Stakeholder Engagement

Under the banner of the NEC “TOMONI” Project, the NEC Group has conducted activities to support the recovery effort from the Great East Japan Earthquake. These social contribution activities have been continuously implemented since the summer after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
Since March 2012, NEC employees have conducted volunteer activities as part of the Fukkoichi reconstruction program carried out in Miyagi Prefecture’s Minamisanriku Town. Employees participating in the program expressed the following views: “I wonder whether our activities are really useful to residents in the disaster-hit areas.” and “What do the local people really need?”

So, in February and March 2013, a full two years after the disaster, more than 100 local residents and NEC Group employees gathered in 2 dialogue sessions about how restoration efforts might unfold in the third year. The NEC Group employees heard from the local residents about many different issues facing the affected regions. These include daily life in temporary housing, the declining local population, and measures to rebuild local industry following the earthquake. In response, the NEC Group employees exchanged views with the local residents on how they could provide assistance.

NEC received various opinions from local residents. One opinion from a resident was that, “Very often our discussions among ourselves don’t go beyond the ideas stage. I get the impression that things become more feasible when we talk with companies.” Another said that, “When we locals talk among ourselves we tend to hold back, but when people from companies participate in discussions, we can speak frankly. One effective means of support is to continue providing these sorts of opportunities for dialogue.”

One view from employees participating in the discussion was that, “I’d like to move forward by combining the support we can offer in volunteer activities with areas in which it would be best to take part as a business.” Another opinion from an NEC person was that, “We learned what people want from us through these discussions.”

These dialogue sessions were highly constructive as they served to remind the participants of the mutual friendships and strong relationships of trust that have been formed between the NEC Group volunteers and local residents through continuous volunteer activities. Looking ahead, NEC plans to continue hosting these kinds of dialogue sessions, while expanding the horizons of the NEC Group employees taking part in volunteer activities.

The NEC Group is promoting CSR activities based on ISO 26000 (issued in 2010), an international standard providing guidelines on social responsibility. As part of these activities, NEC’s relevant divisions and CRF conducted a dialogue and review based on the seven core subjects of ISO 26000. In the process, the members of CRF represented the view of society.

Here we present a stakeholder dialogue held by NEC on consumer issues, a core subject of ISO 26000. The theme of the dialogue session was to discuss how BtoB entities like NEC can create social value that reflects the perspectives of consumers.

The dialogue session was based on a case study in which NEC collaborated with a customer (an airport authority) to design an airport flight information system from the perspectives of general users. The system earned considerable praise from the customer. Participants from CRF and NEC’s Universal Design, customer satisfaction, information security, and think tank units, which are involved with consumer issues, exchanged opinions on the importance of consumer perspectives.

One opinion from the CRF participants was that NEC’s aim to boost competitiveness by combining its marketing and technological capabilities with consumer and social design perspectives would be the key to becoming a “Social Value Innovator” under Mid-term Management Plan 2015. CRF said that it looked forward to NEC deploying this approach companywide.