This month marked the first anniversary of the launch of ORIX Group’s Purpose & Culture in November 2023. One year on, it has achieved wide recognition and growing understanding among the group’s 34,000 employees around the world -- but this is just the first step.
As President & CEO Makoto Inoue says in the 2024 Integrated Report, ORIX has evolved continuously during its 60-year history and will continue to do so as it seeks to realize its potential for further growth and to “achieve what has not been attempted before”.
That requires, as Mr. Inoue, acknowledges, an “unending commitment to organizational reform”. And to be successful, such reform needs to be based on shared principles: hence the need to instill the Purpose principles as a common foundation across the Group.
Hop, Skip & Jump
“Think of the roll out of our Purpose & Culture as a hop, skip and jump – a triple jump, if you like,” explains Daniel Lochmann, Managing Director, Group Corporate Communications Department and one of the leaders of the Purpose Discovery Project team, which spent 18 months interviewing and conducting workshops with over 100 executives, employees and other stakeholders ahead of last November’s launch.
The initial stage, the hop, consisted of the Discovery Project, where the output from the workshops was distilled to create a fitting and memorable phrase for employees and external stakeholders to better understand the raison d’etre and direction of ORIX Group. “I really like the phrase “Finding Paths. Making Impact,” affirms Hidetake Takahashi, Member of the Board of Directors and Senior Managing Executive Officer. “Finding Paths has always informed our initiatives to innovate, but we have more work to do in Making Impact,” he points out.
To deliver this impact, the second and third phases are crucial. The ‘skip’ represents the whole group deeply understanding the Purpose & Culture and properly localizing and tailoring it to their unique local and industry contexts. In 2024, the company has invested significant time in internalizing the Purpose & Culture with cascading workshops across the regions and businesses of the group’s operations, along with the creation of materials including posters, stickers, slideshows and videos.
This has set the stage for the businesses and group companies within the group to set their individual mission, vision and values that sit under the common Group Purpose & Culture, enabling a more relevant and resonant positioning in their own markets. Mr. Lochmann reports an enthusiastic reaction from international staff, with many Asians and Europeans responding well to messages emphasizing unity, while Group companies in the United States are particularly inspired by the rallying cry “Find Power in Diversity”, reflecting a national character that values individuality. This shows that while creating a common understanding is important, so is the flexibility to contextualize Purpose & Culture for each country and region.
“As a conglomerate with diverse businesses across the world, this type of flexibility at the HQ level is crucial for success as it allows businesses within the group to operate well within their own contexts, but to be aligned with the overall direction of the group,” notes Mr. Lochmann, who has experience with similar projects at other major Japanese conglomerates with complex structures.
Mr. Inoue emphasizes that, “Although the spirit and essence of ORIX Group’s Purpose & Culture are unchanging, we must also remain flexible and change certain aspects to remain with the times.”
Now ORIX is posed for the third step, a jump, where it begins to live and breathe its Purpose & Culture so it can realize its potential based on shared principles and a shared drive. “ORIX grows through diversification and innovation -- by expanding into completely different businesses,” affirms Mr. Takahashi. “In that context, we need a unifying force throughout the Group, and this is what the new Purpose & Culture provides.”
The real test will be seeing how businesses incorporate “Finding Paths. Making Impact.” into their business strategies and day-to-day activities. It could – and should – prompt them to focus on generating growth from new products, services and business areas. But it may also lead them to turn down opportunities if they conflict with the new principles.
Until now, ORIX has seen its social contribution in terms of generating profits, jobs and taxes. However, the role that companies must play in society is changing, acknowledges Koichi Uchida, General Manager, Group Communications Department. “The introduction of our Purpose & Culture will require employees to recognize afresh that social value and economic value are two wheels of the same cart.”
Forging connections, institutionalizing networks
ORIX is now working on enabling its people to forge connections more easily across the group, collaborating between segments and geographies to unearth innovative new businesses by drawing on synergetic expertise to drive new revenue. A particular aim is to facilitate and increase the transfer of skills, experience and personnel between Japan and the rest of the world. One example of such an initiative is a program for employees across the APAC region to spend a few weeks at Tokyo HQ with the goal of optimizing communication across the regional ORIX community and driving collaboration. This program aspires to transform these trainees into ambassadors of unity, fostering direct communication and impactful contributions within the ORIX Group, harmonizing diverse backgrounds and expertise, and contributing to a collective vision of global growth.
Institutionalizing such connections by providing a common Purpose can be particularly important for a Japanese company, since these are often held together more by the personal networks of its senior executives than by clearly articulated principles or targets. That can make decisions taken at the top, however sound they ultimately prove, to be hard to understand for the rest of the company, at least at the time.
Such considerations are relevant for ORIX, given its size, its diverse people and businesses, and its ambition to compete at eye-level with world-class investment and private equity firms. For Mr. Inoue, rolling out a Group-wide Purpose & Culture and embedding its principles in the company’s next three-year plan is an opportunity to set the course for ORIX’s next generation.
In fact, ORIX is taking an approach already rooted in the Purpose’s ‘combining innovative thinking and diverse expertise’ by building bridges between its diverse people and businesses so they can find their own paths to bring out the latent potential that lies within this unique corporate Group. This organic approach leaves ORIX Group in a strong position to, as Mr. Inoue said, “achieve what has not been attempted before”.
