On April 16, 2004, the Fiscal 2004 Top Seminar was held for the top management and general manager-level middle management of member organizations at the Keidanren Kaikan Hall, in Ote-machi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. About 90 individuals participated in the event.
Mr. Haruo Funabashi, CEO of the Sirius Institute Inc., was invited to this seminar to give his lecture on the importance of establishing corporate ethics.

At the commencement of the seminar, Mr. Shirato, deputy president of NSnet introduced a lecturer and a policy for future activities. He said, “We want to continue to move ahead with enhanced safety culture through our various activities.” 

Mr. Funabashi delivered the attendees a message that “it is important for business tops to teach their management concepts to their employees,” citing “The Book of Five Rings” written by Mushashi Miyamoto in order to explain the importance of establishing corporate ethics in an easily comprehensible manner.
○If a philosophy is diffused through books and all people understand it easily, we will have no difficulty in making them know it. Since it is impossible to do it, we are forced to think how the concept will be penetrated through the people and how they realize it. Daily training and exercise is the only way to be familiar with it.
○Seiryo Kaiho, a Confucian after the middle of Edo Era, said “(1) You see your face before a mirror every morning, (2) You see things in terms of other people’s views and (3) You try to think them in terms of other people’s and thing’s situations. You will be able to understand what really brings long-term benefits to you through these procedures.”
○All mechanisms do not work if management tops refine their spirits in order to pour their souls into a Buddha statue (system). If the tops familiarize themselves with their own concepts and embody them, these concepts will be conveyed to their employees without saying.
○As soon as the employees think that corporate philosophies and values are only ornaments, these will be equal to displays. It is necessary just for management tops to familiarize themselves with their own philosophies through thousands of days’ discipline and tens thousands of days’ training.

　Many comments and opinions including the following were provided to us after the lecture.

○ The lecture helped me to redefine corporate ethics.
○ A corporate philosophy is equal to a top’s concept. Its unique style suitable for each corporation should be made through training. Shortcuts make us learn nothing.(This subject is in agreement with our current challenge.) I learned a lot from this seminar.
○ Mr. Funabashi said, “In order to establish corporate ethics and implement business activities in conformance with the ethics established, it is important not only to develop a compliance system and other mechanisms but also to put your whole heart and soul to the ethics. For it, business managers should refine their mentality and be always on the highroad to success.” I found his words no surprise but very important and informative.