Governance

Being a good corporate citizen

Effective corporate governance creates an environment of trust, transparency, fairness and accountability, which together help to foster long-term investment, financial stability, and business integrity. These attributes support stronger growth and more inclusive societies, as well as the responsible use of resources, and protection of the built and natural environments. An essential element of ESG, governance is the backbone of these efforts for any business that strives to be a ‘good corporate citizen.’

Key governance challenges

Corporate governance is required to support the business itself and to help it meet its wider obligations to the local, national and global community. Key governance challenges include:

Pressure and expectation on businesses to be sustainable and responsible: The Edelman 2022 Trust Barometer shows that 65% of consumers believe that companies are better at solving social challenges compared to governments (42%) or NGOs (57%). However, the survey suggests that consumers believe businesses aren’t currently doing enough to address societal problems on climate change (52%), economic inequality (49%) and workforce reskilling (46%).
Compliance: Companies must comply with a raft of laws and regulations. EU examples include CSRD, GDPR, and the upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
Complex ethics laws and regulations: A particular challenge when a business trades across multiple countries or regions, making ethical, trustworthy business practices and robust processes of governance increasingly essential. Business leaders need to understand the obligations of their governance and implement strict processes to avoid financial penalties and potential reputational damage.
Supply chain: When choosing partners and the supply chain, factors like ethics and sustainability are as important as optimal service, support and pricing. A partner or supplier that fails to meet sustainability or ethics expectations will reflect badly on any business that supports it, so thorough due diligence must be carried out.
A balanced corporate strategy: Although a corporate strategy that focuses exclusively on maximising shareholder benefits (and ignores broader obligations) no longer meets the challenges and expectations a company faces, this must be weighed against the pressure to ensure the business remains profitable and financially viable to survive and thrive in its chosen markets.

Governance initiatives at Konica Minolta

Effective corporate governance is essential to ensuring a business meets its obligations to internal stakeholders (employees) and external stakeholders (investors, customers, and anyone else affected by the business’s activities).

As a major international corporation that operates in multiple regions and territories, Konica Minolta has a strict set of policies that ensure the company, its employees, and its partners all meet stringent governance standards.

Our approach to governance includes:

Sustainable & responsible business conduct

Compliance with applicable laws and regulations in the countries and regions where we operate (eg CSRD, the Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains).

Governance, risk management and internal controls

Konica Minolta is aware of potential risks and have suitable mitigation in place to ensure these are dealt with. It is vital that this is controlled throughout the organisation and that the whole team understands what is acceptable and what is not.

Products & Services – Management and quality with business partners

Konica Minolta is working towards a sustainable and ethical supply chain by ensuring that the company and its suppliers respect human rights, based on, among others: the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), our Supplier Code of Conduct, and the upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and amending Directive (CSDDD).
Effective export control procedures to ensure we comply with prevailing sanctions and embargoes.

An iterative process

We aim to be highly responsible across our sourcing and supply chains, with due diligence at the forefront of our operations. We do, however, acknowledge that our actions in the governance field represent important early steps in an ongoing the journey. We're aware that there are still areas where we have the potential to improve, and we aim to do so. The actions described above represent a firm foundation on which we intend to continue building.