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CSR Topics | Dialogue with Employees – Commitment to Our Clients
Nomura Group's top priority is "to putting our clients at the heart of our business". We discussed this with our people in a dialogue on our key themes of "enriching society by delivering superior investment services" and "what Nomura Group can do to better meet their needs." A dozen of our people from across the Group participated in an active exchange of ideas on topics taken from a CSR survey* conducted in March, followed by a closing round-table discussion.
*CSR Survey: A survey targeting 60 Nomura Group employees from across the Group was conducted with the objective of identifying issues and improving the Group's CSR activities.
The survey, in the form of a questionnaire, was divided into topics covering customers, employees, shareholders/investors, industry competitors, local communities and compliance. Our main strengths and issues to be addressed were grouped under topics including "understanding diversifying customer needs", "energizing our organization and people" and "involvement with local communities and how we are perceived by local communities."
Nomura Group's mission is to provide solutions of high moral integrity to meet the everdiversifying needs of our customers
- In the past, people decided to consult with a securities company simply in order to increase their assets. Today, however, their needs are much broader and cover issues such as inheritance, retirement planning, and how best to comprehensively manage their financial assets.
- We have made great strides in terms of our overall product offering, but on the other hand there is a great deal left to do in terms of making administrative procedures simpler for seniors.
- In conjunction with the diversification of clients' needs, we are now seeing an increase in cases where we provide products and services that require collaboration between multiple departments and divisions. There is still room to reform the organization so that it better facilitates serving customers across departmental and other internal borders.
In the Equities division, in order to better respond to clients' needs that spread across department and regional boundaries, we are working to revise our evaluation system to better recognize the collective efforts of the whole team that is involved.
In addition, while it is just a small initiative, we have changed the layout of our offices to create a more open workplace, so as to improve communication between departments. This has enabled us to discuss customers needs more naturally together. We believe that applying this approach on a larger scale will help us to serve our customers better.
- There are an increasing number of cases of cross-departmental initiatives at our branches. Efforts have
been made to hold product seminars for everyone in the branch, whereas previously each department had its own sessions. New ideas are hard to generate in small meetings where the same people attend each time. By meeting with people from other departments, we are able to see things from new perspectives and hear fresh opinions. This can often unlock the door to understanding clients' needs.
- An increasing number of our clients have received services from overseas financial institutions, and
in the process have become quite knowledgeable about financial products and services. They sometimes ask us if we can provide certain services that they received from other institutions. At these times we make our best efforts to help the client. There is a growing need for us to train our people to handle increasingly diverse needs from a global perspective.
Answering the wide range of needs requires a mixture of diverse people
- There are now more non-Japanese employees working at our Tokyo office than before. However, given the increasingly diverse needs of our customers and our global business growth, the number of non-Japanese employees in the Tokyo offi ce is still insufficient. There are many great things about Nomura's tradition and way of doing things, including values, experience, and management style, but it would be good for more non-Japanese employees and midcareer professionals to join in order to create a new Nomura Group corporate culture.
- In the area of management, some branch managers and head office managing directors lack sufficient experience in their current work areas, and therefore tend to have their staff keep doing things the way they always have been done. We think it is necessary for leaders to have enough experience to welcome fresh and diverse ideas.
- Nomura Group has always had plenty of unique people and a culture that allows people to express their individuality. This has been one of our strengths over the years. Today, the company is making efforts to employ people from various professional backgrounds, different ages, genders, and nationalities. It is important to combine all of this diversity and maximize its potential, and we fully support this goal of adding diversity to corporate culture where people are already encouraged to be unique.
Discussion participants
 Daiki Hori
Kamata Branch Manager, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
"This open discussion was a wonderful opportunity for me to realize how much I think about and truly like Nomura."
 Yoshie Kotoku
Product Services Department, Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd.
"It was a great opportunity to talk about clients needs with my Nomura colleagues at branch offices who work directly with clients. It made me determined to contribute by providing the best service possible as Nomura Group's asset management company."
 Yumi Suzuki
Retail Strategic Planning Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
"You know, I think it's really worthwhile to be given the opportunity to write down one's thoughts, to share them with others, and then put them into practice step by step. This event gave me a good chance to do this."
 Kaoru Higashijima
Investment Banking Strategic Planning Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
"It was good to take time out from my day-to-day work to read and think about the Mission Statement. It gave me an opportunity to reconfirm what it means to be customer-oriented and what we should be working towards. I left the discussion with a renewed sense of passion for my work."
- Emiko Yamashita, Financial Advisor Section, Yokosuka Branch, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Ayaka Tanabe, Legal Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Yoko Ikeda, Customer Services Section, Jiyugaoka Branch, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Masanori Kimura, Human Resources Development Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Yoshiki Shibuya, General Services Section, Tokorozawa Branch, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Naoyuki Oguri , GM Planning Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Yasushi Takayama, Controller's Department, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
- Mio Tamura, Product Development and Planning Department, Nomura Trust Bank Co., Ltd.
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