We have defined three types of human resources as important themes for human resource development: “senior management human resources” that are capable of rapid decision-making with leadership that can flexibly adapt to changes in this era of volatility, where the future is uncertain and difficult to predict; “innovative human resources” that will continue to provide new value in the future, just as we have created innovations in society based on rubber technology; and “digital transformation (DX)-related human resources” that can create new value by utilizing digital technologies to promote more advanced and efficient decision-making and operations and by applying such technologies to business. We will strive to continuously develop these human resources to enhance our corporate value.
In this rapidly changing VUCA era, flexibility and quick decision-making are essential. Therefore, it is crucial to develop global senior management human resources capable of calmly making decisions even in uncertain situations and acting with foresight.
At the same time, leadership, i.e., the ability to effectively head teams and adapt flexibly to changes, is indispensable.
We aim to build a system that develops individuals who are constantly learning and capable of achieving personal growth.
Sumitomo Rubber has driven innovation by providing new value to society based on rubber technology. Even today, we continue to develop new technologies, such as the “Smart Tyre Concept,”“tire manufacturing utilizing hydrogen energy,” and “vibration control technology employing high-damping rubber.” Moving forward, we will cultivate both the human resources and the corporate culture necessary to continue driving innovation in a new era.
More advanced and efficient decision-making and business execution are needed by leveraging digital technology to fundamentally transform business models and work processes. To successfully carry out this transformation, not only knowledge of digital technologies but also the ability to apply them to business, create new value, and adapt flexibly to change while demonstrating leadership in driving digitalization within the organization will be required. We will establish a system that fosters, retains, and empowers such digital talents.
This program aims to improve leadership and unity among executives by deepening their understanding of leadership and strengthening cooperation among them. We invite executive coaches from outside the company to provide regular coaching to executive officers and above and some locally recruited CEOs overseas. Monthly coaching sessions are held to discuss management issues and organizational challenges. Regular coaching sessions have improved the leadership skills of executives and strengthened the relationship of trust and cooperation between them, leading to greater unity within the organization. We also hold executive roundtable discussions facilitated by executive coaches, which allow executives to share their thoughts and ideas with employees. We will continue to provide executive coaching to further improve the leadership skills of our executives, while also strengthening coaching at our overseas bases to promote leadership development from a global perspective.
To continuously improve leadership, an important aspect in developing global senior management human resources, we implement an annual cycle that involves knowledge input, feedback from others, and behavioral output. Regarding knowledge input, we have established training programs on leadership, followership, and communication, and individuals can autonomously select and attend the courses they need. Feedback from others can be obtained through 360° Feedback and organizational culture surveys. Through 360° Feedback, they objectively examine their leadership habits and status, and through organizational culture surveys, they measure and visualize the status of the organization to which they belong. Based on this input and feedback, they formulate and implement specific action plans, which lead to behavioral outputs. The annual organizational culture survey results regarding “leadership” have shown a steady improvement in employee feedback. The overall positive response rate for leadership-related questions was 73.2%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points from the previous year. Specifically, the response rate for “ensuring psychological safety” was 75.3%, an increase of 4.2 percentage points from the prior year. In the fiscal year 2024, we begun training programs to improve management judgment and decision-making capabilities by reflecting on our company’s management cases, and we plan to expand these initiatives further.
The Company considers talent management (succession management and succession training) a critical action plan for producing sustainable management personnel and fostering employee growth.
Specifically, the Human Resources Committee (established in 2022), which is made up of internal Directors, holds monthly discussions regarding the assignment of personnel at the department manager level and above. We have also identified key positions across the company. We select multiple candidates to take over the positions and discuss their placement and development.
Furthermore, in some departments, we identify potential candidates for important positions within their respective fields and the department heads across the field discuss their placement and development. We will accelerate these efforts to support employee growth by expanding them across the company. To ensure the feasibility of these initiatives, we are also continuing to develop a human resources database that includes employee skills and career aspirations.
This program aims to develop innovative human resources and transform corporate culture by cultivating individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to generate new ideas and technologies, fostering an innovation-driven corporate culture, and creating an environment where all employees can actively propose and implement new ideas. In 2023, we launched the SRI Innovation Academy, an innovative human resource development program for employees interested in innovation, regardless of whether they work in administrative or technical fields. This program is an industry-academia collaboration curriculum in which participants take a series of lectures while planning new lines of business. By learning what “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” are, how to pursue them, how to utilize technology within the university, how to start a venture within the company, and how venture capital (VC) investment works, participants gain new perspectives on business creation and incorporating new ideas into their work. In the second year, 2024, 22 participants in six teams participated in the program. As their final output, each team devised a proposal for a new line of business and gave a final pitch to the executives. In addition, an audience of more than 100 participated online each time, experiencing the innovative mindset for themselves. Until fiscal 2024, we have mainly focused on fostering an innovative mindset. In the future, we will implement systematic training in ways of thinking, technical approaches, and business model promotion skills through practical experience. We will also evaluate proposals for new lines of business that employees develop and promote the creation of mechanisms to turn them into actual businesses.
As individual work styles, lifestyles, and values diversify, we are gradually revising our job-based human resources system to create an environment where employees from diverse backgrounds can perform at their best with high motivation regardless of gender or lifestyle.
As a first step, we transitioned to a job-based personnel evaluation system for managers in 2021. We divided the previously singular management-level path into a management track and a specialist track, providing a framework in which specialized talent can excel. In January 2025, we launched a program to certify specialists who, as fellows, will leverage their advanced expertise as industry leaders to drive highly strategic and innovative solutions to issues directly related to the promotion of our business. Two fellows have been appointed. We are also revising our personnel evaluation system for general employees, reducing the role of seniority in evaluations and shifting toward a system based on job performance and results. We are preparing to implement this revised system by the end of 2025.
To improve employee motivation, promote innovation, and create a corporate culture that encourages challenges, we hold an event to recognize accomplishments.
Awards are given in three categories: the Techno-Science Award, the BTC (Be the Change) Annual Award, and the Sustainability Award.
The Techno-Science Award honors innovative achievements in areas such as basic research, technology development, equipment development, and production technology, which contribute to creating seeds of innovation for the next generation. The BTC Annual Award is presented for initiatives that have led to significant improvements in both or either organizational culture and/or foundations for profitability. The Sustainability Award recognizes outstanding activities in each department that adhere to our GENKI (G for governance; E for ecology; N for next; K for kindness; and I for integrity) Sustainability Activity Guidelines, which reflect our Sustainability Vision: “Uniting our diverse strengths, we will make our future sustainable and “GENKI” (vibrant) by delivering products and services that are friendly to the environment and society.”
In fiscal 2024, a special President’s Award was also presented to all departments involved in the launch of SYNCHRO WEATHER tires equipped with the new Active Tread technology in recognition of their contribution to innovation in actual business, and we shared our joy with them.
＜2024 Award Recipients＞
・Techno-Science Award: 1 Grand Prize, 6 Excellence Awards
・BTC Annual Award: 1 Grand Prize, 4 Excellence Awards
・Sustainability Award: 3 Grand Prizes, 11 Excellence Awards, 4 Special Merit Prizes
We will provide digital transformation (DX) literacy education to lay the foundation for data-driven decision-making and actions throughout the entire company.
Aligned with the three skill areas necessary for DX promotion, we are implementing a talent development program consisting of three courses for business core personnel (applying and promoting DX in business), professionals (executing advanced data analysis using AI), and data engineers (efficiently collecting, utilizing, and managing necessary data), based on DX literacy education.
As of the end of 2024, 3,540 employees have completed DX literacy training, achieving our target of providing DX literacy education to approximately 3,500 employees in indirect divisions. Furthermore, in May 2024, we introduced open badges, digital certificates of knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to acquiring digital skills through e-learning, we are expanding practical opportunities for learning, such as problem-based learning (PBL) and competitions, and establishing a system that directly links learning to value creation.
We will strengthen the creation of results through DX human resource development, while fostering the growth of in-house instructors with specialized knowledge and building a system that encourages a culture of mutual learning among employees. Through these efforts, we will create a virtuous cycle connecting individual growth to the organization’s competitiveness.
The Company promotes using robotic process automation (RPA) to improve the efficiency of routine administrative tasks, shift resources to higher value-added work, and improve employees’ digital literacy. We have established an environment for employees to develop and utilize RPA tools themselves, offering training programs that enable even those without programming experience to develop RPA tools. Specifically, we provide robust support such as offering flexible e-learning training, real-time Q&A service via Teams, and sharing internal cases. By the end of 2024, 523 employees had completed training, and 757 instances of RPA user development had been implemented. Combining RPA user development and IT department-led RPA development, we have reduced annual working hours by 94,000, enabling employees to focus on higher-value-added tasks. Additionally, this initiative has contributed to improving employees’ digital literacy. We will continue to promote using RPA to further enhance operational efficiency and support employee skill development. In particular, we aim to strengthen integration with AI to achieve more advanced automation and enhance the company’s overall competitiveness.
The Company promotes using Tableau, a self-service business intelligence (BI) tool, to foster a culture of rapid and advanced decision-making through data visualization.
It is widely used in various areas of our business, including the manufacturing, SCM, sales, and solutions divisions, and contributes to improving operational efficiency and sophistication through automatic report creation and analysis using dashboards. Furthermore, it contributes to creating a culture of data utilization by enabling front-line employees to develop their reports and dashboards. In 2024, we held an internal BI (Tableau) competition, which allowed many employees to improve their skills while having fun. In addition, to accelerate internal promotion, we have introduced the DATA Saber certification program and are promoting training. As of the end of 2024, nine employees have been certified. To further cultivate a data-driven culture across our global network, we plan to update the environment to make sharing data across the group easier. Additionally, we will begin full-scale development of products for company-wide use such as management dashboards, focusing on initiatives that enhance business value.
We have introduced the Human Resources (HR) Department AI chatbot, Chabo, to handle inquiries from employees. By having the chatbot Chabo take over inquiry tasks from HR staff, we are promoting DX. The introduction of Chabo has helped reduce psychological stress by creating an environment where employees can easily ask questions at any time, prevent the personalization of tasks and knowledge, and standardize responses to inquiries. We have reduced psychological stress by creating an environment where employees can ask questions anytime. Additionally, it has helped prevent the personalization of tasks and knowledge and standardize responses to inquiries. Approximately 1,000 inquiries are received through Chabo each month, allowing staff who previously handled inquiries to focus more on core business activities. As we advance, we plan to enhance security, incorporate various regulations, and improve response accuracy to expand the scope of Chabo utilization.
To share knowledge to become a data-driven organization, stimulate communication between users, and create synergies, we have been holding this event every year since 2022 to promote new communication that will lead to future innovation by sharing DX activities in each department and base of operations, and learning about the initiatives of other companies.
In 2024, Digital Innovation Day was held in June and October, with 410 participants in June and 550 in October. Digital Innovation Day was also held at our overseas bases in China and Thailand. We will continue to hold this event regularly to build a company-wide community. Furthermore, we plan to collaborate with our global operations to expand opportunities for exchange further.
We aim to improve employee productivity and operational efficiency by leveraging generative AI, Microsoft Copilot. To apply Microsoft Copilot to internal operations, we have implemented customization tailored to the needs of each department, as well as training and workshop activities. AI is utilized across various business processes, including document creation support, data analysis automation, and internal meeting efficiency improvements. To promote adoption, we held workshops to explore AI usage methods and provided e-learning opportunities to deepen internal understanding. From now on, we will expand the scope of AI usage, advance automation of more complex business processes, and introduce new skill development programs. Additionally, we will actively pursue new initiatives to support employee growth in line with evolving AI technology.
＜Certifications from Outside Organizations＞
・Won the 2nd Open Badge Award “Encouragement Prizes (Corporate Category)” (2024, Open Badge Network Foundation)
・Certified as a “DX certified business operator” (October 2024, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
・Winner of the Dataiku Frontrunner Awards 2024 (October 2024, Dataiku)
・Selected as a finalist for the SFUG Cup 2024 (May 2024, Salesforce)
