable growth Improved ESG evaluation	Relative decline in non-financial competitiveness	A management system that appropriately understands and responds to social needs is essential to achieve our philosophy
Becoming a Trustworthy Brand and Enhancing Engagement	Improved brand reputation Positive impact on marketing and recruitment Enhanced relationship with stakeholders	Relative decline in business competitiveness (recognition, marketing, recruitment)	Brand communication centered on our philosophy is essential to achieve co-creation with stakeholders
Diversity Management to Achieve New Value Creation	Become an organization where diverse human resources can actively participate Positive impact on innovativeness Improved organizational resilience	Relative decline in competitiveness due to not being able to use diverse human resources	Creating an organization in which diverse human resources can actively participate is essential to improving organizational innovativeness and resilience
Internationally Recognized Human Rights Standards	Secured social trust Creation of an open workplace	Increased reputation and compliance risks	Respecting human rights is essential for securing the trust of society and creating a joyful working environment for everyone involved in our business
Managing Energy and Addressing Climate Change	Compliance with environmental laws and regulations Enhanced (medium- to long-term) service competitiveness Positive impact on brand reputation Positive impact on employee motivation	Increased (short-term) costs Relative decline in brand reputation	Necessary in order to contribute to solving climate change and provide IT services with less environmental impact to users