Putting in place functions for risk management
The SATO Group classifies risks in the following categories.
Business risks
There are risks that the company takes in conducting business when making investments and loans, acquiring and disposing of stock and fixed assets, entering into business partnerships or important agreements, and selling or buying businesses.
In line with changes made to our internal governance framework effective April 2021, we have replaced our Business Risk Committee (previously established under the board of directors for advising it on risk matters) with a Business Review Committee that reports directly to the Senior Executive Management Meeting, which makes top-level decisions on business execution. This new committee assesses and analyzes subjects of risk and submits its advice to the meeting for deliberation. It also monitors risks for those business decisions that have been implemented, reporting its findings when necessary. Through these activities, we hope to facilitate quality deliberations and better support the Senior Executive Management Meeting.
General risks
There are also risks related to sudden disasters, workplace accidents, fraudulent and otherwise illegal employee conduct, cybersecurity threats, and failure to comply with product quality standards and business transaction laws which, when they arise or materialize, can cause physical, economic or reputational losses or harm to the company, employees, customers and other stakeholders.
Our Risk Management Committee, established under the Senior Executive Management Meeting, shall continue to be responsible for developing and improving risk management systems across SATO Group companies in and outside Japan. It also works on determining preventive actions to minimize any resulting damage and drawing up crisis countermeasures should such risks occur.
Strengthening information security
We regard information security as an important business imperative, and apply rules and procedures for managing and protecting information assets based on our information security policy to drive security measures across the SATO Group. Under our in-house Risk Management Committee, we have established an Information Assets Management Committee that ensures security measures and account/access control methods are in place to keep information systems safe starting from their development to implementation and maintenance, on top of governing the management of information assets. Our Auditor Office also helps to monitor how our information assets are being used and managed.
SATO Corporation acquired the international ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification and its Japanese counterpart JIS Q 27001:2014 under the Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) scheme, in regard to the company’s B2B2C Project that delivers services to visualize and analyze customer/employee behavior in retail operations.
IS 721656 / ISO 27001
| Operator name | SATO Corporation |
|---|---|
| Standards certified | ISO/IEC 27001:2013 JIS Q 27001:2014 |
| Certificate number | IS 721656 |
| Date certified | November 25, 2020 |
| Business subject to certification | Developing, delivering and servicing/operating marketing applications in the B2B2C Project |
| Certifying organization | BSI Japan |
Protecting intellectual property
Basic policy
Since our founding, SATO has always sought to offer products and services that solve operational problems for our customers, in the spirit of Ceaseless Creativity. Through the development of new products and services, we build up a portfolio of intellectual assets that are important to the company’s present and future. To protect these resources, we have established a basic policy with actions set out as follows, which we will use toward securing our freedom to operate and increasing our corporate value to contribute to a better and more sustainable world.
Create and make use of intellectual property
We encourage creative work throughout our group so as to drive the creation of intellectual property that benefits our group businesses while maximizing its use to pursue sustainable growth.
Respect intellectual property rights
We comply with laws governing patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets and employee know-how in different countries, making sure we respect the valid intellectual property rights of third parties to minimize any related risks.
Provide intellectual property training and education
We educate employees to increase their awareness about intellectual property and enable more intellectual property activities.
