Rebuilding Japan: A Sustainability Challenge

Speakers

• Takashi Hatchoji, Chairman of the Board, Hitachi America, Ltd.
• Aron Cramer, President and CEO, BSR (Moderator)

Highlights

• Hitachi’s disaster preparedness and recovery plans—which relied on the company’s information and communications technology systems to help ensure the safety of employees and family members—were vital to helping the company recover from the earthquake and tsunami.
• Reviewing a company’s disaster plan annually is vital to ensuring its ongoing effectiveness.
• Japan’s disaster raised important issues that will continue to be discussed in 2012, from raising safety standards for nuclear power generation to diversifying the country’s energy mix. In the meantime, business should create new sustainability solutions that use core business expertise. For instance, Hitachi is examining the next generation of cities and using IT solutions to create a more sustainable world.

Memorable Quotes

“After two to three weeks of the disaster, I visited many factories [in the affected regions], and I was really amazed by our employees. They were not only happy to give a hand to the person next to them and to their communities, but also to their competitors. Without waiting for instructions from corporate, our employees quickly moved ahead, even creating gadgets and tools, small and large, to get things done.” —Takashi Hatchoji, Hitachi America, Ltd.

“The Japanese people showed their fortitude and humanity in the way they responded to the disaster. Six weeks after the disaster, when I visited Japan, the people remained patient, helpful, and reflective, showing their great strength and community spirit.” —Aron Cramer, BSR

Overview

Cramer kicked off the session by looking back at the horrific aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and introducing Hatchoji (a newly appointed Board Director at BSR) to discuss his personal experience with the devastating disaster, how Hitachi responded, what this could mean for the future of corporate Japan, and any lessons that could be applied to build a more sustainable country.

As Cramer pointed out, “Sometimes bad things come in threes.” The three events that hit the Tohoku region of Japan in March 2011—the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the deadly tsunamis that immediately followed, and the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant—threw the country into its worst national crisis since the end of World War II. People closest to the epicenter suffered the most, with tens of thousands presumed dead, thousands more made homeless, and personal and public assets and infrastructure lost or severely damaged. Even in Tokyo, approximately 230 miles southwest of the epicenter, millions were affected by blackouts, transportation stoppages, and other delays and inconveniences that temporarily crippled normal daily life.

Despite these setbacks, Japan’s world-class emergency preparedness and recovery systems, coupled with the Japanese peoples’ patience, attitude, and community spirit, have helped the country move swiftly toward recovery, which became the focal point of Cramer and Hatchoji’s conversation.

Hatchoji said that within minutes of the earthquake, he was appointed to lead the recovery efforts on behalf of Hitachi. He quickly began assessing incoming damage reports, and created a response team to develop an action plan. His first major concern was the safety of his employees and their families, particularly those in the hardest hit regions. With hundreds of subsidiaries and company locations and thousands of employees to account for, Hatchoji depended on the company’s sophisticated information and communications technology (ICT) systems to confirm their safety. These systems were part of Hitachi’s disaster recovery plan, which is reviewed and revised annually to ensure ongoing effectiveness.

Hitachi’s desire for business continuity was steadfast. Hatchoji shared a story about Hitachi employees in the affected regions teaming up with their business partners to quickly restore the manufacturing capabilities of a key component of the automobile industry. Normally, this feat would take more than six months to accomplish, but they were able to do it in three months. Hatchoji was impressed that Hitachi employees took their own initiative to address this problem without the level of guidance that is typically provided for such efforts. As Hatchoji explained, this reflects the company’s fundamental focus on satisfying its customers and society.

Hatchoji said his company’s community spirit—demonstrated by their willingness to help not only each other but also their business partners and competitors—comes from the company’s 100-year history of contributing to society, a fundamental element of the company’s credo.

While many questions remain about how Hitachi and other companies in Japan will work with government and other sectors to build a more sustainable Japan, Hatchoji said what he saw from people, and the drive they exhibited to get things back to normal, gives him confidence about the future.