Materiality
Amid an ever-changing external environment, we continue seeking both to realize our Purpose and maximize corporate value for our stakeholders. To this end, we have framed our Materiality based on the two axes of “importance from the management perspective” and “importance from the stakeholder perspective.”
Materiality is a key consideration in our interactions with shareholders, investors, employees, clients, partners, and society. It also represents management priorities that support the Group’s efforts to sustainably create value and achieve growth.
For this reason, initiatives toward our material themes are closely connected to our corporate value.
Dentsu’s material issues under our four material themes:
INTEGRITY
- Business ethics & compliance
- Data privacy and cybersecurity
- Risk and crisis management
- Corporate governance
- Respect for human rights
PEOPLE & CULTURE
- Human capital development
- Focus on well-being and enhancement of how we work
- Developing future generations
INNOVATION
- Co-creation and global collaboration
- Customer engagement and loyalty
- Technology and creativity for a sustainable society
- Contributing to local communities and society
- Leading innovation with new ideas
- New value for new markets
ENVIRONMENT
- Sustainable supply chain management
- Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Driving sustainable consumption through advertising and business activities
Materiality formulation process
Step 1: Identification of issues
We created a long list of key issues based on the Group's current and future-oriented strategies and business models, Board materials and sustainability-related briefings, and our Purpose. This was narrowed down to 36 issues after analyzing the following aspects relevant to dentsu’ s business areas:
1. Reports and frameworks published by ratings agencies, specialized organizations, NGOs/NPOs, etc., including the SASB Standards
2. Sustainability-related media reports
3. Societal issues closely connected to AI
Step 2: Ranking and grouping of issues
The issues identified in Step 1 were quantitatively evaluated through interviews and surveys with Group management members and other key stakeholders from the perspective of what is essential for realizing our Purpose as well as what could support/hinder our corporate value creation. The results of these assessments were mapped based on the two axes of “importance from management perspective” and “importance from stakeholder perspective,” which yielded 17 material issues as a result.
These issues were further categorized into four material themes, which formed dentsu's draft materiality.
Step 3: Management approval
The draft materiality was approved following discussions at the Group Sustainability Committee, the Group Management Board, and the Board of Directors, where the issues were confirmed as material for dentsu. We will continue to conduct periodic reviews of our materiality assessment to reflect changes in societal conditions, management policies, and stakeholder expectations.