Top > Corporate Social Responsibility > Society > Partnerships with Business Partners
Sharing Philosophy and Knowledge, Creating New Value
Partnerships with Business Partners are essential for Benesse's businesses. In order to create products lauded by customers that only Benesse can create-products that are highly safe and easy to use from the customer's perspective-we encourage our partners to join us as members of a cohesive team that strives to help customers achieve Benesse's corporate philosophy of “living well.”
Interview
Creating New Value by Sharing Aspirations and Know-how
Akiko Ito
MD&M Product Division
Benesse is a company that takes the customer's viewpoint in everything it does. The starting point for creating products is naturally the customer. We search the country for partners with the technologies that can help solve customers'problems. In the past year alone, I dealt with more than 40 companies. For example, we searched for a paper manufacturer that made flushable toilet roll cores when we made a “poop scoop” to remove solid waste from diapers. As soon as we found such a company, we entered direct talks and so a hit product was born.
One point is particularly important to us when we select a corporate partner-they must value customers'opinions as we do. Benesse's safety standards are more exacting than many industry standards and if we hear from customers that our products are difficult to use, we quickly rectify that. It's our first priority when partnering. Having pride in one's technology is also important to us. In my opinion, there is absolutely no way you can create good products unless you can bounce ideas off someone who shares the same professional approach to product creation as you do. I expect that manufacturers find the enormous number of customer opinions we bring to the product planning table extremely valuable. I hope that I can create many more mutually beneficial partnerships with other companies in the future.
Creating New Value Through Cooperative Ventures
In recent years, we have created new value for customers by actively forming business alliances with companies in other fields. By achieving things with other companies that we could not accomplish on our own, we are able to leverage our educational capabilities and brand strengths further. In fiscal 2008, we pursued cooperative ventures in our education business in particular, combining our respective advantages in a drive to raise the value of the products and services we offer.
Working with Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. to Create Happier Homes
Benesse has joined forces with Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. in an effort to develop housing that provides a better environment for children to be raised. This collaboration brings together Benesse's Tamahiyo brand and Daiwa House's xevo brand in the development of the “Happy Hug Model”-housing with floor plans that enhance child-rearing.
The “Hug” in “Happy Hug Model” alludes to the parent-child relationship, and was designed on the basis of extensive joint surveys and research. It incorporates many ideas that place emphasis on the needs of parents raising children, with “communication” and “growth” central to the design concept. The cooperative effort began by discarding traditional ideas about the typical floor plan of a home, and set out to develop a housing unit that would emphasize communication. One feature of the floor plan is an emphasis on open, interconnected spaces rather than separate rooms, to provide common space for the family (referred to as “Family common” space). A second feature is the design of rooms where children can grow up, with “grow up space” features that help to promote their independence and interaction with others as they get older. In this way, the two companies hope they can help to nurture happier families.
Large dining area
Kitchen designed to promote communication
Family Library
Reviewing Production Processes with Business Partners
Benesse has taken steps with business partners since fiscal 2005 to review production processes from the ground up. The benefits of these efforts began to emerge in fiscal 2008. As one example, we cooperated with writers, reviewers, editors and other business partners to develop a database to assist our Junior High School Product Development Department in formulating test questions. As a result, average production time is now 40 business days shorter than was previously possible.
We are reviewing production processes in this way throughout the Company as Benesse evolves to meet the challenge of better answering the needs of our customers.
Enhancing the Supply Chain
Benesse gives consideration not only to the Group but also to the responsibilities of corporations, including business partners, in the Benesse Group Code of Conduct. In selecting business partners, we compare multiple potential vendors. Besides quality and cost, we consider other conditions in order to confirm the supplier's performance capacity, management capacity, legal compliance and credit situation, among other factors. Further, Benesse does not do business directly or indirectly with companies that use forced labor, illegal labor, or illegal child labor. In the event that Benesse should discover that a supplier is using any of these types of labor, it will immediately take appropriate measures.
Conducting Business Underpinned by Contracts
Compliance activities include thorough checks by the Legal Department, Management Process Control Department and Personal Data Protection Department to ensure that all regulations are properly followed. Benesse conducts thorough training (e-learning) courses throughout the Company to ensure that all employees have the necessary basic knowledge of compliance issues, and at the work site level the Company conducts training activities tailored to the type of work in each department. The Company relies on its business partners to help it create high-quality products and services. Business partners are carefully selected based on fair and free competition, and Benesse strives to develop good cooperative relationships with these partners underpinned by fair and acceptable contracts.
In the course of its business activities, Benesse has many opportunities to interact with customers directly, and therefore efforts to protect personal information are extremely important. Benesse has established internal standards and plans for handling personal information, and the Company receives thorough cooperation from its suppliers to ensure that those standards are met.
Focused on the Customer
One factor which contributes to the high quality and success Benesse enjoys in carrying out business plans is the fact that our business partners share our goals and ideas. All business partners are well aware that they should dedicate their efforts to satisfying not Benesse, but the final customer. It is therefore essential that everyone involved in the process maintains a unified focus on the customer. To ensure that this is the case, Benesse and its business partners all comply fully with not only legal regulations, but also the Benesse Group Code of Conduct. Benesse does its utmost to communicate clearly and on a regular basis with all of its business partners, exchanging information and ideas and cooperating in the effort to help resolve the issues that confront customers. To this end, Benesse tries to involve suppliers and business partners in the planning and development of products and services. The Company tries to cultivate connections between divisions and between industries, and seeks to establish ties to representative individuals in various related fields.
