Management policy | From the president to investors
As of June 26, 2020
（1）Basic management policies
The PC DEPOT Group's guiding principles are "We exist for our customers," "Individual growth is Company growth," and "Our growth contributes to society." Our basic management policies are (1) to provide products and services that satisfy as many customers as possible; (2) to respect the ideas of self-development and meritocracy backed by a vision of what it means to be a professional that provides all kinds of solution services, and (3) to become an indispensable company that produces results that are recognized by society and that contributes to local communities.
Our principal business activities are to continuously provide support for a combination of products, services, and the environment to all users of Internet devices such as PC, smartphone, and tablet, as well as premium members who have premier membership, which is a monthly fee membership service program of the Company, by giving them IT solution service proposals in a planned manner at our PC DEPOT Smart Life Stores and PC DEPOT stores and generating demand based on these basic principles. We provide one-stop services to sell, set up, and provide continuous support for Internet devices such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets (including additional sales).
Moreover, in order to satisfy the needs of many customers who want technical services, we have opened PC DEPOT PC Clinic stores where we provide repair, technical, and premium membership services for Internet devices such as PCs, on the premises of electronics retail stores. PC DEPOT PC Clinics are operated by the Company directly or a subsidiary.
Among the solutions services that we provide, we uniquely run a membership system called premium membership (maintenance services provided based on a monthly membership fee), as a service to meet the demand for greater benefits from continuous membership. In this service, we are aiming to expand our product and service lineup to ensure that our customers can use PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other Internet devices more conveniently with a greater sense of security in light of the fact that they have begun to use a wider range of Internet devices. Our premium membership support services are also available for products purchased at other stores, not just those purchased at PC DEPOT stores. Thus, we aim to enhance customer satisfaction by resolving the inconveniences that premium service members experience when using devices. We provide a wide variety of technical services, including a free diagnosis, so that customers who are struggling can get help each time they encounter difficulties.
In addition, in the Internet-related business, the Company is focusing on solving the difficulties encountered by customers and generating customer demand in a planned manner by providing solutions and supporting customers' Internet usage as a comprehensive Internet service operator.
The Company aims to create a meaningful corporate culture where all employees contribute to society as a common principle, and where we cultivate their spirit of serving the public and encourage them to grow into professionals. Through these efforts, we hope to improve our growth potential and productivity, maximize our corporate values, and meet our shareholders' expectations.
（2）Business Environment
It is anticipated that the economic slowdown and turmoil in the financial market caused by the impact of the novel coronavirus, which had materialized in Japan in March 2020, will continue, and the uncertain situation remains. In these circumstances, our business area and the IoT (Internet of Things) environment, including PCs, tablets and smartphones, has been progressing, and with this background, it is expected that the demand for services provided to allow the convenient usage of smart devices will continue increasing. The Group will create demand by systematically proposing its “IT Solution Service” to all uses of Internet devices (i.e. PCs, tablets and smartphones) as well as to the premium members who subscribe our monthly membership service, “Premium Membership,” and will continue providing our original premium membership service in which products are combined with services and system environments.
（3）Performance targets
To achieve continuous growth and improve our corporate values in the medium to long term, the Group aims to achieve a ratio of ordinary income to sales of 10% and a return of equity (ROE) of 15% or more.
（4）Medium- to long-term corporate business strategy
We think it is important to continue changing constantly with the aim of expanding the size of our business and achieving a lean corporate structure by promoting store operations and premium membership services that are supported by customers.We also think no company other than PC DEPOT has a business model based on a combination of products and premier membership services. We will continue to grow, expand our business domain, and enhance the business categories through area-dominant and franchise-based store openings. We aim to develop PC DEPOT into an essential company as a solutions store operator while contributing to local communities.
（5）Business and financial issues to be prioritized
The PC DEPOT Group's guiding principles are "We exist for our customers," "Individual growth is Company growth," and "Our growth contributes to society." Our basic CSR policy is to use our stores to eliminate the disparities in the information society (the "digital divide") that arise as a result of differences in age, gender, income, education, place of residence, and other factors. We think the important factors that drive our business expansion and our continuation methods consist of i) keeping our business strategy-based operations productive for long-term value creation under these principles, ii) contributing to stakeholders and local communities actively and continuously and iii) remaining an organization that is centered on individuals and is aware of its significance and mission as a social entity.
Based on the above, we laid down the following five principles, including actions to address them using methods that the Company can apply. We do not only consider value creation and challenges within growing domains that we should address from a social structure framework perspective, but also by considering them from all possible angles such as corporate stance, employee ethics, and social tolerance.
- 1. Sociability and social contribution (social)
- 2. Contribution to the environment (environment)
- 3. Work and learning styles (education)
- 4. Creation of new human-generated values such as pleasure (entertainment)
- 5. Corporate and operational governance (governance)
Under these principles, the PC DEPOT Group will strive to expand its operations by tackling the following challenges.
We recognize that our initiative for the ESG field based on these values is one of the means to realize sustainable growth and to contribute to regional societies. Regarding the Company’s “Basic Policy for Ensuring Sustainable Growth and Persistency,” we publicize it on our website. Please take a look at the below link.
https://www.pcdepot.co.jp/english/co_ir/ceo/stakeholder.html
1. Filling staff openings by promoting work and learning styles and productivity together
By setting a goal of creating the future values and demand for our premium members through face-to-face communication, we have found that securing and retaining sustainable personnel who seek to produce high quality, instead of filling staff openings temporarily, is an important issue. To this end, we will promote re-education and strive to secure talent steadily.
Specifically, under our philosophy, we will continue to provide staff re-education on a wide range of matters such as work and learning styles, productivity, social contribution, and human connection for the whole Group. We will enhance and continue re-education efforts that are intended to develop personnel who are able to deliver high production value, while having the proper work motivation and ethics, and visualize the form that society, the company, and individuals should take in the future by designing their own living, learning, and work styles. This will be done by improving the systems, such as providing plan-based and value-generation-based allowances, in addition to basic systems.
When hiring new graduate employees, we will talk with individual applicants through face-to-face communication while giving top priority to sharing the Group’s CSR philosophy. We will shift our focus from hiring employees based on volume and efficiency to one that focuses on human resources that possess the motivation for high-quality value creation and ethics.
The Company’s business model is innovative in the sense that we provide premium members with member benefits using a subscription method. Based on this business model, employment system, system development, reeducation of human resources and sharing our philosophy, we have undertaken integrated reforms so that each employee can draw a life and work in a various way. Going forward, we will implement new work styles, value creation and time-savings aiming for the ideal way the Company and individuals should exist in the future of society.
2. Stable provision and quality enhancement for premier membership services provided by the Group
The Group recognizes that providing high-quality premium membership services to premium members stably is a significant issue. Another important issue is to implement quality control thoroughly, improve the quality of each employee's response when dealing with customers and hire personnel in order to get premium members to recognize the member benefits and continue to use services by offering them high-quality premium membership services. We address such issues by doubling down on our efforts to further improve the quality of the seminars, education, examinations, inspections, and audits conducted for all PC DEPOT Smart Life Stores, PC DEPOT stores and PC DEPOT PC Clinic stores and for the telephone contact desk for membership services as well as the head office.
3. Development of products and services to be provided to adapt to changes in social structures
We need to improve our corporate values by building a corporate structure that enables us to flexibly handle the expansion of the IoT market and environmental changes and creating new values. The premium membership services that we offer are highly original and unlike any other. To maintain and develop this advantage, we think that it is necessary to actively deal with the trends in the IoT market and environmental changes and to comply properly with relevant laws and ethics.
