Tetsuro Hori Representative Director・CEO・President of JSR Corporation, gave the following speech to new employees hired at the head office at the welcoming ceremony held at 8:45 a.m. today.

・The two key words are “Develop a strong internal compass to guide your decisions” and “Learn to enjoy change”.
・A quote from his boss in sales that led to a glimpse of the essence of business, Think of your job as your calling”.
・He hopes that you will gain knowledge and experience every day so that you can look back and feel that you have made the right choice.

To all our new employees, congratulations on joining JSR Corporation today and thank you for choosing us in a time when many companies are seeking talented individuals.

Today, I would like to share a story from when I started working. In my twenties, I was a sales representative for semiconductor components. At the time, I hated sales. When my boss once told me, “Think of your job as your calling,” I strongly resisted the idea. In that job, the customer’s design department made the decision to adopt our semiconductor components or not, but I was not allowed to make an appointment with them directly. I had to first go through someone in the purchasing department, and make the appointment through them. In other words, if the person in purchasing did not like you, you could not even get a meeting. But I did not give up and kept visiting the customer until I was finally able to meet with the design department. When a semiconductor component is selected for use in a product, we call it a “design win,” and in the end, I succeeded in getting the design win. At that moment, I felt like I finally understood what my boss meant when he told me to think of my job as my calling.

When you’re young, there are times when you find yourself wondering, “Why am I doing this?” I can tell you that sometimes, those experiences turn out to be useful later in your life. My early experience gave me an idea of what a sales job is like, but I chose not to follow that path. Although I didn’t continue to work in sales, I felt like I caught a glimpse into the nature of business.

Being young is a gift—you have endless possibilities ahead. To live a fulfilling life with that unlimited potential, you must make choices every day. So, where do the standards for making choices come from? It comes from all the knowledge, experience, and thoughts that an individual has accumulated during their life. Whether the choice is the right one or not is not always clear at the time. However, I hope that you will gain knowledge and experience every day so that you can look back and feel that you have made the right choice. My advice to you is to use your mind and body to the fullest every day to build a strong inner compass that can guide your decisions.

JSR was founded in 1957 as the Japan Synthetic Rubber Co. Since its establishment, JSR has launched new businesses and exited others. Last year, JSR underwent a major transformation when we became a privately held company following a tender offer bid by JICC Capital. Change has always been part of who we are as an organization, and it always will be. In the semiconductor industry, where I started and where much of JSR’s business sits, change is constant. I hope that each of you will learn to not just tolerate and adapt to change, but enjoy it.

I hope you leave here today with these two points in mind: “Develop a strong internal compass to guide your decisions” and “Learn to enjoy change.”

I am excited to see the journey each of you will take and look forward to your success.