■ The Importance of Diversity

The protests following the tragic events in Minneapolis are continuing in the US and around the world. As I touched on in my message on June 3rd, treating everyone with dignity and respect, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religious beliefs or physical ability, is engrained in Sony's codes of conduct. In addition to our commitment to the human rights of all people, Sony also places great importance on Diversity as one of our core Values.

Providing the opportunity for talented employees from varying backgrounds to excel is integral, not only to Sony's continued existence but for its continued evolution as a company. And it is the great Diversity of our employees working in each of our businesses that are the source and driving force of Sony's value creation. Even with our Values, activities and acknowledgments of the importance of diversity, as recent events in the U.S. have shown, we as a Company cannot rest. It is in this spirit that Sony Music Group recently spearheaded the creation of the $100 million Global Social Justice Fund. SMG, working in partnership with SCA, SPE, SIE and other Sony group companies, will use this fund to support social justice and equal rights initiatives around the world.

As we announced at the recent Corporate Strategy Meeting, we will establish Sony Group Corporation to further strengthen the Sony Group's overall management capability, and to better harness the talent of our diverse employees and business operations. And as of this month, we have transitioned to a new Group Management team structure comprised of the heads of key corporate functions and top management from core Sony Group companies. The diversity of this leadership team that represents the Sony Group continues to be an important management issue and we will pursue this with the utmost attention it deserves.

■ A Learning Organization

We are currently at the juncture of commencing discussions relating to Sony's mid- to long-term evolution and growth (i.e. mid-range planning) for FY21 and beyond. When formulating mid-range scenarios we must, first and foremost, be aware of our surrounding environment. In an era defined by "VUCA" (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), we face a range of complex global issues, such as deglobalization and the threat of COVID-19.

I believe that whether a constantly shifting external environment represents a risk or opportunity for a company, depends on the ability of that company or organization to Learn. What determines that Learning ability, as I touched on earlier, is the Diversity of its workforce, in other words the people who contribute to the organization.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, known for the hit game Fortnite. As I mentioned in my blog in May, Fortnite hosted a series of virtual concerts by SME recording artist Travis Scott that drew an audience of around 28 million fans. In this way, Fortnite is evolving from a popular battle-royale style game into a social space for users to gather.

According to Tim, rather than try to predict the future in minute detail, Epic prefers to constantly carry out experiments from which they can learn and improve. Their organization learns and evolves by quickly repeating the cyclical process of OODA: Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

I have often talked of the importance of Exploration in enabling Sony to achieve further growth. In this VUCA era, each organization must improve their ability to Learn, as well as increase their efforts and opportunities to take on Exploration. For Sony to continuously generate value as a competitive global corporation across all its businesses, it is imperative that we have talented employees with the insight and experience to analyze the complex and ever-shifting environment around us, from every angle. It is my intention in writing this blog today that we share the same understanding that Diversity is a prerequisite for value creation here at Sony.