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Management Message

Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits: ReDesign

(Left) Masazumi Kikukawa
Representative Director, Chairman of the Board of Directors

(Right) Masayuki Takemori
Representative Director, President and Executive Officer

Since Lion’s founding in 1891, it has striven to help consumers realize health, comfort and cleanliness in everyday living by redesigning habits and providing the various daily commodities necessary for such habits in line with its unchanging mission of “benefitting society through business activities.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world enormously. Lifestyles and values have changed in innumerable ways, and many of these changes are likely to be permanent. At the same time, dealing with global environmental problems cannot be put off any longer. Northeast Asia is facing a variety of new issues stemming from demographic graying, such as rising medical costs, and in Southeast Asia, demand for better health and hygiene habits is growing in step with economic development. In light of such rapid changes in the business environment and to precisely deal with diverse emerging social issues, continuously generate business value and contribute to society going forward.

Based on our purpose, “Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits: ReDesign,” we formulated a long-term strategic framework, Vision2030, aimed at achieving our management vision, “Becoming an advanced daily healthcare company.”

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Vision2030 Long-Term Strategic Framework

Under Vision2030, we are synergistically advancing growth strategies and initiatives that address our Sustainability Material Issues to create social and economic value and achieve sustainable corporate value enhancement. Of these, we have positioned “Creating Healthy Living Habits,” which contributes to the realization of everyday happiness, and “Promoting Environmental Initiatives for a Sustainable Planet” as our top priority material issues, and we are investing management resources in these areas accordingly.Habits have great power. Daily chores take up the majority of our time, and by transforming this drudgery into positive experiences, or positive habits, we can increase the sum total of our happiness. Specifically, in 2019, we established the LION Eco Challenge 2050 environmental objectives. These objectives put into words our dedication to working in partnership with all stakeholders to realize a decarbonized, resource-circulating society.We believe that promoting a wide range of environmentally friendly habits and products that reduce environmental impact in the home is one effective way that Lion can contribute.

Going forward, we will continue to accelerate our growth strategies by leveraging our strengths of wide-ranging insight gleaned through the redesign of living habits as well as marketing and R&D capabilities based on consumer perspectives. By doing so, we will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as to health, comfort, cleanliness and hygiene in everyday living and the realization of a sustainable society.

Masazumi Kikukawa

Representative Director,
Chairman of the Board of Directors


Masayuki Takemori

Representative Director,
President and Executive Officer

We aim to contribute to a sustainable society and generate further business growth with an approach that integrates sustainability into management strategy.

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Kenjiro Kobayashi
Director, Senior Executive Officer

Integrating Sustainability into Management Strategy

To remain socially relevant into the future amid the rapid change in its external operating environment, the Lion Group must respond boldly and swiftly to help resolve various social issues. We also recognize that maintaining sustainable growth requires us to meet the expectations of our stakeholders by backcasting—mapping out a route for achieving our goals. The Group used this approach to consider the entire value chain and stakeholders, and to identify the Sustainability Material Issues to be addressed by 2030.

Identifying material issues is merely the first step. The key is how we use these material issues in management and connect them to the actions of each business. The Sustainability Promotion Council, which I chair, formulates sustainability strategies related to the environment, society, and governance, makes decisions on specific action plans, and monitors progress toward medium- to long-term goals. Leveraging the strengths of the Group, I will guide sustainability management to concentrate management resources on measures that only we can take.

Evolving and Expanding the Redesign of Living Habits to Grow Our Businesses and Help Resolve Social Issues

Creating healthy living habits is a top-priority material issue for the Group. We provide products, services and information that promote living habits that are directly linked to health, such as tooth brushing and hand washing. As we aim to provide 1 billion people around the world with products, services and information that help to create healthy living habits, a key issue going forward will be collaboration with overseas Group companies.

Another top-priority material issue, promoting environmental initiatives for a sustainable planet involves using environmentally friendly products to further the creation of environmentally friendly habits with consumers, such as saving water and power, using refills and reducing waste. In other words, we will contribute to a decarbonized and resource-circulating society by providing planet-friendly lifestyles and making daily life more sustainable. In cooperation with local governments and competitors, we are developing recycling technologies and structuring collection systems for refill containers. We will continue to enhance these partnerships.

A key feature of the Group is its many contact points with the daily lives of households, so we believe that our approach to resolving social issues should involve providing experiences that redesign everyday rituals to become more natural, easy and enjoyable. In addition, we will create further business opportunities by using digital technology and data science under the slogan “The Science of Habits”, for example, by using data to visualize behavioral changes brought about by activities to promote habit formation.

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The Images of Creation of Social and Economic Value

Furthermore, we also need to nurture employees who embody our purpose, “Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits: ReDesign.” In January 2023, we introduced a new personnel system for managers that incorporates an idea of job-focused perspective and eliminated the previous seniority-based system for determining job titles. Our goal is for each leader to map out a clear picture of how they should develop themselves to achieve their aspirations, thus increasing their motivation and expertise and maximizing the value they create. We will implement various measures that promote long-term job satisfaction and increase employee engagement.

Going forward, we will continue to promote sustainability management while enhancing social and economic values to improve corporate value.

Kenjiro Kobayashi

Director, Senior Executive Officer

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