Kirin Holdings Engages With The Human Capital Management Consortium As A Promoter

TOKYO, Sep 14, 2022 - Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (Kirin Holdings) has participated in the Human Capital Management Consortium, which was established on Thursday, August 25, 2022. As one of the seven founders, led by Kunio Ito, Director of the Center for CFO Education and Research at Hitotsubashi University, Kirin Holdings will work to promote ‘human capital management’ with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Financial Services Agency to enhance the sustainable value of Japanese companies.

About Human Capital Management Consortium

1. Purpose of Establishment

Human capital management, which regards human capital as "capital" and maximizes its value to enhance corporate value over the medium to long term, is attracting increasing attention. It is essential for the sustainable enhancement of corporate value that management takes the lead in formulating human capital strategies that contribute to the medium- to long-term growth of the company, puts them into practice, and explains its policies to stakeholders through dialogues with investors, integrated reports, and other means. To this end, the ‘Human Capital Management Consortium’ was established as a forum for sharing advanced case studies of ‘human capital’ management practices, discussing inter-company cooperation, and examining effective information disclosure. It is hoped that the Consortium's activities will attract funds from around the world to Japanese companies that are proactive in ‘investing in people’ and lead to their next stage of growth.

2. Future Activities

The Consortium will establish a Planning Committee to discuss policies and strategies under the General Assembly, as well as a Practice Subcommittee and a Disclosure Subcommittee, and through the activities of the Committee and both subcommittees, share advanced examples of "human capital management" practices, discuss inter-company cooperation, study effective information disclosure, and establish opportunities for dialogue with investors. The committee will also provide a forum for dialogue with investors. Minebea will participate in the Planning Committee.

3. Comments from Yoshinori Isozaki, President & CEO of Kirin Holdings and initiator of Human Capital Management Consortium

“Non-financial information such as human capital strategy is becoming increasingly important as an indicator of future management capabilities, and we regard investment in human capital to be a top priority that cannot wait.

The Kirin Group has made CSV*1 a pillar of its management for about a decade, and is taking on the challenge of ‘ambidextrous management’ to solve the issue of social health by entering the health science business in 2019. This was in addition to our existing businesses such as beer and pharmaceuticals, utilizing the fermentation and biotechnologies we have cultivated over the years.

In order to promote new businesses, existing human resource strategies alone will not work - a major shift in new human resource strategies and organizational capabilities is required. Specifically, conceptual ability, imagination, innovation, expertise, and diversity are urgently required. In this era of VUCA*2, the operating environment is expected to become increasingly severe and complex, and we are convinced that the ability of a company to achieve sustainable growth and a bright future for Japan depends solely on its human capital.

The ‘human capital management’ initiative has only just begun in Japan as a whole. On the other hand, investment in human capital used to attract worldwide attention and was once said to be the specialty of Japanese companies. We will do our utmost to address many issues, such as how to link human capital to the improvement of corporate value, how to quantify and structure it, and how to set company-specific indicators through this consortium of industry, government, and academia. We believe that human capital should be nurtured by society as a whole, and we will work together toward the sustainable growth of Japanese society as a whole.”
*1: Creating Shared Value: combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.
*2: An acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

About Kirin Holdings

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited is an international company that operates in the Food & Beverages domain (Food & Beverages businesses), Pharmaceuticals domain (Pharmaceuticals businesses), and Health Science domain (Health Science business), both in Japan and across the globe.

Kirin Holdings can trace its roots to Japan Brewery which was established in 1885. Japan Brewery became Kirin Brewery in 1907. Since then, the company expanded its business with fermentation and biotechnology as its core technologies, and entered the pharmaceutical business in the 1980s, all of which continue to be global growth centers. In 2007, Kirin Holdings was established as a pure holding company and is currently focusing on boosting its Health Science domain.

Under the Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV 2027), a long-term management plan launched in 2019, the Kirin Group aims to become “A global leader in CSV*, creating value across our world of Food & Beverages to Pharmaceuticals.” Going forward, the Kirin Group will continue to leverage its strengths to create both social and economic value through its businesses, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth in corporate value.

* Creating Shared Value: combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.