[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 158 (Monday, November 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2314-E2315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING DR. TADAHIRO SEKIMOTO

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Sunday, November 9, 1997

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Tadahiro 
Sekimoto, who is the Chairman of the Board of NEC Corp. His goal of 
peace, progress and prosperity for all is a goal we all share. Mr. 
Speaker, his statement offers a vision for the multinational 
corporation in the next millennium which I believe will be of interest 
to political and business leaders in our country and around the world:

     Calling World Leaders to Action to Address the New Roles and 
  Responsibilities of the Multinational Corporation in the New Century

                       (By Dr. Tadahiro Sekimoto)

       As we approach the start of a new millennium, it is--I 
     believe--time for those of us in positions of international 
     stewardship to help illuminate the way to a new century of 
     peace, progress, and prosperity for all.


                              Great Change

       During the half century that I have been in the information 
     technology (IT) industry, I have been privileged to be an 
     eye-witness to its creation of astounding change, perhaps the 
     most dramatic of which has been the world's rapid advance 
     toward a more universal society characterized by the 
     accelerated movement of labor goods, technology, and capital 
     across frontiers.
       This 20th Century phenomenon is making us increasingly 
     dependent upon each other because it is dissvoling the 
     largely arbitrary boundaries between many of the societal 
     underpinnings--especially nation states, and thus economies--
     with which we and our ancestors have lived more or less 
     comfortably over the past millennia.
       To what can we attribute the steady disintegration of these 
     once very convenient lines of demarcation, this new mobility 
     and rapidly expanding cross-border and hence cross-cultural 
     interaction? Clearly, advances in science and technology, 
     including IT, are playing significant roles in the unfolding 
     drama-roles so enduring, in fact, that they are producing a 
     new economy (and its resultant new society) and requiring us 
     to write another chapter in the history of our civilization.
       This new episode, which some call the ``Information Age'', 
     is dramatically transforming, largely for the better, most 
     aspects of daily life in most parts of the world. But perhaps 
     even more important, it is leading to a new society that will 
     be based on an ability to understand and respond to the needs 
     and wishes of individuals everywhere in the world.


                         Also Great Challenges

       With the expansion of this new information economy and 
     society throughout the universe will come radical new roles 
     for our world institutions, including companies like mine. 
     But what are these new roles going to be? How will they 
     transform our multinational giants, the successful management 
     of which challenges us greatly even today? What will this 
     enterprise be like in the future? What should it be like?
       By no means do I believe that I have crystal-clear vision 
     of the future. But I have begun trying to understand it and 
     its urgent demands. And in my mind, the most compelling 
     challenge of the international corporation in the 21st 
     century is the need to maintain a concern for the 
     environment.
       It is clear that the well-being of all people go hand-in 
     hand with economic progress. And from my vantage point it 
     seems that additional advances in science and technology are 
     key to producing this much needed harmony that is 
     increasingly important to our survival.
       More effective management of competition's chaotic 
     expansion is the second most serious new responsibility that 
     the Information Age is requiring us to assume. And I believe 
     that cooperation at all levels--including those of global, 
     regional, national, local, and corporate--is the essential 
     element here. World institutions will simply have to invent 
     and engage in novel forms of collaboration at the same time 
     they compete. In the business community we refer to this more 
     contemporary and useful way of operating as the 
     ``complementarian'' mode where sometimes we compete, 
     sometimes we cooperate, and more often we do both.
       The mutually beneficial working relationship between the IT 
     industries of the United States and Japan aptly illustrates 
     this complementarian concept. The U.S. is strong in software. 
     This is not surprising: America's economy has been 
     information-intensive for some time. Augmenting your strength 
     in software is Japan's power in hardware-reflective of our 
     highly advanced position in the Industrial Age. For some time 
     now the two industries and countries have astutely engaged in 
     a symbiotic association that is probably typical of what will 
     occur much more frequently in the complementarian climate of 
     the 21st century.
       The third most serious challenge facing us at the start of 
     the next millennium is, in my view, figuring out how world 
     institutions--including corporations--can most effectively 
     manage their new roles. The perceptive business executive 
     knows what his organization's responsibilities are today. But 
     what will they be in the decades ahead as the information 
     economy and society broaden and inform more and more aspects 
     of our lives?
       One answer is that in the 21st century the multinational 
     enterprise can no longer be parochial; its mission of service 
     must encompass its entire community because, to paraphrase 
     Adam Smith, it too--just like other world institutions--
     exists to serve and strengthen its societies.
       So the multinational's notion of corporate stewardship will 
     have to change--as it already has in some more enlightened 
     U.S. companies. Increasingly, all of us business leaders are 
     going to have to expand our philanthropy considerably beyond 
     where we are accustomed to giving. If, for instance, our 
     contributions have been exclusively economic, we might need 
     to move into social, technical and other cultural and 
     geographic spheres as well.


                New Management Strategies are Essential

       Despite these and other seriously demanding challenges--to 
     which I have given decades of thought--I believe strongly in 
     mankind's ability to successfully manage this increasing 
     interaction among nations and the resultant Information Age 
     for the benefit of humanity, both our generation and the 
     generations that follow us.
       Some large corporations that reach well beyond their own 
     national boundaries have already started creating and 
     employing different, more suitable management strategies for 
     the future, and I am gratified to report that mine is one of 
     them.

[[Page E2315]]

       The highly complex nature of our business as a leading 
     international IT supplier and multi-media pioneer has 
     required us to learn how to operate much more efficiently and 
     effectively. For instance, in recent decades we have 
     successfully situated many corporate functions, including R & 
     D and manufacturing, in what we consider the optimum 
     locations in the world. In like manner, we have bought and 
     sold in the world's most suitable markets--wherever they are. 
     I am gratified to say that this optimization of resources has 
     given us a strong competitive edge.
       It is also an idea that has broad application: We use it to 
     help us put the right person in the right job--again, 
     wherever in the world that position is located. One of the 
     advantages of this policy: We are developing another 
     competitive benefit--that of building a management team 
     composed of the most capable professional from a number of 
     countries around the world, not just from Japan alone. And as 
     you might expect, this new troop is enriching everything we 
     do with all the unique strengths of the many and diverse 
     national cultures represented in it.
       In the process of deploying the concept of resource 
     optimization throughout our company--and puzzling over what 
     the 21st century might demand of us in terms of new 
     management strategies--we were struck by the growing need to 
     recognize both the requirements of the group, or the whole, 
     and the more personalized focus of the new era. But now to 
     join the two seemingly divergent positions in compatible 
     fashion? From the Greek words holos, meaning, ``whole'' and 
     on, signifying ``individual'', I coined the term ``holonic'' 
     to indicate the need to harmonize the two.
       So today we are successfully employing ``holonic'' 
     management to assure the prosperity of the corporation as a 
     whole while simultaneously respecting and honoring the 
     sovereignty of the individual--whether that individual is a 
     company subsidiary, a company employee, or a member of one of 
     the hundreds of communities around the world in which we 
     operate. And this more sympathetic, complementary management 
     strategy has become another competitive advantage for us.
       Experience has taught us that one of the keys to employing 
     it profitably is the sharing of information. Another is 
     establishing and nurturing a culture of the term or the 
     subsidiary or the corporation--so that members have a 
     meaningful concept around which to rally and with pride 
     produce something they consider significant.
       In fact, these two notions--the sharing or information and 
     the development of a mutually-engaging culture--have become 
     so important, at least from our observation, that we have 
     added them to the three resources we have historically 
     identified and valued: People, property and money.
       And I am convinced that the successful 21st century 
     leaders--of nation states, city states, suburban and rural 
     communities, corporations, and the like--are going to be 
     those who best assure and most favorable, enriched 
     conjunction of the whole and the individual. I am also 
     confident that information technology will continue to 
     provide opportunities for world leaders to exchange ideas and 
     share resources and will pay an increasingly significant role 
     in the enhancement of all our lives.


         My Call to Action--A new Dialogue for the New Century

       Now you know something of my thoughts about the upcoming 
     millennium and my efforts to position my company and my 
     country advantageously for it. This leads me to share with 
     you my great interest in building on the wisdom of world 
     leaders from essential disciplines, by bringing us together 
     to identify vastly more creative ways to help all people 
     achieve their desired goals in the new century.
       It used to be that the complementary and productive 
     partnership between and among business and financial leaders, 
     elected politicians and government officials was sufficient 
     to assure prosperity and peace. The now seriously-outdated 
     nature of this limited collaboration has inspired us to 
     consider an expansion--actually a doubling of the size of the 
     group to include distinguished heads of labor, academic, and 
     the media as well.
       I refer to this new alliance as the ``neo-hexagon''. And I 
     am issuing invitations to neohexagon leaders throughout the 
     world, in developing as well as developed countries, to join 
     me in dialogue focused on identifying the best management 
     practices for the 21st century and preparing our 
     organizations and our societies for the better tomorrow that 
     our grandchildren and their great-grandchildren deserve.

     

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