Komatsu defines corporate value as the total sum of trust given to us by society and all our stakeholders, and our management principle is to enhance this corporate value.
Komatsu has a wide range of stakeholders. When these stakeholders are divided into “those who create corporate value” and “those who assess corporate value,” the former includes employees, business partners, and sales and service distributors, while the latter includes society, shareholders, investors, and the media. Komatsu believes that its customers are the only stakeholders that fulfill both roles. This is because customers co-create and assess Komatsu’s corporate value and, ultimately, generate returns for the company.
Komatsu therefore defines “enhancing the trust placed in Komatsu by customers” as “increasing the extent to which Komatsu is indispensable to them and, as a result, becoming a partner that continues to be chosen.” Komatsu has pursued brand management (BM) activities since 2007 based on this definition.
Our brand management (BM) activities are built on the fundamental principle of "from the customer's perspective." While marketing often involves considering differentiation from competitors and market positioning, viewing things from the "customer's perspective" means first and foremost understanding the customer’s ideals, mission, and goals—and focusing on how to help them achieve these. To realize the customer's ideals, mission, and goals, we are engaged in activities designed to develop and deliver our own management resources and capabilities. These initiatives have traditionally relied more on experience and intuition, but in Komatsu’s BM activities, we utilize a variety of tools and methods to visualize case studies, accumulate know-how, and pass it on to the next generation.
In Komatsu’s BM activities, we provide DANTOTSU Value by leveraging the collective strengths of the Komatsu Group to help realize the customers’ ideals, mission, and goals identified through the thorough practice of customer orientation. By horizontally deploying these efforts to a wide range of customers, we aim to achieve sustainable enhancement of corporate value.
BM activities, now in their 20th year since launching in 2007, have expanded globally across a wide range of customers in various industries, including construction, mining, quarrying, forestry, agriculture, logistics, ports, industrial waste, and other sectors. The principles underpinning these activities have been incorporated into the Komatsu Way as the Brand Management Edition—a set of values to be continuously passed down and practiced by all employees at their worksites and workplaces throughout the Komatsu Group.
In the latest 4th edition of the Komatsu Way, we have added a new message stating that BM activities are a company-wide initiative involving departments such as sales, production, development, and administration working together as one. Promoting BM activities through cross-functional teams has strengthened organizational capabilities and broadened the range of solutions Komatsu delivers to its customers. Komatsu will continue to advance BM activities as a united global team.
