The once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic has struck at a time when ongoing digitalization and globalization processes have made clear the need for innovative and timely management strategies. In these unprecedented times, it is up to us to rebuild social and economic activity. However, as the transformation of society is gaining speed and the business environment is changing in the face of a crisis and an opportunity, management flexibility is more necessary than ever.

Our company must move forward, starting from three values: ensuring customer satisfaction, respecting our business partners’ interests and Creating a corporate culture of creative innovation. They are part of our management philosophy as a leading-edge service company.

Now, all companies, products and services are dependent on digital transformation (DX), and companies that are unable to continue to innovate will stop growing and eventually decline. We have continued to grow, to the point we can now rely on 36 million cardholders, due to the thorough pursuit of customer convenience and convention-shattering innovation.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on society, it has also opened up great opportunities for innovation, which we intend to boldly pursue. In this era of uncertainty, customer success, competitiveness and ability to innovate are being put to the test.

While opportunities for companies to use digital technology in their own digital transformation are increasing, what moves people's hearts is not the use of technology in itself, but the experience of joy and surprise that results from it.

We want to position the entire group as a comprehensive life services group with financial services at its core and with each group company playing a role in the services provided, and we intend to continue being a leading-edge service company by providing the services that enable our customers to lead prosperous lives and enjoy an excellent quality of life.

As companies grow, their decision-making processes are inevitably encumbered by implicit rules and established ways of thinking. While we have continued to grow in the payment business, it is undeniable that our entire organization has become rigid, partly due to our core systems lagging behind.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on society has been severe, but, looking at the current situation from a management perspective, we see a great opportunity to introduce big changes. All of our current practices and ideas are rooted in the past, and organizations that are unable to reinvent themselves are doomed to a fast decline. It is because these are difficult times that the switch to aggressive business management must come soon.

Specifically, since 2019 our core systems have been in full operation and we have been promoting our own digital transformation and strongly moving away from outsourcing. We intend to pursue DX more thoroughly than our competitors, in both the payment business and also the finance segment. While we had to revise our plans regarding global expansion due to the pandemic, we have also found time to strengthen our governance and accounting systems and we’ve completed preparations to scale significantly. We are now ready for a dramatic expansion in sync with each country’s economic recovery.

Companies with a single business model tend to have a weak management base. In order to diversify our business models, we are targeting our own transformation from a corporate entity centered on the payment business to a comprehensive life services group by leveraging the strengths of the entire group. This transformation will usher in a third foundation.