The Group’s Mission is based on founder Shojiro Ishibashi’s business philosophy embodied in his words, “I am convinced that a simple profit-seeking business will never thrive, but a business that contributes to its society and country will be forever profitable.” This belief and our Mission also are in line with the current notion of sustainability. Today, our Mission is becoming more important than ever.
The society around us is in the midst of major changes, including international relations, the economy and technological innovation, and the pace of these changes is accelerating year by year. Mobility, especially with regard to automobiles, is undergoing a “once in a century” fundamental transformation, as is represented by concepts such as MaaS*1 and CASE*2. Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues from 2020, not only brings about major changes in our lives and economies, but also has shown that the critical challenges the world faces — climate emergency, loss of nature and growing inequality — are interconnected. Society as a whole must work toward the realization of a sustainable society so that all people can continue living well within planetary boundaries.
Since its establishment in 1931, the Bridgestone Group has been expanding and evolving its business from Japan to Asia and globally, from tires to diversified products that support lives and industries, and now to solutions. The Group has evolved to meet the changing needs of society and continue supporting the safe and secure mobility and lifestyles of individuals in each era.
Looking ahead, the Group will continue to evolve to support society and each individual. Through our business activities, and the technologies and innovations that support them, we will provide value to our customers. We also strive to create social value to further contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. The Group also will carry out a wide range of social contribution activities around the world beyond our business domains, to continue fulfilling our responsibility to future generations as a global leader in the industry.
In particular, with regard to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have identified 13 of the 17 goals that the Group will focus on, and will actively contribute to the achievement of these SDGs by 2030. We believe that it is the role and responsibility of our Group to anticipate changes in society, turn them into opportunities, and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through our business and social contribution activities.
Evolution toward a sustainable solutions company: Bridgestone 3.0 Journey
In 2020, the Bridgestone Group embarked on a new chapter in its history with a new vision: “Toward 2050, Bridgestone continues to provide social value and customer value as a sustainable solutions company.”
Following the Group’s founding in 1931, and our “second foundation” in 1988 with the merger of Bridgestone and the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, we positioned 2020 as our “Third Foundation” and the first year of Bridgestone 3.0. The Mid-Long Term Business Strategy was formulated to realize our new vision.
The Mid-Long Term Business Strategy places sustainability at the core of management and business, and aims to serve society by creating social and customer value while gaining a competitive advantage, by evolving into a solutions company that leverages the strengths of our tire and rubber business. This February, we announced our Mid Term Business Plan as a concrete execution plan for 2021 to 2023. In line with this plan, we will drive our Mid-Long Term Business Strategy from framework to execution with an aggressive approach and challenging spirit.
The base of our strategy is building a unique business model. By further strengthening our core tire business and leveraging its advantages to globally expand our solutions business, which we call our growth business, we aim to amplify the value of these two businesses. Furthermore, to ensure our evolution into a sustainable solutions company, we have established a new business portfolio. To sustainably grow toward the future, we have added on exploratory business, in addition to our existing core and growth businesses. We have started with exploring the recycle business and the soft- robotics business, both areas where Bridgestone can leverage its core competencies, such as mastering rubber.
The components of our core, growth, and exploratory businesses are not fixed. We will evolve our business portfolio to meet the changing needs of society and our customers, developing our current growth business into a core business, and our exploratory businesses into growth businesses. New exploratory businesses will also be born.
In conjunction with our business
activities, we are also accelerating our environmental initiatives and other activities
to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Traditionally, the Group has continued to
contribute to the improvement of resource productivity and the reduction of
CO2 emissions in our “produce and sell” tire business, and our solutions
business, which provides value at the time of product “use.”
Looking ahead, we look to commercialize the recycle business to “renew” end-of-life
tires to rubber and raw materials. By 2030, we aim to construct a circular economy where
business value such as revenue and profits are sustainably generated and circulated,
linked with efforts toward resource circulation and achieving carbon neutrality, across
all of our “produce and sell,” ”provide value at use” and “renew” business areas.
The other exploratory business, soft-robotics, is a new attempt in the Group’s diversified business, designed to support mobility and lifestyles that prioritize safety and peace of mind. The soft-robotics business utilizes soft robots that work harmoniously with people to respond to social and customer issues such as work automation and need for contactless interactions. By leveraging Bridgestone’s core competencies such as know-how and technologies in mastering rubber and mastering contact, we will continue to explore new areas to ensure sustainable growth.