Hello, everybody. Thank you for waiting. We would like to begin the OMRON Corporation ESG presentation for FY 2022. This session will be held in person and remote, a hybrid style. The material that will be used in this presentation is on the company website, therefore, you will be able to download it to your device now. The URL link is also listed on the Zoom chat. We also do have Japanese and English simultaneous translation for you. If you would like to listen to the translation, please use the headset on your table. Now, I would like to introduce to you the presenters today. President and CEO, Yoshihito Yamada.
Good morning, everybody. My name is Yamada. Hello. Pleasure to be here today.
Next is Senior Managing Executive Officer, CHRO, Masahiko Tomita.
Hello, my name is Tomita. Good morning.
Next is Managing Executive Officer, Senior General Manager, Global Investor and Brand Communication HQ and Sustainability Executive, Tsutomu Igaki. From April, he will be appointed Senior Managing Executive Officer from April.
Hello, my name is Igaki. Pleasure to be here today.
Senior General Manager of Sustainability Office, Yue Liu.
Hello, my name is Liu. Good morning. Pleasure to be here today.
My name is Okada, the General Manager of IR, and I will be monitoring the session today. The agenda is as shown here. We will take about the first 50 minutes to do our presentation and move on to the Q&A. We are scheduled to finish at 11:30 A.M., this may slightly change due to the Q&A session. Please kindly be noted that the video of today's session, including the Q&A, will be uploaded onto the company website. We would like to begin with the presentation. Yamada-san, please.
Good morning, everybody. I am Yamada, the CEO of OMRON. Thank you so much for your participation today to OMRON Corporation's ESG presentation. As you may all be aware, OMRON announced our new long-term vision, SF2030, last April, kicked off the start of a new path for the next 10 years. In today's ESG presentation, we would like to share with you what we had worked on over the last year. Thank you very much for your attendance once again. This is today's agenda. We have four main themes that we would like to cover today. First will be from myself, OMRON's corporate philosophy management and value maximization. Next will be about creating social and economic value by contributing to a sustainable society. Tsutomu Igaki will share with you the detailed initiatives we have taken.
Thirdly, we will present to you about the initiatives to achieve non-financial targets that were set as part of the business targets in SF2030. It will be presented by Yue Liu. Lastly, regarding improving human creativity, we have continued to take action with this newly set index, human creativity. This topic will be presented by Masahiko Tomita, who will be newly taking the role as CHRO from this coming April. I would like to get started on the first agenda, OMRON's corporate philosophy management and value maximization. This is page three. OMRON's company philosophy comes from the company founder, Kazuma Tateishi, in 1959, to improve lives and contribute to a better society. The founder had two thoughts that he wanted to convey through his mission statement.
First is to contribute to the development of society through our business, the belief that companies have an obligation to serve society. A company has value only if it contributes to the society, which allows us to profit, thus allowing us to exist. The founder clarified that message by setting this company mission. Second is our commitment to embracing the role of a pioneer to drive societal change. Better society won't just come to us. Someone continues to challenge to create new value. There may be failure along the way, but OMRON is determined to be that someone that continues to challenge. Through this mission statement, the management and employees have been able to feel the oneness and unity leading to the dramatic growth of the company. Please look at the next slide. This is a bar graph of the sales.
With the mission in mind, OMRON has created many of the first in the world, first in Japan innovations throughout the company history. We have created products and services such as automated station ticket gates, online cash sensor, and ATM, which were all solutions to answer the challenges and needs that the society faced, which has allowed us to mark this track record of growth over the years. In the FA area, we have been the first in the world to introduce the Robot Integrated System. As the company started to expand, the entrepreneurial spirit or the animal spirit, that ambitiousness to grow have started to slowly fade, and the growth started to slow down as well.
Post-2000, there were various external environmental changes that challenged all of us, such as the IT bubble burst and global financial crisis, which led to many of the manufacturers to face unprecedented crisis, and OMRON was one of them. In March of 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake hit Japan. In such a difficult business environment, I took the role of CEO in 2011. When I was appointed this role, I was committed to make OMRON a very strong and profit-growing company that can withstand any headwind. What were some of the things that we worked on to realie a very strong OMRON? There were two main things. One is the enhancement of power to generate profit. Second is to deepen the understanding of the OMRON principles. I would like to talk about each point. First, about enhancing profit-generating capability.
After I was appointed CEO, I had set growth profit margin improvement as one of the business management targets. This was because the GP margin is an index that directly shows the OMRON evaluation from our customers. It is also a metric that unless all of the divisions, such as manufacturing, sales, R&D, marketing work together, we cannot improve on. That is why we decided to focus on the GP margin. In order to improve the GP margin, we have worked on various initiatives to enhance the capabilities around growth, profit, and adapting to change.
I won't go into all the details of what we had worked on for today, as a result of working on these initiatives as a company, as a result, the GP margin grew from 36.8% to 45.1%, which was an increase of 8.3 points since 2011. The gross profit value for the same period grew by 1.7x , and operating income value also grew by 2.4x . As you can see, the power to generate profit in OMRON has significantly grown over the last 12 years. I would like to explain about the second point regarding the OMRON principles. Please refer to page seven. This is OMRON's current company principles. It was revised in 2015 and included in our articles of incorporation last year.
The current principle keeps the mission set by the founder as our mission and summarize the values that every single employee should take to heart as our values. The values that we set are Innovation driven by social needs, Challenging ourselves, and Respect for all. Why do we revise the company principle? One of the reason is to regain that animal spirit from when the company was founded, which was gradually starting to fade over time. We not only wanted the mission to be the core principle of the organization, but also because we are committed to being a company that generates value to the society, we wanted it to be the source of driver for further future development.
In this new company principle, we have strong belief that OMRON exists to create a better society and that to create, to meet the social needs is really our mission. In order to push through this company principle in business management, what has been the biggest challenge as top management of the company? That is, how can I foster the true understanding of the OMRON Principles amongst employees and have them resonate and be inspired? In order to execute business based on company principles, sharing and empathy is not enough. We aim for resonance. We aim for employees to resonate with us and work as a company to penetrate the company principles. Please have a look at the next slide.
Initiatives to deepen understanding of OMRON Principles are all low-profile and down-to-earth activities. Let us explain some of them in detail. Please take a look at the photo in the middle. In the upper left, Chairman Tateishi is having a dialogue with middle managers, mainly from overseas, at OMRON Principles Dialogue. The lower left photo shows the CEO Circle, where I visit each business site to have a dialogue with frontline employees. During the CEO Circle, I spend about two hours talking about the why and conversing with employees in order to nurture the pilot flames for putting the principles into practice. After the CEO Circle, I get emails from all the participants, and I make sure to reply with more than double the amount of their enthusiasm. There is the OMRON Global Award, or TOGA, in the upper right corner.
TOGA is an event where employees share their stories of putting principles into practice with the entire global colleagues. TOGA is a year-round program to expand the circle of empathy and resonance by listening to the presentations and praising each other. We have continued this program for 10 years. Please watch the video for a three-minute summary of TOGA.
To achieve these, management and employees both work in unison to put into practice our principles. This is TOGA. Innovation driven by social needs. Employees set themselves challenging goals. Share the results with colleagues globally, aiming to continuously learn from each other and internalize our values. TOGA competition starts on Founder's Day. Teams are formed, each focusing on how they have realized our principles. Work on each team continues throughout the year, with teams sharing their accomplishments during elimination rounds within countries and regions, leading up to the global event at the following Founder's Day. The cycle of collaboration and improvement continues. Launched in 2012, TOGA celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. The number of entries has increased to 6,944. The number of participants has grown to 51,736 in total.
The reason for the enthusiastic participation of so many people, far exceeding the number of OMRON Group employees, that the circle of resonance for the practice of our corporate philosophy has expanded to all employees globally. Therefore, we determined to sustain the supply chains even from lockdown and process it employee health. Offering flexible working environment, we decided to work on hybrid working policy.
I hope you enjoyed the TOGA video and get the atmosphere of TOGA. As shown in the video, a total of 51,736 people, far more than the number of our employees, participated in TOGA last year. Our activities for this TOGA is expanding every year. TOGA also has a hidden purpose. It is to create a culture of mutual praise. For the past 10 years, through TOGA, I have been thoroughly committed to mutual praise, and we have been thoroughly committed to mutual praise. As a result, I feel that the culture of respect for each individual and of taking on challenges is spreading throughout OMRON. For OMRON, putting our principles into practice is the driving force for maximizing corporate value and the very source of our growth.
We will continue our efforts, not only to deeper understanding of OMRON Principles, but also to achieve a level where they resonate with our employees. Please see the next slide. As I have mentioned, OMRON has continued to evolve into a strong company, albeit gradually, by strengthening its profit-generating capabilities and deepening understanding of its Principles. What direction and path will OMRON take for growth over the next decade then? This is powerfully expressed in OMRON's new long-term vision, Shaping the Future 2030. SF2030. In short, we will create a sustainable society by continuing to create innovation driven by social needs with automation which empowers people. Please take a look at page 12. In SF2030, OMRON will continue to solve social issues through its business and maximize its corporate value. We will contribute to a sustainable society and create social value.
In doing so, we will also increase our economic value by achieving strong growth ourselves. We aim to maximize corporate value by creating both social and economic values. Please take a look at the next slide. In the next decade, leading up to 2030, we believe that many social issues will manifest themselves as all social systems and values change. In the midst of such social changes, we have identified three social issues to address, where we can leverage our strengths and have a major social impact: achieving carbon neutrality, realizing a digital society, and extending healthy life expectancy. We have established four domains to solve these three social issues: Industrial Automation, Healthcare Solutions, Social Solutions, and Device & Module Solutions. What kind of sustainable society are we aiming for?
What kind of social value will we create in order to create a sustainable society? Please take a look at the two-minute video that summarizes that world view.
OMRON's vision of the future of automation, where people can be bold, where they can do more, try more, be more. We're making a world where anyone can go for their dream. Empowering people through automation. Where everyone has access to renewable energy, whenever they need it. An eco-friendly, sustainable world, where you don't have to make hard choices about the energy you use. Where advanced technology turns workplaces into creative spaces, and people's potential is realized. Where industries can grow, where they can evolve.
Where health monitoring is automated, allowing anyone to get medical advice from the best specialists in the world, wherever they are. All you need to do is whatever you want to do. In this world, you, him, her, them, everyone li ves life to the fullest. The community, the environment, the whole world becomes a better place. OMRON is making all of this possible. Yeah, all of this is happening right now. OMRON is creating a future where society can grow and individuals can flourish. Empowering people through automation. Excited? You should be. Shaping the future. 2030. OMRON.
How did you find the video? I hope you have been able to visualize the kind of sustainable society that OMRON is aiming for. We will be focusing on automation, thoroughly.
From the next chapter, we would like to share with you our efforts for the past year to realize OMRON's vision for society in 2030. Now, I will hand the microphone over to Mr. Igaki.
Thank you, Yamada-san. Hello, everybody. Once again, my name is Igaki. Pleased to be here to speak to you today. I'd like to present to you about creating social and economic value by contributing to a sustainable society, and share with you some cases we have been working on, as well as the progress of the works. Please have a look at the next slide. As Yamada-san has explained earlier, OMRON will work to solve three social issues through these four domains. This slide shows you the structure through this chart. Please have a look. The horizontal axis is the three social issues that OMRON has addressed. Vertical axis is the four domain in core businesses. The blue letters in the center are the social values we will create through these businesses.
As you can see, each business will work to create social value in order to solve the three social issues. IAB will contribute to the advancement of manufacturing, which will support a sustainable society. HCB will be contributing to zero events for cardiovascular disease. SSB will contribute to adoption and efficient use of renewable energy and sustainability of infrastructure to support a digital society. DNB will be contributing to the adoption of renewable energy and high-speed communications. Please look at the next slide. In the SF 1st Stage of SF2030, which is the first midterm business plan of SF2030, we have set the businesses that will work to solve these social issues as our focus businesses. Please take a look at the left-hand side of the slide.
The four core businesses and focus businesses in SF 1st Stage and incremental sales plan up to FY 2024 is shown here. Now please have a look at the right side of the slide. This slide shows the overall company sales growth plan in the next three years. The blue part of the bar graph is the sales from the focus businesses. The focus businesses alone targets a sales increase of JPY 149.4 billion, more than 45% growth in the next three years, driving the overall company's growth. How will we create the social values and link that to economical values? As time is limited today, I would like to introduce the initiatives from one of the three social issues we have addressed, realizing a carbon neutral society. Please refer to page 19.
OMRON will contribute to the society with these two approaches in realizing a carbon neutral society. First is promoting carbon neutrality through OMRON products and services provided to customers and society. Second is promoting carbon neutrality through initiative at our own sites. By mixing these two different approaches, we will create social value and also link it to economical values. Please allow me to explain in order.
In order to promote carbon neutrality through OMRON products and services provided to customers in society, I would like to introduce an initiative in the industrial automation business. Please have a look at the next slide. Currently, the manufacturing industry is being asked to realize sustainable manufacturing in realizing a sustainable society. As the world continues to change, there is need to restructure supply chains at a global scale due to U.S.-China friction and geopolitical risks. As a result, the production is returning to domestic manufacturing and it accelerates to keep and improve the competitiveness. In such new business environmental changes, each manufacturers are facing various challenges, including carbon neutral environmental load reduction and labor shortages. Amongst those, the initiatives to carbon neutral and environmental load reduction is very urgent for sustainable manufacturing.
In Industrial Automation business at OMRON, we are working on various initiatives for Carbon Zero and environmental load reduction so that the business can be more competitive and to ensure the effectiveness. As part of the initiatives, OMRON joined EP100 last October as the first Japanese manufacturing company to join. EP100 is an international corporate initiative with the goal of doubling the energy productivity of their business activities. Through high technology to pursue energy productivity, companies with goal of doubling their energy productivity participates in this EP100. OMRON participates in the EP100 initiative and have declared to make our energy productivity to 200% by 2040. Now, I would like to explain how we will improve the energy productivity. Please take a look at page 22.
OMRON believes that improving energy productivity means not only reducing energy consumption at manufacturing sites, but also improving productivity, quality, and production value. OMRON sees this concept as the core of its decarbonization efforts at manufacturing sites, is working to achieve this goal by providing technologies and solutions that utilize on-site data. OMRON will accelerate its efforts throughout the entire value chain, including customers and partners, as well as the company itself. As an example, we'd like to introduce a co-creation project with Murata Manufacturing, a customer in our Industrial Automation business. Murata Manufacturing, in order to improve energy efficiency in their factories, was considering energy optimization for clean rooms, which consume the most energy among all manufacturing facilities. As a partner, OMRON aims to contribute with three values.
In the middle of the slide that is shown here, you can see our efforts from fiscal year 2023. The first is constant visualization of energy-related information by making not only electric power information, but also production and quality information visible at all times. It will be made possible to reduce energy consumption in clean rooms where strict quality standards are required. The second is data analysis and consulting. Based on the data obtained through visualization, you can identify the source of foreign materials and the time of the day when excessive energy is used and propose optimal solutions. The third is optimized energy control through OMRON's unique innovative applications. This application optimizes air conditioning power by supplying only the necessary amount of energy when needed through on and off control of air conditioning during non-operating hours while maintaining the clean room environment.
Through these solutions, OMRON will contribute to Murata's efforts to achieve both energy savings and productivity improvements at its shop floors. That was about our efforts to promote carbon neutrality through OMRON products and services provided to customers and society. I would like to give you an example of promoting carbon neutrality through initiatives at our own sites. We have declared OMRON Carbon Zero, a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our own sites to zero by 2050. Please take a look at the graph on the left of the slide. GHG emissions have been reduced by 50% by the last fiscal year compared to the base year, fiscal 2016. Based on this achievement, we're targeting a 53% reduction in fiscal 2024, and a 65% reduction by 2030, the goal of SF2030.
Next, please take a look at the right-hand side. In SF 1st Stage, which is aiming for the goal of 2024, to achieve these goals, we are promoting Carbon Zero at all 76 domestic locations, while at the same time expanding energy conservation and creation at all global sites. Please take a look at the next slide. It's about progress forecasts for fiscal 2022. Please take a look at the left-hand side. For fiscal 2022, we are projecting a 58% reduction, well above our target of 51%. As you can see, the reductions are more than offsetting the increase in emissions resulting from the increase in sales. Next, please take a look at the right-hand side. These are the main initiatives. We have exceeded our initial target of nine Carbon Zero locations in Japan, reaching 10 locations achieving Carbon Zero.
This is the result of the deployment of IAB's energy productivity solution within the group and OMRON Group's first attempt for internal power transmission of renewable energy electricity. At our global sites, power generation initiatives are expanding, mainly in Malaysia and China, and GHG emissions reductions are also making progress in each area overseas. We are making steady progress in our efforts to reduce GHG emissions at our own sites and are steadily creating social value toward the realization of carbon neutral society. Achieving carbon neutrality at our own sites adds value to OMRON's pro-products as Carbon Zero and sets us apart from our competitors. By actively promoting the carbon neutrality of our own sites, we will link social values to economic values. That's it for our initiatives at our own sites. Please take a look at the next slide. This is my last slide.
In fiscal 2022, even in a challenging business environment, we steadily created social value and linked them to economic values. Please take a look at the left-hand side. This shows the progress of KPIs that quantitatively indicate our efforts to create social value. As you can see, we're making steady progress in each of our businesses, indicating that the products, services, and solutions that we provide are linked to outcomes for society. In particular, in Industrial Automation business, IAB, referred to today, we're making progress toward achieving carbon neutrality, and social value KPIs are showing significant progress, as you can see here. Please take a look at the right-hand side. By linking these social value outcomes to economic values, we expect to achieve sales growth of 34% in fiscal 2022 over fiscal 2020.
OMRON will continue to grow by solving social issues through its business and contributing to the realization of sustainable society. That's all that I have to say. Ms. Liu will explain our efforts to achieve non-financial targets. Over to you, Ms. Liu.
Igaki-san, thank you very much. Hello, everybody. My name is Liu. I am the Senior General Manager of Sustainability Office. It is a pleasure to meet all of you today. I would like to present to you about the initiatives to achieve non-financial targets. I would like to share the current status as well as some of the detailed initiatives to achieve our targets. Please have a look at the next slide. In this slide, there are 11 non-financial targets that we have laid out in SF2030. Number one to seven are the goals we have set as a group. These are targets regarding the social value that OMRON will create, as well as the acquisition of capabilities to create these values. Number eight to 10 are targets set by the employees' votes globally. Why did we set the company targets through employees' votes?
That is because we believe that the employees selecting their own targets would drive the motivation to take action on their own will, and leading to the employees' active participation to achieve target. Thus, strengthening the company's competitiveness. The last plus one target was set for top management of each region to declare and execute their commitment to contribute to local communities in alignment with OMRON's sustainability policy. Please have a look at the next slide. This slide shows the progress update on initiatives to be achieved by fiscal year 2024. For each item, the milestone for this year differs, so of course there are progress gaps overall. However, in all areas, the required action plans have been executed, showing solid progress to achieving the target by FY 2024.
All of the global employees will continue to strongly promote these initiatives to achieve these important targets, which will be the growth driver from OMRON. Today, I would like to share with you a case from the plus one target highlighted in the blue box, the commitment to local communities from each region's top management. Please have a look at the next slide. This slide is the details of the commitments set by each region. Each region has shared their strong commitments to contribute to resolving the region and community's social issues. Today, I would like to talk about the OMRON Greater China's commitment regarding redressing educational inequality in impoverished areas for children. Please look at the next slide. In China, the education inequality of children is becoming increasingly serious between urban cities and rural cities.
For example, the number of books at schools are insufficient to the number of children in many of the rural elementary schools. Therefore, OMRON Greater China has launched a public project partnering with the local foundation and donated about 45,000 children books to multiple elementary schools in impoverished communities. We plan to take continuous actions, including donating school supplies and conducting school visits. We are already hearing some voices of appreciation from the children, which is very much motivating the employees working on this initiative. This initiative is not solely to redress the education gap in rural cities in China. We believe that this is how we, OMRON, can root ourselves down into these areas, building a close and friendly partnership with the local communities. As I have explained, the activities to reaching the non-financial target is showing solid progress.
We will continue to accelerate these initiatives to maximize the company value. That is it with my part of the presentation. I would like to hand over the microphone to Tomita San to talk about human creativity. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Ms. Liu. Next, myself, Tomita, will explain about the improvement of human creativity. As we have been explaining so far, OMRON is creating values through its business operations toward the realization of society envisioned in SF2030. At OMRON, we believe that the key to achieving this value creation lies in diversity and inclusion. We have repeatedly discussed what diversity and inclusion means at OMRON. First, we define diversity as attracting diverse people who will take on the challenge of the creation of a better society, and inclusion as unleashing the passion and ability of each individual, creating innovation by bringing our diverse personalities together and sharing the fruits of our labor. How well are we practicing this concept of accelerating diversity and inclusion to powerfully promote value creation? This is measured by human creativity as a metric. I will explain from the next page.
OMRON has positioned human creativity as an important strategic goal and has set a target of improving it by 7% in fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2021. This slide shows the formula for calculating human creativity. The numerator is the amount of added value or the scale of value OMRON created and provided to the market, and the denominator is the total labor cost or the scale of investments in human resources that create value. What we want to accomplish is value creation. There is significance in growing both the denominator and numerator of this formula. By investing in human resources, the denominator, we will create more value, the numerator, than the denominator. Specifically, by increasing investment in human resources by 15%, we will increase added value by 22%, resulting in a 7% increase in human creativity.
In fiscal 2022, because of the labor cost of global countries, we have suffered, but we have been able to increase the human creativity global value by 102%, so we have been able to increase the human creativity. The next slide, please. There are three key elements to elevate human creativity. The first is the optimal placement of human resources. By assigning the right people to the right place in growth business, we can improve employee performance and increase added value. The second is to acquire and strengthen the capabilities of human resources that will lead to business growth. It's about acquiring necessary skills to execute on value creation plans or business strategy, as well as preparing educational programs and providing opportunities to build up experience for realizing them. The third is to fully capitalize on employees' talents.
We believe it is important to create an environment that allows employees to fully leverage their diverse talents. I will now share with you the examples of how these efforts are actually resulting in value creation at OMRON from the two perspectives of acquiring capabilities of human resources and capitalize on employees' talents. I would like to introduce OMRON SINIC X as an example acquiring human resources capabilities. OMRON SINIC X was born in 2018 as a company that aims to solve social issues and create innovative technologies. Leading researchers have gathered from cutting-edge fields such as AI and robotics technologies. Why have we attracted that outstanding talent? There are three reasons. The first is OMRON SINIC X's mission, which is develop innovative technologies needed for society of the near future and create the concrete architecture required for its realization.
It resonates with many of our researchers, as it leads to the motivation of these excellent researchers to work, who have the ambition to change the world by implementing the technologies that they create in society rather than merely developing technologies. The second is the working environment. It has its own unique employment system and rules different from those of OMRON, designed to allow researchers to devote themselves to their research with free-wheeling ideas. Lastly, the co-creation with external parties. Based in Hongo, Tokyo, where many AI companies and R&D institutes are located, it is engaged in open innovation with other companies, research institutes, and universities. Many R&D themes that have a significant impact on society have been born from Hongo. More than 40 themes have been adopted and highly rated at major international conferences.
The diverse and multi-talented researchers who have gathered at OMRON SINIC X are creating a great deal of value that will shoulder the future of OMRON. As an example of capitalizing on employees' talents, we would like to introduce an employee engagement survey, VOICE, an initiative in which the senior management team listens to the voices of individual employees, recognize issues, and take actions to resolve them. The response rate to this year's VOICE survey was 91%, with 38,000 free comments received from employees. The number of free comments, give n the number of respondents, is surprisingly high compared to other companies, even to the company that conducted the survey. This attests to the fact that employees expect the senior management to improve the company by making their voices heard. We feel that the trust relationship between the management and employees has become more solid.
Yamada and I read through all the comments from employees. It takes time and effort, but it is a lot of fun because we always come away with new insights and discover new issues, so we're looking forward to them. Through VOICE, I feel that we are constantly upgrading OMRON. Please take a look at the right-hand side. These are actual examples of initiatives launched based on the comments that we received. For example, we have initiated a variety of improvement themes through VOICE, such as a global and cross-business theme of revamping corporate system and the streamlining of business processes in the healthcare business. While VOICE has led to many group-wide improvements, we have also received many requests and proposals for improvements related to delegation of authorities and simplification of business processes.
Although this is not an easy theme, senior management team itself will take action, which will lead to improvements and reforms. We will continue to utilize VOICE as a mechanism to connect management and the front line to create an environment in which employees can fully leverage their talents. Today, I shared with you some examples of concrete initiatives to improve human creativity. Implementing diversity and inclusion and improving human creativity is not an easy task. In most cases, it takes combination of many initiatives, like the ones shown on the screen, to make it happen. I believe that it takes time for human resources investment initiatives to lead to value-added improvements and to produce results. That's why it is important to evaluate each measure from a medium-term perspective while pursuing them diligently.
We will continue to make steady progress with the action plans formulated so that OMRON will continue to be a group of diverse human resources with specialties and where each individuals can take the initiative in demonstrating his or her abilities. Now, I'd like to hand the microphone back to Mr. Yamada.
Tomita-san, thank you very much. Before we close the presentation, I would like to say a few words. As you are all aware, I will be stepping down from my CEO role as of end of this March. Thank you so much for the great support you have all given me over the 12 years. As I reflect back, since I took the CEO role in 2011, I have always managed the business aiming to create a strong OMRON. When I say strong OMRON, to us, a strong company is a company that has growth power, profit power, and power to adapt to change. However, the true goal is not to just be a strong company. The reason for OMRON's existence is to contribute to the development of society through creating social value through our business.
What I continue to aspire the company to be was OMRON, a strong company that is full of OMRON Principles. We continue to evolve every year, OMRON still is midway. We are still on path for further development. The OMRON story for further development continues into the new long-term vision, SF2030. It has just begun, we were able to mark a good start in 2022. The story for the future, I will hand over to the new management team. From April, the overall group's management structure will change under the new CEO, Tsujinaga-san. The company heads of all four business units will be newly appointed. I have absolutely no worries for these changes. We have growing great talents in our management team in which we can relay the future of OMRON to.
With the new management team, a total of over 20 management members have been promoted. Their passion, the drive for growth, their new ideas will surely give powerful and new power to OMRON's future. Please do look forward to the passionate new management team, the next generation of team OMRON. As for myself, I will become chairman of the board to look over this new management team and work to strengthen the corporate governance as chair of the board to contribute to OMRON's corporate value improvement. Lastly, I would really like to express my sincere gratitude to the investors and stakeholders here today. Through all the conversations and communications I have had with you, it has been an amazing 12 years of learning and growth for me. Thank you very much. I would like to kindly request you to please continue to support team OMRON going forward.
Now with this, I would like to close the presentation. Thank you very much for your participation and attention.
Thank you. Let's go into question and answer session. Today, we are going to ask investors and analysts to ask questions in that sequence. First, we'd like to open the floor for questions for those who are in the venue physically, and then answer questions from the participants on the web. Those of you who are participating on Zoom, you can actually start raising your hands by pushing the Raise Hands button. We'd like to take as many questions as possible, so please limit the number of questions to two per person. Within this venue, if there are any questions from investors and analysts, please raise your hands and we will bring the microphone over to you.
Thank you very much for this precious opportunity and this opportunity to ask questions. I am Anamaika from Nomura Securities. I have two questions. Looking back the past 12 years, there have been various events, especially in recent years, COVID-19, US-China friction, and the demonstration ability to respond to changes. Looking back, the breakthrough and decision-making points and some automotive business sale. Where did you see the breakpoints and breakthrough and demonstration of the ability to respond? How were you able to establish the foundation? If you can look back and share with us, that would be appreciated.
Well, as I said in my presentation today, as for gross profit margin, for the whole company and for each of the business, the targets have been set.
ROIC 10% or more is the hurdle that is set for the whole company. The earning capability, profit generating capability should be improved in order to exceed the 10% in ROIC. That was the driving force or trigger for growth. In any organization, this is a fate, sometimes you are trapped inside the organization and there is a poor relation between the sales and manufacturing or development and manufacturing. If you set the goal of providing added value to the customers, each of the organizations has to work together to realize that. The development has to consider the production, and the production has to consider the sales team.
What's more important was that the sales forces have started to look at the GP and added value as a whole, and they are now given the responsibility to take care of that. That was a major breakthrough. This has increased the consolidation and profitability, and we're able to make investment, and we're able to establish the virtual cycle through that. We're still lacking in the ability to respond to changes, and we can also improve our growth further. Each of the employees, by playing their own roles, they are now aware that they can contribute to society. There are many new officers that have been promoted to the management team, and it will accelerate the value creation further. Thank you.
The second question is about corporate principle revision, and the word animal spirit was quite impressive. In recent years, in OMRON, how have you been able to foster this animal spirit within the organization?
Well, originally, Kazuma Tateishi, the founder, has started up this as a startup company. With new solution and technology, we would like to contribute to society. That has been always there. With the size increase of the company, it has been diluted. That was the sense of crisis that I got when I took office in 2011. Getting back to the basics, we made our company constitution as a mission.
Well, we're still along the way and in the middle of the way. There are opportunities where each of the employees to express their own ideas, like in TOGA, and there's also internal public solicitation for positions. There is a mechanism where you can choose your position, where you can choose your superiors. Through these activities, we are now placing a system where people can have their voices heard, and that there is a system where people can do whatever they want to do. The industry first, the world's first, product and services have been provided, and we have been able to be awarded with a prize that will be given to the most innovative company for consecutive years. Thank you.
We will move on to the next question. Thank you. To the person in the back.
Thank you. My name is Ishino from Tokai Tokyo Research Center. I have two questions. This past 12 years, as you have served as CEO, are there areas where you feel like, "Oh, this was still insufficient or not enough"? I'm sure you will relay that to the next CEO, but how would you pass the baton on? What kind of things do you think would pass it on to the next CEO? That's the first question. The second question is new business model. We've been hearing recurring, but you've been investing in JMDC, and I feel like it is time that we'll be seeing kind of a new direction for OMRON too.
As much as you can disclose, can you share us what kind of vision you have for the new direction for OMRON?
Thank you for your question. Things that I was not fully able to achieve or was insufficient, there's a lot that I still want to achieve. What we talk about right now is high cycle management. OMRON is still very slow, meaning in terms of decision-making, the feedback and further execution, that cycle. I'm not talking about the speed, but the quicker cycle. Not just the speed, but I want it to be a quicker cycle. It could be a smaller challenge, but it's a quicker cycle that which can lead to bigger challenges. That's kind of the structure or system that we want to embed in OMRON, and Tsujinaga-san is saying that too.
I'm sure we can hear more in detail from the new management. The direction that we want to aim for or the vision that we want to head to, we have that. To execute, we need a quicker pace of running through our cycle, and we need that kind of culture embedded into OMRON, and I am sure that Tsujinaga-san will be able to embed that into the company. You mentioned about the business model. OMRON has been product-centric to solutions, and we have been working on also solutions as well. Solution style business has been growing more every year, and it's growing to about 30%, the service, the solution service. Therefore, that's become the higher ratio of sales, and our technology has been increasing. That ratio we probably need to increase as well, too.
As for the JMDC partnership, there are seven businesses that we are working on together right now. On March 10th, the day after tomorrow, there will be eight companies, including the two companies, to create a health-related alliance. It will be announced on the 10th. If you can keep your eyes open for this announcement that is to happen. Health-related business, meaning that the company will step into the health of the employees and the company. For us, of course, we want to link that to a business, our business as well. It's not just JMDC and OMRON, but we want to ask for more companies to participate in this activity. I will be there myself to do this press conference. This will be at the day after tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Yes, I will look forward to March 10th.
Thank you. Now moving on to the next question. Yes, the gentleman in the front row, please.
I am Nakajima from Mizuho Securities. There are two questions. Firstly, toward the end, CEO Yamada said that it's not just creating a strong OMRON, but corporate value and contribution to society is the focus, and that tells everything. It's a very primitive question, but in the case of OMRON, if you would like to pursue straightforward profit generation, if you can save some of those businesses, you may be able to get more profit. In terms of corporate value, especially, improvement of corporate value has now sunken in your business operation.
Are there any conflicts that may have arisen, and how have you felt that, and how have you responded to that and addressed to that?
Well, probably in the short term, the bottom operating income could be increased. If you had to do that, there could have been many other ways. More specifically, development costs could be reduced or SG&A expenses could have been reduced. However, what we are fully always aware is to have mid- to long-term perspective, and that is most important for the top management and business owner. Five years, 10 years and 20 years ahead, what will be the investments that we need to do now, what will be necessary for the future down the road? That is how I have been running the business. The balance is really important there.
Of course, stakeholders, there are so many stakeholders, not just employees and shareholders, but those who are involved in the businesses of OMRON, there are so many. In the right balance, you have to improve the value and allocate the value and what would be the right balance. That is something that I have been always mindful of. What's important is that in 10 years' time or 20 years' time, we have to stay being a company that can create value. The issue of balance is and will always be a challenge for the top management. Mid to long-term perspective is going to be there for OMRON, and I'm quite sure that that will be the case. Thank you.
That balance is also important and incorporated in the on-site and frontline KPIs. Is that the case?
Yes. ROIC-centered management is well known for OMRON. ROIC is only one of the indices. It's not the case that the higher the better. In a certain zone, you have to achieve the target. That is important. In a field that has always penetrated already, so the necessary investment in human resources has been already there. You have to also focus on improving value in the site.
The new business model is my next question. Especially as CEO Yamada, for the past few years, data-based businesses have been clearly demonstrated and pursued. It is a quite difficult task, and it is not so easy to monetize those business models. In the midterm, what system and in what format are you going to continue? This will happen in each of the businesses. That could be the case, but that might not work if you're doing this separately.
That's a very difficult question to answer, especially this is a challenge, exactly the challenge for OMRON for mid to long-term business. We are now shifting from product-centered to solution-centered business, and there are big chances there. Unless we achieve them, there is no further development and growth for OMRON.
The if you look at customers, for example, blood pressure monitors and sensors and controls, it's not the products that they want, but the solutions that the products can deliver is the one that they want. There will be further labor shortage in the site, and the population is aging. How you can deliver the solutions is a challenge for OMRON. What is going to be the key there is data. How you can use the data for effective solutions in FA or solutions or social systems, it's all the same. How are you going to go about doing this is probably the what Mr. Tsujinaga will explain to you. There has been foundation made, so I hope I'm sure that you can have high expectation on that. Thank you.
Now we will go into the next question.
My name is Kitaura from Bloomberg. First of all, Yamada-san, thank you for your great 12 years as CEO. Obviously, the results have been great, and I'm just very impressed of your work as a CEO. What I wanted to ask about the future was in the SINIC Theory that we're going back kind of into the nature. OMRON, I'm sure you're looking into for the future improvements, but at the moment right now, is it the business related or resource? Is there any area that you're, you think you're short of that you want to improve? This is more of a long-term vision, but there's so much change. If you can maybe share with us a little bit about that.
You mean the SINIC?
Yes, the SINIC. The S-I-N-I-C, the SINIC Theory.
I could go on about this. There's a lot on the website. This is the future forecasting theory, but it's from optimization to a factual basis society is what we have transitioned to. There's a lot, I think it is a time where there's a lot of societal problems that will arise, and I believe that the current situation is such. Within that kind of changing environment, as we try to resolve the social challenges, we want that to be the source of development for OMRON. That is what we do in our business as
In our businesses. There's different challenges, various challenges, but by ultimate automation, what can we optimize? That could help to lead us closer to the factual business society. OMRON will continue to work on the automation, and that's something that we will continue to do. Where are we short of as a company? There's of course many things we can continue to work on. The data-driven business management, in order to manage the business as data-driven business, we need this data scientist or engineers that can work with the data. There will be a lot more need for people like that to create value for our company. As Tomita-san explained, the SINIC X was created to bring external talent and resource too.
Not necessarily just in the R&D headquarters of Kyoto, but that's why we created the SINIC team, the research center in Tokyo, the Hongo of Tokyo, somewhere very different, so that we can bring in these engineers that can be the core to make this. We need to strengthen the resource around that, otherwise we can't continue to create the value or enhance our value. Those are the areas that we would like to strengthen.
Thank you. My second question is to Tomita-san. You mentioned about the creativity, that's page 35 on your slide, 7% increase in human creativity. Added value 22% and 15% of the labor cost. Human creativity 7%, added value 22%, labor cost 15%. What I wanted to ask is, how do you calculate added value? Labor cost is increasing recently, if it's 15% in the next three years, and if we think about the inflation, when you think about new people, new labor and data scientists, I think you can assume that there will be higher inflation and labor costs as well along with inflation. Could that be higher? All of this included, if you can maybe explain or elaborate a little bit about how you came up with the 7%.
We have subtracted the variable cost from the sales. That's how we've come up with the numbers. As for the meaning, Yamada-san has mentioned.
The value that OMRON creates when we deliver it to the market, that what we receive as a result of that's the added value that we receive, and that's how we simply set the added value. Yes, the total labor cost is like what you have said, it's exactly true. In the recent years, the labor cost is going up quite high. In order for us to adapt to that and to make sure we can compensate appropriately, we need to invest. I'm not talking about just lowering labor costs, we need to make sure to compensate well, and that's why the labor costs we're looking at 15%. When we say we will compensate well, it's not just increasing labor costs, but it's more about how should we allocate resource as well? How do we allocate the people?
We're not just talking about increasing the unit salary, for example, but we want to make sure we allocate the right person at the right place where that person can maximize his or her talent. That is why, with all that included, we are thinking that labor costs will go up by 15%, and that is how we have decided on this number.
Thank you very much. 7% target for human creativity. If the added value goes up, If labor cost goes up by 22%, but human creativity is 0%, it's not so bad if the labor cost goes up significantly. How did you think of 7%? How did you pick this number seven for human creativity? In tw-twenty...
We started this in fiscal year 2022, the midterm plan. Within this 2022 midterm plan, what do we want to be as a company and what kind of business? Of course, the business portfolio will change. As Yamada-san has mentioned, from selling a product-centric to more solution service-centric, that will change. Therefore, the added value or what goes inside that added value will change too. Therefore, we need to think about the scenario for the business strategy. We need to be thoroughly discussing what is the business strategy, and then what is the added value to the customers, and how will that go up. That's what we had discussed to set the 7% of human creativity. We didn't start with 7%.
We started by talking about what do we want to do and what do we change that added value. As a result, we came up with the 7%.
Thank you very much.
Let us move on to the next question.
Thank you. McDonald from Citigroup. Thank you. CEO Yamada, you have been originally from healthcare and SF2030 in there, IAB and healthcare business are the focal points. As you said, the business model will change. With that, IAB may look better, but healthcare business, ACV, looks like it's missing something. I'm not sure if this is because of COVID-19, but by changing this business model, you are shifting from a product-centered to solution-centered in terms of sales. Remote medicine, telemedicine has been attracting attention since several years ago, but you don't see numerical results yet.
There is a need, and not just in Japan, but globally, including New York, like The Mount Sinai Hospital and U.K. and Netherlands, Singapore, India. There are various countries where there is needs. In page 27, the social value, the KPI, this 72% progress is a bit discouraging because there is this needs, and yet, the pace or speed and achievement ratio is quite low. Is it because of COVID-19 or there is competition or there is any change in the market? What are the reasons? How or why this is the result? How are you going to accelerate and facilitate this in order to achieve the targets? How are you going to achieve that?
Thank you for the question. In the healthcare, remote medicine, as you can see here in the progress rate, this is the only one where we are behind in terms of achieving the target. Well, target itself was a bit ambitious, we are behind in terms of progress. That is a fact. Our issue that we see is that blood pressure monitor has spread to reach about 30 million units in track record. This is one of the major pillars still for OMRON in healthcare. Cardiovascular events like cerebral stroke and cardioembolic stroke, this is increasing. Because of blood pressure monitor spread, thus, number of events has been declining.
Because of population being aged, at the endpoint of somebody's life, those tragedies may be the ones that increasing number of people may face, and we would like to do something about that. Even with the high pressure or hyperlipidemia, without any stroke, if you can reach the end of life happily and extend a healthy life expectancy, then that would be serving as a goal. You have to always check the changes in the status of your body. You have to be remotely monitored by your family doctor all the time, and that is the big motivation where we came in this entry, the market. Why are we struggling still?
We haven't identified any specific format that has been established to pursue to allow us to be on the steady path to success. There has been bits and pieces that have been used to fill the gap, but there is still gap. How you can incorporate and attract people to telemedicine or remote medicine, we haven't been able to identify that method. We are asking now the family doctors to encourage patients to use the telemedicine, but healthcare professionals and doctors are too busy. Also, even if the patients are in the health remote medicine system, they may not stay there. That's why the number of patients is not growing as much as we had hoped for.
We have been trying various methods to increase that. Once those fills are, the gaps are filled, then there will be a big, bigger drive that will that we will see. Those patients, once in the telemedicine or remote medicine, the as is aimed, the blood pressure has been controlled. That is the paper that we see and the literature that we see. Once this is recognized in the world, of course, the U.S. will be ahead of others. Down the road, there will be a society where, that, remote medicine will be a common practice, and that's what we would like to achieve as OMRON. Thank you.
Now, we would like to open up the questions to the people that are participating online, and myself, Okada, will be appointing who to the questionee. From UBS, Mizuno-san, if you can hear me, please unmute your mic and please ask a question.
Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you well. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for participating via online. There's two questions. One is about Igaki-san's part of the presentation. Energy productivity solution. You've explained about the case partnering with Murata. Thank you. This, in terms of energy consumption, what's the relationship with FA relation, the interest of the customers? Sometimes this comes up, but to what level? Factory automation.
When we think about it as factory automation, how much are there needs from the customer side, and how do you see this situation when seen from an FA perspective? With that, the customers coming to OMRON for energy productivity solution, why would the customers choose OMRON for their energy productivity solution? Are there any specific strengths for OMRON in this area of energy productivity solution? If you can explain if there is any, that would be great. Thank you.
Mizuno-san, thank you very much for your question. This is Igaki. Exactly speaking. In terms of what I have explained, I have shown the slide, I share the slide, but I will be speaking as I share the slides with you. First of all, in the FA area, are there needs? What kind of detailed demands are there in terms of the FA area? As I mentioned a little bit briefly, in the presentation, but currently, not just the in-house carbon neutral, but this carbon neutrality initiative is something that is demanded or required across the value chain, not just one company. For example, Apple is one case that is very well known. They're asking for carbon neutrality for their suppliers as well. Especially in the European areas, this carbon neutral initiative has become almost like a precondition to do business.
In order to expand our business too, this energy productivity or efficiency of the energy productivity is a requirement. It's an urgent matter. It's necessary for us to do business. From that perspective, the manufacturers, the customers that are manufacturers are very proactive in learning about the energy productivity solution and have shown a great level of interest. Within our existing customers, when I talk about industry, there's the EV, the electric vehicle area or semiconductor. Some of the electronic components that I have mentioned about today, the Device Module Solution, those are the categories that are starting to move quicker than the rest amongst our client base. For these customers or our customers, why will they choose OMRON? I would say there are two main things. One is the actual experience or the results.
We have our main IAB factory in Ayabe. In this factory in Ayabe, from 10 years ago, this energy productivity improvement has been something that we have been promoting for the last 10 years already on our own. Using the visualization application or tools that has been briefly explained, We have already been doing this for 10 years. We have the 10 years of experience in actually executing this. The case that I had presented in my presentation with Murata, this is something that we have been working on at the Ayabe plant, and the patent and the application. We have been using all of that, leveraging all of that to present to our customers. We have been early adapters to work on energy productivity solution, and we have been doing it in-house.
We have the expertise and know-hows, and we've already been working on that. That's the first thing. Second, in terms of the application, as we start, we started from 2016, the Innovative-Automation. That is the new strategy, strategic concept. That is developing various applications that can be used on ground in actual manufacturing sites. We have over 250 applications that is developed by OMRON. Of that, some of the ones that we have introduced to you today showing the energy consumption status. Automatically, the application can turn the energy, electricity, energy on or off. These kind of know-hows, the applications, the technology, we package it together as a comprehensive solution, or we are ready to do it.
We are ready to provide the package solution to the customers, that is the experience that we have and the market advantage that we have, the competitiveness that we have compared to the other competitors.
Igaki-san, thank you very much. That was very easy to understand. Thank you. The second, page 35 of Tomita-san's presentation, I have another question. Page 35 of Tomita-san's area. There was a question earlier from another person, I want to reconfirm something. As I have been hearing, on the right-hand side, as you can see, the common de-denominator, numerator are calculated separately, is how I feel. Well, what I'm trying to say is, Is it really connected to that added value? This is an equation, I think the relationship between added value and labor cost is very important.
Yet I didn't feel that there was much explanation in the relationship of the labor cost and added value or the relationship between the denominator. I'm sure it is very difficult to do, to really simply explain, but, in 2022, you said, it, you have been marking solid progress. Are there any detailed episodes of to these are the kind of things that we did to improve? If there's anything you can share in related to that would be great.
The total labor cost, the denominator. In finance, we just say the labor cost, but, all the... There's a lot of meanings behind this labor cost. One is, to that added value improvement scenario that we have, are we hiring people or acquiring the right people? Do we have enough?
Also the total number of people that we need for added value. Also, I mentioned it briefly, but in order for us to improve our added value, we look at the business portfolio. And along with the business portfolio, do we have the right person in the right place? So meaning, the human capital portfolio and business portfolio, do they match up together? Also, this is not directly led to the labor cost, but another important KPI is the talent of the individual that creates that added value. Are we growing that? Are we fostering the talents? So one is, do we have the good talent? Are we acquiring the right talents for added value? Is the company providing the right program to grow and to nurture, foster these great talent?
The third point, the third important point is there's also the amount and quality, but there's also, do we have the environment where each of the individuals can really use their talents, their core talent? Otherwise, we can't efficiently create the added value. What that is engagement. I briefly mentioned in the presentation too, but we have a tool called VOICE so that we can hear for each, So we can hear, are we creating an environment that each and every one of the employees are in an environment where they can really use their real talent and grow their talent?
When, if they're highly engaged, that means they're fully able to bring out their talent and use and leverage their talent in their businesses, in the work every day, and that's what we look at. If I may repeat myself, right? In labor costs, that would be investing in people or compensating in the right people in the right way to maximizing the talent of the people, and that is how we feel it all links together. 102%. In 2022, we are planning to land around 102%, and this is accordingly to plan. The labor cost is going up. The labor cost has gone up by about 12%. To that, the added value has gone up by about 14%, leading to 102%. In terms of detailed episode, one challenge that we have in this equation is the accumulation.
We invest in that lag, the timeline, and because that's because we invest in people to grow them. Of course, the person may need some time to grow their talent. In 2020, we had good results, SF2030, we want to make sure to acquire the right talent and right people. Architect people, and data science, data scientists, high specialized people. We hired a lot of these people in 2022. To the plan, we were able to recruit 90% to the target. As an episode or more in detail, we are bringing and acquiring the right talent, the appropriate talent for us to really fulfill our mission for the solution and service-centric business.
Thank you very much, Tomita-san.
Thank you very much.
There are web participants that are asking for questions, but in the interest of time, we'd like to take one last question. From Daiwa Securities, Mr. Okawa, can you hear us?
Thank you very much for today. I'm Okawa from Daiwa Securities. I also have two questions. The first one is for Igaki-san's part, page 27. Our innovative-Automation customer number, you have overachieved the target. What is the background behind what are the applications or the industries behind this? In energy solution, if that's the case, that's fine, but if you can give us the background. Also, energy productivity solution, the less than 10 m in elevation in the factories, that is a space where you are excellent.
This is a bit away from that, if there is an example where you excel in the elevations that are higher than 10 m, then you can give us example. Or if you would like to pursue the further improvement on that, then that is something that I'd like to hear. Thank you.
For innovative-Automation! customers, that the number has actually overachieved our fiscal year target this fiscal year. This result is not just what we have talked about. IAB as a whole has expanded solution businesses, and that result has been expanding steadily, and being accelerated. This is the result of all this. In last fiscal year, the 33% of the revenue of IAB is from innovative-Automation!, the solution business. This is what we have already explained to you.
In this fiscal year, we are going to see a further share in the revenue for Innovative-Automation! or solution business. That's our forecast. Since 2016, we started Innovative-Automation! or solution business, and the number of customers that has adopted this has been increasing steadily. That has brought us to this result. From the 10 m elevation onward, well, what is the relationship with this 10 m elevation that we've been talking about? Well, the examples that we shared with you is about 10 m. The automation in the production line is the example that I talked about. What we have been focusing on conventionally is the automation in production line, the solution and data and IoT usage. This is another example that is deviating from what we have been discussing.
We take advantage of data, and we have produced the results. This is an example. At the elevation of 10 m, the automation solution has been spreading steadily, and that's how I would like you to understand this. That's all for your question, Okawa-san.
Thank you for your detailed explanation. My second question is about PF Site 38. Job type approach will be incorporated, so there are advantage and disadvantages. What sort of discussions have you gone through to adopt this? As you introduce this, there should be some foundation that you had to lay out. What sort of preparations have you made?
Tomita will answer that question.
Job type approach, HR system. Job description creation is a narrow sense of the word, but that's not what we have been doing.
What we have discussed is the right person in the right place and reward them properly. Age and lengths of service, regardless of that, to the roles and responsibilities given, how much results they have produced. Depending on that, we would reward them properly. That is the most important concept in a job-type approach. There are many initiatives that we have taken. Obviously, the roles and responsibilities are described clearly in words. Compared to the market rate of compensation, benchmarking that, we have come up with the right compensation system. Another important point in job type system is that the individuals can realize their careers that they want, and there should be some multiple pathways options given.
We tend to give only one option from the management perspective, but for those who have specialties, how we should rate them and compensate them in order for them to improve their performance. We have discussed that, and we have come up with a specialty system totally revised. General career system, together with that, there is specialty system where the individuals can demonstrate their own specialty skills and that will be rewarded by the company. That is the kind of system that we are establishing in place. Thank you.
As it is time, we would like to wrap up the Q&A session. Thank you, everybody, for attending the presentation today. After the presentation to the participants here today, we will be sending you a questionnaire survey. Please try to fill in, and we look for your cooperation on the survey. With this, we would like to close the ESG presentation. Thank you very much for your attendance and time today. Thank you very much.