Independent review / External evaluations

Hiroshi Ishida
Executive Director, Caux Round Table-Japan
Associate Professor, Institute of Business and Accounting, Kwansei Gakuin University

I believe that one cause of the current economic crisis was that corporate management pursued short-term interest excessively leading to the neglect of long-term visions. Therefore, the following three points are necessary in today's management:

Moreover, adjusting CSR activities in aspect of management and communication before promoting CSR activities will be crucial factor.

Nomura Group's overall CSR activities are praiseworthy in several respects.

Firstly, as mentioned in the message from the CEO the ultimate goal of the CSR activities of the Nomura Group is 'Contributing to the establishment of prosperous society through investment'. This has been a slogan since the establishment of the Nomura Group. Five different topics are given to accomplish this goal. The four topics and the result of the measurement of materiality conducted since last year are the topics of importance for the Nomura Group which correlate closely with its key priorities.

Moreover, the fifth perspective 'listening to the society and looking ahead in management' is a key factor on realizing CSR management of the Nomura Group. This commitment includes 'listening to the society' in the process of decision-making by the director to existing factors such as 'world class', 'speed' and 'create change'. Therefore, this development could be considered as the beginning of CSR management of the Nomura Group carried out through responsible departments such as corporate citizenship department and CSR committee. In order to realize further CSR management, more detailed initiatives will be necessary as the direction and purpose will gradually become clear.

Firstly, it is important that the Nomura Group keeps to enhance the sensitivity receiving the expectations from the society. It is crucial that the Nomura Group has independent initiatives on CSR. However, there is a need to establish a system to understand what the society requires of the Nomura Group as a global scale corporation is necessary. Reflecting the demand to the actual business activities, evaluate and enthusiastically implement topics that are currently available. Therefore, the effective use of institution such as the CSR committee and presenting the demand and the need of the society to the management class is necessary.

Secondly, more disclosure on the operational data to the society is essential for deeper analysis of topics needed for the future. This is indispensable for showing the individual CSR activities and engaging with stakeholders.

On the communications front, Nomura has focused more on diversity in its activities, partly because new human resources came on board after it acquired parts of Lehman Brothers' operations in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East in 2008. Nomura also merits praise for strengthening ties with society, notably by going beyond establishing endowments for universities and other institutions to have its employees hold finance and economics classes at primary schools around the nation.

On the other hand, to strengthen the Nomura Group's internal communication, it must have a clear stance on CSR. From this perspective, I do hope and expect that the Nomura Group will make effective use of the CSR digest for internal communication uses. the Nomura Group must integrate its stance on CSR to strengthen internal communication.

Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

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FTSE4Good Index

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MorningStar socially responsible index

Morningstar Japan K.K. created this socially responsible investment benchmark, a first in Japan, which covers the share prices of the nation's 150 most socially responsible companies.