Global CEO Message

The environment surrounding business, technology and society continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, putting dentsu at the forefront to consistently confront these shifts and define solutions to create the future that lies beyond. Since our founding in 1901, we have leveraged the power to move people’s hearts, addressing the challenges faced by businesses and society and creating new value and vitality for our clients along the way.

Dentsu is now at a major turning point.
As AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the ability to solve short-term challenges will become increasingly sophisticated and efficient. In this environment, the value we must provide lies not simply in improving efficiency or addressing existing challenges. Our role is to create new opportunities for the sustainable growth for businesses and society through human creativity, while bringing people hope and vitality for the future.

At the same time, we must confront the realities we face. While our Japan business has achieved consistent growth since fiscal year 2021, some segments of our International business are experiencing declining profitability, and others have yet to demonstrate sufficient competitive advantage.

Our immediate priority is to overcome the challenges we face and return to sustainable growth. Beyond that lies our ultimate ambition: to become “the Growth Partner that drives the greatest impact for clients, partners, and society.”

To achieve this, we will first accelerate business and organizational transformation, placing the highest priority on restoring profitability and improving financial soundness. We will generate the investment capacity needed to support sustainable growth over the long term, while investing in priority areas and strengthening our capabilities. At the same time, we will embed AI more deeply into our businesses and operations, evolving the way we work to improve individual productivity by enabling people and AI to each play to their strengths. We will also attract, develop, and retain talent with the skills and expertise required in the AI era, strengthening the competitiveness of our organization as a whole and driving greater impact on the growth of our clients and society.

Within our International business, we are undertaking a fundamental review of underperforming businesses and rebuilding our business foundation as we transition toward a more agile organization. In August 2026, we announced an update to our Mid-Term Management Plan, covering the three-year period through fiscal year 2028. While maintaining the direction we have set out to date, the updated plan provides greater clarity on the allocation of management resources for growth and the role of each business region.

Rather than applying the same strategy across all business regions, each region will build on its own strengths in response to its market environment and competitive position, while collaborating across business regions to drive sustainable growth for the Group as a whole.

As we execute these strategies, we will remain anchored in three core principles: client-centricity, agility, and collaboration. Through unwavering client-centricity, agility, and the optimal integration of diverse capabilities through collaboration, we deliver value that contributes to our clients’ growth. We believe this is a competitive advantage unique to dentsu.

People are dentsu’s greatest asset. In the age of AI, human imagination, curiosity, insight, determination, and passion will become more important than ever. Across dentsu, we have people with diverse expertise in areas such as Media and Creative, which we have cultivated over many years, as well as in Consulting, Data & Technology, and Sports & Entertainment. Our ability to bring these different strengths together enables us to create unique value that sets us apart.

We also believe that the true source of corporate value lies in the trust we earn from society. That is why we are committed to transforming our environment so that both management and every individual employee can advance these changes with the highest level of integrity. Alongside strengthening governance and instilling a culture where integrity comes first, we will continue to enhance our global policies and employee training to address the risks associated with the growing use of AI.

With the continued support of all clients and stakeholders across society, we will steadily move forward to achieve sustainable growth and become “the Growth Partner that drives the greatest impact for clients, partners, and society.”