Carrying forward our 115-year-old purpose of “contributing to society” into the future— 280,000 employees united to realize a harmonized society

As CEO, I believe it is vital to continually reflect on a company’s reason for being—its purpose. History has shown us countless examples where even longestablished companies can decline or be dissolved, once their purpose is forgotten or called into question.

For the Hitachi Group, our purpose lies in the founding philosophy articulated by our founder, Namihei Odaira:“Contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products.” For 115 years, Hitachi has grown by staying ahead of the times and evolving the value we deliver, while remaining firmly committed to our enduring purpose of contributing to society. Today, we are expanding our Social Innovation Business globally, using a unique integration of information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and products to help solve challenges faced by our customers and society.

To continue fulfilling this purpose into the future, I believe that we must transform Hitachi into a digital-centric company and achieve sustainable growth. It was with this determination that we announced our new management plan Inspire 2027, in April 2025. By leveraging Hitachi’s unique strength—our ability to integrate IT, OT, and products—and further deepening collaboration across businesses through digital technologies, we aim to contribute to the realization of a “harmonized society,”one in which environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance.

Hitachi has always grown through contributing to society, enhancing its corporate value along the way. In past mid-term management plans , we have set financial targets while also committing to environmental conservation and to pursuit wellbeing of people. However, to realize these values all at the same time, which at times may seem to be in trade-off relationships, we must not treat them as separate goals but instead integrate them into a single vision. This firm belief of our management team was reflected in the vision of harmonized society set forth in Inspire 2027.

By solving the issues facing our customers and society,and contributing to the creation of a sustainable society, Hitachi can generate growth for both the company and its employees—and give back and deliver value to all stakeholders. I am committed to building this kind of virtuous cycle in realizing Hitachi’s sustainable growth.

For Hitachi, sustainability is the foundation of our business activities. To put it into practice, we need a clear strategy that is shared across all business units and pursued with consistency. With this in view, we established PLEDGES, our new strategy under Inspire 2027, designed to further strengthen sustainability management across the entire Group. PLEDGES consists of seven strategic pillars that underpin Hitachi’s sustainability efforts, along with the targets we aim to achieve over the next three years. Through this framework, we will further integrate sustainability and business, accelerating both our contributions to preserving the global environment and creating value for people and society, as well as our own sustainable growth.

One of the most important roles of a CEO is to embody the company’s purpose and encourage its people.
This, in turn, drives corporate growth and enhances the sustainability of society.

Having been born in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture— the birthplace of our company—and having grown up with the Hitachi Group close to me, I view our purpose of “contributing to society” as the very foundation of my own professional identity. At the same time, as Hitachi has expanded its global business—with overseas operations now accounting for around 60% of both revenue and number of employees —I have, at times, wondered whether this purpose could truly resonate on a global scale.

That question was answered in 2021, when we acquired the Silicon Valley–based digital company GlobalLogic.
They chose to join us because they believed that they could be a part of something meaningful to the society by joining the Hitachi Group. This gave me strong confidence that, despite differences in language and culture, Hitachi’s purpose and values can indeed be shared and empathized globally.

Since assuming the role of CEO in April, I have focused on communicating the belief in “contributing to society”—a principle deeply embedded in Hitachi’s DNA —with our colleagues around the world.The greatest transformation within an organization comes when people unite around a shared sense of empathy.If all employees across the Hitachi Group connect with this purpose and stand together, I am confident that we can generate unprecedented innovation and translate that into growth.

I firmly believe that by managing Hitachi as one company, we can continue to evolve and enhance our corporate value. Under the Mid-term Management Plan 2024, we achieved organic growth and strengthened the earning power of individual businesses, but deeper collaboration among business units is still a work in progress.Through what I call “True One Hitachi”— where diverse businesses collaborate more deeply using digital technologies—we can unlock Hitachi’s unique strength of integrating IT, OT, and products, and deliver new value capable of addressing society’s increasingly complex challenges.
Since taking office, I have repeatedly emphasized the path to growth through True One Hitachi as well as reconfirming our purpose. I have seen firsthand changes of mindsets and behaviors—for example, leaders are more actively engaging beyond the boundaries of their own business units, and employees expressing their desire for more cross-functional collaboration.
As CEO, I will continue working to foster this shared empathy among all 280,000 members of the Hitachi Group.

Today’s global landscape is undergoing rapid and unprecedented shifts. Businesses face disruptive changes on multiple fronts. Generative AI has advanced at an extraordinary pace, fundamentally transforming the business environment. Meanwhile, the ideal of a “flat world” once heralded in global affairs has given way to growing fragmentation—driven by trade tensions, conflicts, and other divides emerging across the globe. In such a world, it is increasingly difficult, even for leaders, to foresee what lies ahead.
 

In my view, one answer to navigating this highuncertainty environment is “agility”, that is, the ability to respond to change quickly and decisively. Unpredictable change can be a threat, but if we can react swiftly, we can also turn it into opportunity. Even if a quick decision leads to failure, we can course correct and find a better path forward.
 

At the same time, in an era marked by constant change, I believe it is more important to “do the right thing” than to simply “do things right.” For Hitachi, “the right thing” is to transform ourselves into a digital-centric company and continue enhancing our corporate value—while contributing to the realization of a harmonized society. At a time when divisions are deepening around the world, I believe Hitachi—rooted in Japan’s cultural emphasis on harmony and with a long history of tackling global challenges—has a unique responsibility to promote the creation of a more balanced, inclusive society. By uniting the power of all 280,000 employees across the Hitachi Group and steadily building the trust of our stakeholders, we will continue to fulfill our enduring purpose of “contributing to society” for generations to come.

Toshiaki Tokunaga

President & CEO