Coca Cola Bottlers Japan : Selected for inclusion in “New Diversity Management Selection 100”

Selected for inclusion in 'New Diversity Management Selection 100'

Mar. 16,2020

News Release

March 16, 2020

Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc.

Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo and led by Representative Director & President Calin Dragan; hereafter 'CCBJI') has been selected for inclusion in 'New Diversity Management Selection 100', a program sponsored by the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) with an aim to expand the number of enterprises that promote diversity by recognizing examples of outstanding achievements and advanced approaches toward diversity management.

CCBJI was established in April 2017 as a result of a series of mergers of multiple regional Coca-Cola bottling companies in Japan. Since its inception, CCBJI has consistently promoted the importance of diversity and inclusion in its workforce by fostering a corporate culture that respects diverse values and ideas, and encourages employees to create value by taking up new challenges and leveraging their own unique contributions.

Outlined below are CCBJI's primary diversity management initiatives that led to this award.

【Initiatives to promote diversity management】

◆ Establishment of CCBJI group's new corporate philosophy

CCBJI introduced a new corporate philosophy and related mission, vision and values that reflect input gathered from members of its workforce in employee engagement surveys and town-hall meetings as well as through other internal communication channels.

By setting a mission to 'deliver happy moments to everyone while creating value', laying out a vision to win in the market by becoming the preferred partner of all customers, and defining a set of common values as the principles that guide employees in their everyday actions, CCBJI places great importance on learning, agility, having a results-oriented mindset and integrity.

◆ Formulation of an updated people strategy

CCBJI's people strategy is organized under the key strategic pillars of Optimize, Acquire, Develop, Grow and Retain. To support this strategy, CCBJI is implementing initiatives to build a diverse and inclusive workplace environment that offers opportunities for all employees to perform to the best of their ability and contribute to creating value.

◆ Accelerated development of talent

The company adopted 'Fast Track' approach to build an evaluation system that promotes and rewards employees at their own pace of development rather than a fully seniority-based system. This performance evaluation system serves as an engine to motivate employees to deliver results and make faster progress according to their individual career development plans and lifestyles.

◆ Efficiency improvements across functions drives results

CCBJI is accelerating its business transformation by introducing digital tools across the organization, including for customer management and performance tracking. For example, in order to help drive better marketplace execution, salespeople are equipped with tablet-type salesforce automation tools that allow sharing of real-time account-level data and sales performance with other team members.

The ability to manage and share data remotely allows salespeople to go directly to the market and directly back home after work without spending time in office for routine desk work. This efficient work style helps to more evenly balance the workload across teams and allows for more time to respond to pressing business needs.

Sales teams have been able to increase the average number of contacts with new and existing customers per day, while reducing total average working hours per day by 13.48%. This improved efficiency is contributing to Company performance and also allows employees to maintain a healthier work-life balance.

◆ Building career opportunities and a working environment for employees with disabilities

CCBJI has created a dedicated team to recruit people with disabilities, which is staffed with coaching experts who can provide guidance to leverage employee's strengths and encourage them as productive team members.

The company is also an active supporter of para-sports, and currently employs four competitive para-athletes. Management considers appropriate work duties within a flexible schedule that allows sufficient time for physical and mental training for these top-level para-athletes to excel in their respective sports. The company is committed to providing a career path to these para-athletes even after their sports careers have come to an end.

◆ Promoting an open-minded corporate culture that welcomes different opinions across functions

Various functions across the company have introduced employee-incentive and award programs. For example, we have introduced a program called I-Card that encourages employees to submit ideas, no matter how small, to improve their working environment, reduce costs, improve efficiency, propose direct solutions to current business issues, promote cross-functional collaboration and improve the service quality and productivity of field operations.

In 2019, approximately 67,000 I-Cards were submitted by employees across the company, which clearly demonstrates how well this program has become embedded in the workplace and reflects an open-minded culture that welcomes different opinions and ideas regardless of who they come from.

【Comment from Representative Director & President Calin Dragan】

I am very pleased that CCBJI has been selected as part of the 'New Diversity Management Selection 100' program. To me, promoting diversity and inclusion should not be considered a special achievement. Rather, it is a requirement for any enterprise to achieve sustainable growth. As such, we have always considered it as one of our most important priorities.

We will continue to foster an open and welcoming workplace environment that embraces the diverse individual traits of each and every member of our workforce. We firmly believe it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for all to perform to the best of their abilities, regardless of gender, age, nationality, physical capacity, sexual orientation or any work-related constraints they may have due to personal reasons.

We intend to live up to the high standards expected from recipients of this award, and we will continue to promote diversity management as a driver of transformation, innovation and value creation that enhances our competitiveness in the marketplace and as an employer of choice.

【What is New Diversity Management Selection 100?】

In 2012, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) introduced a program named 'Diversity Management Selection 100' with the aim of expanding the number of enterprises that promote diversity management by recognizing outstanding achievements to provide opportunities to empower diverse human resources and contribute to value creation through a METI Minister Award.

In 2015, METI renamed this program 'New Diversity Management Selection 100' and laid out specific themes and important areas to focus on for the future. In the past seven years, 250 enterprises have been selected as winners of this award.

To strengthen Japanese enterprise competitiveness in the face of economic globalization and an aging society with fewer children, diversity management as a necessary strategy, which provides diverse human resources, with opportunities to exercise their potential to the greatest extent possible and to take part in the value creation process.

※ Source: METI website

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