Implementing CSR activities tailored to company business in line with the NTT Group's eight Key Areas

Tanaka: In that respect, you established the NTT Group CSR Priority Activities last year to serve as a guide, didn't you? How do you all of you at the business frontline view these Priority Activities?

Morishita: CSR covers so many different areas that the toughest part is deciding what to focus on, and then how to proceed. The Priority Activities have, I think, helped a lot to guide discussion on how to carry out CSR activities that make the most of your company's business strengths.

Tateno: I belong to a section that provides monitoring, operation, and data center services for the private networks of customers, and so our work is very closely related to the Priority Activity of "ensuring stable and reliable services as critical infrastructure." I feel that establishing the Priority Activities has made me more aware of the role I should play to implement CSR through my work.

Tanaka: So it would appear that the Priority Activities are indeed serving as guiding principles at the frontline. Have you come across any issues in putting them into operation?

Iwahori: Well, it's not necessarily an issue, but as someone at the frontline of operations, I find the term "CSR management" a somewhat strange concept, actually. The telephone business goes back over 100 years, and I'm proud of my work and feel a tremendous responsibility too, but in a way, that's only natural, and so I've never really made a big thing of it. As a result, I find it difficult at times to know exactly how to speak to my juniors on CSR.

Kanazawa: You're right. For example, we've done our utmost over the years to provide absolutely reliable services, and I like to think that those efforts have led to the brand image we enjoy today, but if we keep quiet about our achievements in the traditional Japanese way, which views modesty as a virtue, we might fail to get across important information, and so I think we need to communicate our efforts properly.

Tanaka: Yes, earning trust depends on cultivating understanding by telling people what exactly the NTT Group is doing about this and that, and so explaining those activities in easy-to-grasp terms is very important.

Morishita: I think the first step is to re-examine how our work contributes to society, and explain that to customers. The next step is to consider ways of increasing the value for customers. If you take such an approach, I think that implementing CSR can be really exciting.