Endo: The AGC Group set its Group vision “Look Beyond” and four values to be shared by all its employees in 2002. Diversity is one of the four shared values. For the Group to become a truly global excellent companies, it is necessary to further unify the Group, and in so doing, we have faced the problem of “how to promote communication among employees from diverse backgrounds.” In addition, we had to think about which processes and measures are really necessary to promote diversity in such a way as to add value to our Group.
At present, overseas production accounts for more than half of the total sales of the AGC Group, and we are sending a substantial number of employees overseas, while many are coming to Japan from our overseas sites. Under these circumstances, recognizing the need for us to encourage inter-group communication and openness beyond cultural barriers, and manage and educate our human resources beyond national and regional boundaries, we are formulating and implementing relevant measures across the world. In light of this, we have chosen “Diversity,” in particular, crosscultural communication, as the theme for today.

Hirata: The AGC Group introduced the In-House Company system in 2002, and replaced the traditional management system with a global management system based on its In- House Companies. At that time, non-Japanese nationals were appointed as the presidents of the Flat Glass Company and the Automotive Glass Company. I think their appointment marked the start of a transformation of our corporate culture. At present, the AGC Group has a total of 54,000 employees, of which approximately 30% are working in Japan, with the remaining employees working in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Kume: As for cross-cultural communication at workplaces, I think it is rather natural for employees to have difficulties in communication. Cultures have histories, and you cannot easily change your culture in line with the globalization of your company. If you think people are all the same, many small differences will stand out, but if you think that it's quite natural for people to be different, you will be pleasantly surprised to find some common points among them. I therefore believe that it's important to communicate with others, seeing people as both the same and different.

Horii: The Japanese translation for diversity is tayosei, a word which tends to emphasize differences. However, as Professor Kume pointed out, it is a fundamental rule of ensuring diversity to try to understand others by identifying the similarities and differences between them and yourself. Diversity involves individuals, and thus comprises all the 6.5 billion people on the Earth. It is therefore a difficult matter to promote unification while respecting diversity.

Tsukushi: As a basic premise, we need to understand that communication is difficult and people differ naturally. I wonder if foreign nationals working for Asahi Glass, a company based in Japan, have some sense of discomfort, whether due to finding large differences or not being able to understand Japanese ways of doing things. What do you think about this, Mr. Balian?

Balian:I was transferred to Japan about five years ago, and although it was challenging for me to be in a different environment, I have finally come to the point where I find there is nothing particularly unique about Japan. In my experience, in order to accept any different culture, I believe it is important to understand why things are done in such a way. If you simply focus on copying how things are done, and you persevere without understanding why, that can be very frustrating. However, once you come to understand why it is done differently, then it becomes much easier to accept. It takes time to understand different cultures, and there are some things you can only understand if you live in that country.

Hiraoka: I worked in the United Kingdom for five years, until 2005. When I communicated with local employees, I first of all tried to accept them “as they are.” I recognized that to work with people with different principles, opinions, and ideas, it is important to discuss “why” with them, and make them understand my reasons. Nothing can start without doing this. I felt that they would understand me if I faced them with passion and honesty, and I sometimes feel the same way in Japan, after having returned from the United Kingdom. Diversity is therefore not something limited to international understanding.

Horii: For the AGC Group to make progress toward the common goals with its versatile employees, I think it is remarkable that the Group has shown its “Values” in its Group vision “Look Beyond.” Therefore it is particularly important that more employees feel sympathy with the values. To this end, I think it is necessary for employees to be able to empathize with the values on an emotional level as well, or to ensure that employees' own values and the corporate vision have something in common, so that employees enthusiastically think, “I want to contribute to the company in this field,” where their own values match the corporate vision. Asahi Glass has published its CSR Book and in-house magazine both in Japanese and English, and distributes them to all its employees as tools for disseminating its vision across the Group, and senior executives visit the company's sites to directly talk with employees there, which I think is great.

Chang: When I was working in our office in Shanghai, I was engaged in the translation of the “Look Beyond” Q&A Book into Chinese. I had a hard time figuring out how to translate the English message “Look Beyond” into Chinese, and whether tayosei written in kanji could be understandable as it is, in Chinese and if it was not understandable, how I should translate it into Chinese. In this process, I attributed importance to communication with those at the head office. I asked their opinions and listened to them repeatedly, until I was able to understand the Group vision myself. I then translated it into Chinese and asked translators to proof-read my translation. This experience taught me the importance of communication.

Balian: The thoughts and words of management are not always easily understood at workplaces. It is therefore important to promote communication, and communication should be in both directions. When the In-House Company system has started, there were a lot of discussions, challenges, agreements and disagreements in the Automotive Glass Company, but we came up with a new approach called the Asahi Way. After the benchmarking of best practices throughout the world and the standardizing based on the Asahi Way, we can now see a significant breakthrough for communication among us. Also, AGC Today, our in-house magazine in both Japanese and English, is a great success in that it has contributed to the global unification of the AGC Group.

Kume: Communication media include paper and e-mail, but in disseminating our policies and vision across the Group on a global scale, face-to-face communication is the most important, I believe. Communication should be in both directions. We must not spare any efforts if we really want to promote direct communication, and it should be promoted comprehensively across the Group.

Hirata: We have changed our commendation system this year. In order for all employees to incorporate the four shared values set under the Group vision “Look Beyond” into their daily operations, it would be helpful to show them specific examples, and so we have started to solicit employees based all over the world to introduce the activities they are conducting to implement the four shared values. We thus collect a lot of good examples, assign them commendations, and summarize them in a brochure, so that employees can share the good examples on a global level. I expect that this will help employees understand the Group's values more deeply, which will provide the basis for smooth communication among them.

Matsunaga: At IBM, we uphold “IBMers Value” as values to be shared by our employees. Besides translating the values into dozens of different languages, in order to implement these values, we held discussions in our countries of operation regarding ideas for their implementation. We voted on what should be done or changed in order to implement the values, and reached an intriguing conclusion: the item that topped the list was not pay or the personnel system, but the “need for better bosses.” Accordingly, IBM has introduced a system across the world for subordinates to evaluate their bosses. Furthermore, in Japan, in addition to the implementation of this system, a face-to-face collective training session was held under the theme of “being considerate to others”, targeting approximately 1,800 managers. I think both changes in the system and approaches on the emotional level are necessary for implementing our values.

Tsukushi: I also believe it is important for employees to share good methods across the world, regardless of their nationalities.
On the other hand, however, it is also important to give consideration to situations unique to the region and country.

Matsunaga: At IBM, diversity is regarded as a “strategy.” When we started implementing activities to promote diversity, we mainly focused on the idea of giving equal opportunity to all employees, but now, we regard the diversity of human resources as the source for new and innovative ideas. It is, however, difficult to theoretically prove the cause-and-effect relationship between these elements. So, it is more important to believe in the importance of diversity.

Horii: From the viewpoint of human resources strategy, I think the purpose of promoting diversity is to become a company that is selected by excellent and talented individuals. The AGC Group includes Diversity in its shared values, which is rare for a Japanese company. Mr. Balian said that he takes pride in the AGC brand, and I think it is wonderful. I hope that the Group will highlight this point more to the public to further increase their brand power. I also recommend that the management of the Group clarify and communicate to the public why diversity is important in its management strategy, or in the framework of its global human resources strategy. I expect that the Group will establish a corporate culture that respects individual ideas and cherishes individuals even more in the future.

Matsunaga: In participating in today's discussion, I strongly felt that both IBM and the AGC Group need to become globally integrated enterprises. To achieve this, it is necessary for us to have a global management system that ensures transparency in its business. Based on such a system, we will globally allocate human resources to the right places. For the global allocation of the right people to the right positions, it is essential to have diverse human resources. In order for a company to promote diversity, there must be a system to support this, I believe.

Hirata: I would like to thank you all for your invaluable opinions.
In accordance with the rapid globalization of our customers, we have to conduct our business on a global scale to survive in the market. We are now operating in 23 countries, and we do have excellent human resources all over the world. For the AGC Group to further develop as a global excellent enterprise, it is necessary to build a mechanism and management system to encourage employees to share values and actively participate in activities to increase the corporate value of the Group.
The keyword is “communication,” which was frequently mentioned in today's discussion. We have to activate communication within the Group and create a corporate culture that allows employees to say what they want to say, while respecting the opinions of others. We are still only half way there, and will press ahead with this in the future.

Endo: Thank you for sharing your comments with us.
I recognized once again through today's discussion that it is indispensable for us to do the following. First, we must share our corporate philosophy through communication. Second, we need to develop and treat global human resources based on diversity, thereby increasing employee job satisfaction and pride in accomplishment, which is a means of increasing our corporate value, for our sustainable growth. Now I am confident that we are moving in the right direction.
After we set our Group vision “Look Beyond,” we initially had difficulty in making employees aware of the vision, but during the past two years, we have been able to achieve tangible results. We must not spare our efforts and must confront our challenges squarely. There are no shortcuts. We will continue to pursue our Group vision “Look Beyond,” in order to be a corporate group that is trusted by society and welcomed in its continued growth.