We are steadily advancing the qualitative evolution of the entire
Sompo Holdings Group, enhancing quality, speed, and flexibility in decision-making and business execution.
Shinji Tsuji
Group COO and Group CBO
Director, Deputy President and Representative Executive Officer
Duties of the Group COO
Ten years have passed since the establishment of the holding company, and we entered the latter half of the Mid-Term Management Plan this fiscal year. At this turning point, we reassessed the business execution structure to center on Global ExCo, which was established as the highest executive committee, while transitioning to a Company with Committees structure. These moves have clarified the roles of supervision and business execution as well as improved transparency in governance and strengthened oversight functions. Also, we have worked to improve the speed, flexibility, and quality of business execution, all the while globalizing management. The transition to this new corporate governance structure is meant to ensure our transformation into “A Theme Park for Security, Health & Wellbeing” by facilitating more agile and flexible decision-making and business execution. As a part of this transition, Sompo Holdings created the new executive position of Group COO (Chief Operating Officer) in January 2019, and I was appointed to this role. The duties of the Group COO are to bring together the management of the entire Group as the chair of Global ExCo and the Managerial Administrative Committee (MAC), which were created in April 2019, while inheriting the authority and responsibilities of the Group CEO as they relate to business execution. I make decisions to further the execution and realization of business strategies and management policies deliberated at Global ExCo, and I also make decisions to solve and move beyond pressing management issues. While promoting the effective functioning of Global ExCo and MAC, the Group COO advances specific measures to achieve Group targets raised in the Mid-Term Management Plan.
Taking on Challenges to Qualitatively Evolve the Group
Under the current Mid-Term Management Plan, which runs from fiscal 2016 through fiscal 2020, the Company has identified significant changes in the external business environment, including the shrinking and rapid aging of Japan’s population, large-scale natural disasters becoming the norm, and changing customer behavior in tandem with technological innovation, among other trends. Against this backdrop, the Sompo Holdings Group aims to evolve into a corporate group that can sustain growth into the future, achieving a transformation for the provision of “A Theme Park for Security, Health & Wellbeing.” Our transformation goes beyond simple change to encompass a qualitative evolution that entails reforming the business portfolio and corporate culture. Such a transformation is an unprecedented challenge, a key turning point for the Sompo Holdings Group in its more than 130-year history, which has focused on the insurance business.
In order to assure progress in taking on this challenge, over the three years through fiscal 2018, the Company made steady progress creating a foundation for realizing “A Theme Park for Security, Health & Wellbeing.” We began by introducing a Business Owner system and a Group Chief Officer (CxO) system, transitioning to a Company with Committees structure, and strengthening corporate governance functions with the establishment of Global ExCo. The Company also moved to strengthen its competitive advantages in each business. In the domestic P&C insurance business, we reviewed our pricing and reinsurance strategies and improved capital efficiency by reducing strategic-holding stocks. In the overseas insurance business, we completed our reorganization in developed countries and launched our retail platform vision. In the domestic life insurance business, we developed products and services centered on Insurhealth® and launched the Linkx (pronounced “link cross”) brand as a part of our change into a health support enterprise. In the nursing care & healthcare business, we improved productivity by merging four nursing care companies in the business. Moreover, Sompo Holdings accelerated growth through M&A activities, headlined by its acquisition of Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (currently Sompo International Holdings Ltd.) in fiscal 2016. The Company also sought out new business opportunities. We began to offer comprehensive support in a collaborative effort across businesses (across Group companies) with the SOMPO Dementia Support Program, which provides a wide range of support services from the prevention of impairment in cognitive functions to care for people with dementia. Other initiatives included advancing our digital strategy that utilizes cuttingedge expertise and technologies accumulated at our three SOMPO Digital Labs.
In these ways, Sompo Holdings has simultaneously implemented and sustained initiatives across the Group, encouraging organic growth in each business, executing disciplined M&A activities, and creating new businesses that leverage unique Group strengths. The Group is keen to realize its qualitative evolution into a constantly growing corporate group resilient to any change in the external business environment and to realize its transformation into “A Theme Park for Security, Health & Wellbeing.”
Under our new corporate governance structure, we aim to improve the quality, speed, and flexibility of decision-making and business execution, accelerate our transformation more than ever, and take other measures so that this year, which marks the 10th anniversary of the holding company’s establishment, will be a leap forward into the next decade.
