Our corporate governance is basically aimed at improving the soundness, transparency, and objectivity of our management to enable quick, appropriate management decisions, ensure the long-term stability of our business, and optimize the corporate value of the P ARK Group. It is also aimed at fulfilling our corporate social responsibility to develop and maintain a good relationship with our shareholders and other stakeholders. We regard strengthening corporate governance to be an important task for businesses.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the social environment has been changing at an accelerated rate. We have seen the progress brought about by the IT revolution and deregulation. As a result, our society has become one in which everyone makes their own decisions and is responsible for their own actions, and each person is liable for their decisions and actions. Not to mention the corporate scandals that have been occurring so frequently in recent years, the misconduct of a single employee can result in the public losing faith in an entire organization. In this case, the trust that was established over the course of many years can be lost in an instant, possibly threatening a company's very survival. Regaining this lost trust will take exponentially more effort than required to win the public's trust in the first place. In these times, the decisions and actions of every single employee weigh more heavily than they ever did before. Therefore, the appropriate judgment of every single employee holds the key to a company's fate.
At P ARK, we have reviewed our compliance measures and decided to create a more organized, effective compliance system. The recently established P ARK Group Corporate Code of Conduct includes guidelines aimed at ensuring that the officers and employees of the P ARK Group share the same values and standards of behavior necessary for our corporate activities and decision-making. In other words, this Code of Conduct lies at the heart of our compliance. We have laid out the principles of our corporate ethics and actions, which are aimed at making sure that every single officer and employee working for the P ARK Group is proud to be a member of the Group, aware that they are connected to every stakeholder, including our shareholders and business partners?not to mention our customers?and completes their assigned duties and tasks, earning society's trust as a result. And we have declared our determination to follow these principles. At P ARK we have gained "customer confidence," our most important asset, by complying with laws, regulations, and social norms, and by acting ethically as a corporate citizen. By working faithfully in accordance with the P ARK Group's Corporate Code of Conduct, you are helping to build a company you can be proud to work for.
If you have any questions or doubts about any decisions you are to make in your daily activities, ask yourself if you would confidently and proudly relay the expected results of your decision to your family, friends, customers, or society. If the answer is "no," be courageous enough to say, "that's wrong, isn't it?", even if the decision was instructed by your superior, and be sure to consult executive officers as well as your co-workers and superiors.
At the P ARK Group, we don't recognize any profits made as a result of behavior that goes against the intent of the P ARK Group Corporate Code of Conduct, stipulated here. Please keep in mind that "customer confidence"?the P ARK Group's greatest asset?depends on the conduct of every single officer and employee based on the P ARK Group Corporate Code of Conduct.
Compliance Committee
April 1, 2004
