Fiscal 2018 Employee Initiation Ceremony Opening Address from President Mitsuru Okada

I would like to congratulate all of you for joining the company, and on behalf of the UACJ Group, I am delighted to welcome each of you to our organization.

Your initial journey as working adults has just begun in the aluminum industry. The industry is growing in Asia and emerging countries, and demand for aluminum materials for automobiles is on the rise, especially in North America. That means our operating environment is shifting rapidly, and you can look forward to more and more growth.
Back in October 2013, the UACJ Group set a goal of becoming an aluminum industry leader in the competitive global market. Since then, we have seized major opportunities for growth in our shifting operating environment and carried out all kinds of related initiatives, including proactive strategic investments both here and Japan and in countries around the world.
I hope that all of you here today will thrive and succeed in each workplace where you are assigned from now,　and contribute significantly to the company’s competitiveness with your youthful energy and fresh ideas.

Now that you are beginning your career at UACJ, I want to offer three pieces of advice that should help you take big strides in the future rather than just small steps.

The first is to develop a strong ability to take action. Even if you have an excellent strategy, it will lead to nowhere unless you can take action and realize it.
One thing I always talk about in the company is the crucial importance of acting with a keen awareness of risks, without being overly pessimistic or optimistic. People generally tend to stop taking action if they are overly pessimistic, and grow careless if they are overly optimistic. Therefore, regardless of the circumstances, I want you to always maintain a healthy awareness of potential risks and take action accordingly.
When you put something into practice, it is important to have an outward-looking perspective and a proactive approach. The UACJ Group’s operating environment is being shaken up by international competition and major changes. If we maintain the same values and behavioral patterns as before with an inward-looking perspective, UACJ will not be able to keep up with those changes, and it will lose its current value as a company. Therefore, to swiftly and accurately identify market shifts and customers’ needs, we need an outward-looking perspective with a focus on customers. Furthermore, to develop competitive products that respond to customers’ needs, we need to be proactive and aim to make those products even better than before in terms of quality, performance, costs, and so on.
Indeed, we must work swiftly to put new products on the market that are tailored to customers’ needs in order to outperform and beat our competitors in Japan and around the world. To achieve that, however, each employee must work with a strong ability to take action. I hope you can develop that ability as soon as you can.

My second piece of advice is to make sure to clarify goals and work together with your colleagues to accomplish them while taking responsibility for your own tasks.
While I want you to develop your ability to take action, time is often limited, of course, and without enough preparation, your ability to act will be constrained. You will certainly have to grapple with many issues and goals in your working life over the years ahead, but, based on my own experience, success mostly happens when organizational and individual goals are clearly defined, and each individual takes responsibility for his or her part while working cooperatively with everyone else toward accomplishing those goals.
By clarifying goals, jointly taking responsibility and cooperating, all members of an organization can collectively carry out the tasks that the organization and its individuals are respectively responsible for on the same timeline, and repeatedly implement a plan-do-check-act cycle until the goals are accomplished. Through the experience of implementing that cycle over and over, everyone involved can develop into highly versatile and capable employees. I am certain of that.
I hope that all of you, as new employees, work earnestly on the assignments you are given. Rather than just doing your job, however, I would like you to start by taking the initiative, regardless of the task, while always considering what is being asked of you and how you should act.
While working for the company over the years ahead, you will most certainly experience numerous failures. Instead of regretting your failures, I would like you to always make sure to ask why the failure happened, search for the root cause, and learn from it. Over a repeated process of trial and error, you will develop appreciably by practicing and getting in the habit of independently thinking and acting. That is how to refine your ability to accomplish goals, no matter how high the target. The company will always be here to support you in your efforts to take on challenges, even if those efforts end up in failure. Therefore, try things without being afraid of making mistakes so you have no regrets about not taking action.

Thirdly, I advise you to become people who others can trust and rely on.
Let me read you our management philosophy: “The UACJ Group strives to offer products and services deserving of our customers’ satisfaction and trust, and believes that sound and sustainable business development is key to making broad-reaching contributions to society.”
With that in mind, in addition to complying with relevant rules and regulations, I want you to take on whatever assignments you are given with an earnest and sincere attitude. If you approach your work conscientiously and keep getting results, you can be sure that your efforts and attitude will be highly regarded by your supervisors, superiors, and colleagues. By working in such a manner, you will also earn a lot of trust from our customers.
Moreover, you will gain the trust of people both inside and outside the company by working with firm and unwavering beliefs and values while making an effort to respect and understand the standpoints of others.
It will be especially important for you to understand and flexibly adapt to the customs and cultures of other countries since our business will become increasingly global in the future. For that reason, I would like you to develop your communication skills and ability to express your ideas and opinions clearly and logically, and do so persistently when necessary until your points are fully understood. Obviously it might be necessary to communicate in another language, so I would like you to keep up with your foreign language studies, as well.

I have offered you three pieces of advice, but I would like to conclude by asking all of you to take good care of your health and pay close attention to safety while working at the company in the years ahead. Please do not forget that giving top priority to safety and staying in good health are basic principles for all members of society.

UACJ is a company that can offer you countless opportunities to thrive in various areas of business in Japan and around the world. I am proud that all of you have joined UACJ, and I look forward to working together with you in the years ahead. By creating products that satisfy our global customers, we can contribute to communities all over the world. I wish you great success in your careers as members of the company and as working adults. Thank you.