Human capital is the greatest driving force behind the Group’s efforts to execute its management strategy of achieving “No. 1 in Each Field” and creating sustainable value. This approach is rooted in Sumitomo’s Business Philosophy of “Business is People,” which has been passed down through more than 400 years of our history. Building on this, we set forth our aspirations for both individuals and the organization in our Global HR Management Policy, which serves as our shared global vision for human capital management.

●Aspiration for individuals: Individuals who embrace the Group’s vision and mission, have high aspirations, pursue continuous self-directed growth, and embrace the challenge of creating new value on a global scale.

●Aspiration for the organization: A Great Place to Work, where individuals maximize their abilities and continuously create new value, and an organization recognized for nurturing talent who continue to take on new challenges.

The Group’s business operations are becoming increasingly diverse across regions, industries, and business models, while the external environment is undergoing rapid and discontinuous change. Against this backdrop, we are advancing human capital management to strengthen our strategy execution capabilities. To this end, we are enhancing the value of our human capital the knowledge, skills, and experience of our diverse talent around the world as well as the time and passion each individual devotes to their work.

To enhance the value of our human capital, we have identified five fundamentals of human capital as targets for investment and are making ongoing investments in them. Through investing in these fundamentals, we are enhancing employee engagement and fostering a virtuous cycle in which the growth of each of our people drives the growth of the Group’s businesses and ultimately enhances corporate value. The resulting achievements are then returned to our people through the five fundamentals as new opportunities for growth.