April 1, 2021
Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd.
Contact Person: Yukiko Yamamoto
General Manager of Public Relations
Email: nphd-kouho@nipponpaint.jp

Welcome Speech to New Employees of 2021 from CEO Tanaka (excerpt)

Congratulations on your joining the Nippon Paint Group companies. We have a total of 110 of you here today who decided to join the Nippon Paint Group, attracted by our businesses, technologies, people and brands. I look forward to working with you.

The business climate has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic, which started at the end of 2019. COVID-19 also affected your job-hunting activities, requiring you to have job interviews online. However, vaccinations started in Japan this year. The Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the IOC are making preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. In view of these recent developments, I chose “re,” as in recovery, resilience and return to normal, as the letters that embody my expectations for this year. All these “re” words are powerful words that express the hope for and commitment to creating an environment for moving forward. I hope everyone will make a fresh start with a forward-looking attitude.

The Nippon Paint Group celebrates the 140th anniversary of its founding this year. Our Group has over 3,500 employees in Japan and more than 34,000 employees around the world. We have recently defined our Purpose that serves as a guiding philosophy to bind our Group together. The Purpose Statement is: “Enriching our living world through the power of Science + Imagination.” This expresses our commitment to making our world better and sustainable by using our technological strengths to tackle social challenges and to contribute to increasing wealth in society. I expect our new employees to embrace the Purpose that defines the Nippon Paint Group’s shared identity and feel the bonds that bind our Group together worldwide.

Nippon Paint Holdings has dramatically expanded the scale of global operations following the acquisition of 100% ownership of the Asian JVs and the Indonesia business and the integration of the automotive coatings business across regions and countries. These actions advance our businesses to a new stage as a globally integrated organization. In addition, we acquired 75% of the equity of a Malaysian company in March. The pace of our global business expansion is picking up. I’m confident that the Nippon Paint Group is well positioned to continue growing by leveraging our overwhelming competitive superiority as a leading company in the global paint industry.

With SDGs and ESG at the core of management, Nippon Paint Holdings uses “spider-web management” for facilitating autonomous collaboration and cooperation between our Group’s companies in Japan and other countries to create synergies within our Group. We will continue to aggressively seek M&A opportunities to further expand the network of our partner companies around the world.

I believe all of you have had an experience in your life that taught you that “team efforts are the critical element for great achievements and creating new value.” I hope everyone will keep teamwork in mind with every action you take as a member of the Nippon Paint Group. By becoming a member of a company, you will learn that you can accomplish things together as a team what you cannot do by yourself. I call this thinking the “Power of Teamwork.” I encourage everyone to take the initiative to become involved with different people and create the Power of Teamwork.

I hope everyone will realize your potential in our Group’s globally diversified work environment. For this purpose, I encourage everyone to learn English and Chinese. The ability to communicate in foreign languages will facilitate communications with your fellow workers outside Japan. In addition, learning another language will enrich your career and lives.

Since you have joined the Nippon Paint Group during this period of change, you will be required to respond to changes. In this context, I suggest that you make it a habit to doubt conventional wisdom and ideas. It often happens in the business world that the conventional wisdom is proved wrong. The ability to break through the conventional wisdom is what you need to respond to changes.

As my final remark, I would like to express my wish that you will fully utilize your capabilities in your workplace with the pride that you are an important member of a team that is carrying on the proud history of the Nippon Paint Group, which is a leading corporate group in Japan. Our company is changing in many ways, even now, and I want everyone to be involved with those changes. What’s more, I’m hoping that you will make changes happen.

Finally, I extend my best wishes for a fulfilling career at the Nippon Paint Group starting today.

Chairman of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO
Masaaki Tanaka