Fujitsu aims to promote Sustainable Transformation with internal awards system

Fujitsu / October 12, 2023

Fujitsu awards employees who are actively engaged in initiatives to realize Our Purpose (why Fujitsu exists in society). This includes the Sustainability Contribution Award, which is intended to share best practices widely within the company, to promote internal awareness, and to improve activities. The Grand Award and Excellence Award are presented annually at the anniversary ceremony of the company’s founding.

In this article, the Sustainability Contribution Award secretariat introduces two projects that won the Grand Award and Excellence Award for fiscal year 2023.

The Sustainability Contribution Award: an in-house award for realizing Our Purpose
Grand Award: Fast discovery of unknown causes of cancer drug resistance on “Fugaku”
Excellence Award: Special Needs & Education Support Inclusion Project
In closing

The Sustainability Contribution Award: an in-house award for realizing Our Purpose

Fujitsu aims to solve various social issues through its business activities in line with Our Purpose of making the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.

The Sustainability Contribution Award is a global in-house competition to recognize outstanding examples of employees’ efforts to achieve sustainability. By presenting the awards to employees, we are fostering awareness of our own activities in line with Our Purpose.

The judging process includes a review by the person responsible for promoting the Fujitsu Way, which sets forth the principles that should guide the decision-making and actions of all Fujitsu employees worldwide. In addition, the judging is conducted by a specialized department that is aligned with the field of application.

Furthermore, this year, approximately 180 employees from APAC, East Asia, Europe, Americas, Japan, and other regions participated as general judges to review from a variety of diverse perspectives. The judges evaluated the social impact of each initiative from the three perspectives of Our Values (Aspiration, Trust and Empathy) that are emphasized in the Fujitsu Way.

Here is an overview of the projects that won the Grand Award and Excellence Award in fiscal 2023.

Grand Award: Fast discovery of unknown causes of cancer drug resistance on “Fugaku”—Narrowing down a patient’s genetic characteristics from 1,000 trillion possibilities in less than one day to realize efficient drug development

It has been said that it is difficult to develop drugs (*1) for rare diseases(*2) due to the small number of target patients, making it difficult to recover the investment. Therefore, it is necessary to identify biomarkers (physiological indicators that indicate the presence of a certain disease and its progression) quickly in order to precisely target patients for clinical trials and ensure the success of such trials.

Fujitsu has developed a technology for efficient search and discovery by using its proprietary AI technology. Fujitsu plans to commercialize this technology with the aim of achieving the maximum effect at the minimum cost. In the future, Fujitsu will expand the application of this technology to genome medicine using “Fugaku,” collaboration with Kyoto University School of Medicine for biomarker discovery, and incorporation in Kozuchi, an AI platform provided by Fujitsu.

(*1) The market size is expected to grow from 2 trillion yen in 2021 to 580 trillion yen in 2030.

(*2) Diseases with less than 50,000 patients worldwide

Fujitsu’s Discovery AI

This project was recognized for its contribution to society through technology by implementing Fujitsu’s AI with discovery ability in “Fugaku” to address the social issue of cancer treatment, a problem that affects the health and lives of many people. In addition, the potential to contribute to future advances in medicine and drug discovery was another highly regarded aspect of this project.

Comments by Koji Maruhashi, Research Director, Cognitive CPJ, Fujitsu Laboratories, who served as the representative of the award winners

We are very honored to receive such a great award for our team’s efforts. We are working on the challenge of using AI to discover unknown insights from gene regulatory networks, one of the most complex systems known. We believe that this will not only contribute to the development of medicine, but also that the methodology we have developed can be applied to a wide range of fields, and we intend to expand its application in the future.

Koji Maruhashi, Research Director, Cognitive CPJ, Fujitsu Laboratories

Excellence Award: Special Needs & Education Support Inclusion Project—Special Needs & Education Support Inclusion Project via Mini Woolies Fujitsu and Woolworths Collaboration (Fujitsu Australia Ltd.)

Fujitsu Australia has collaborated with Woolworths Group to provide each mini supermarket with Fujitsu POS cash registers. Money handling, product bagging, and customer service experience to support young Australians with disabilities.

(Left) Mini Woolies; (Right) Young people undergoing vocational training

Presenter Clare Burden said, “While this project has received a lot of attention from the media in Australia, there have been many reports talking about it with purpose. I think Fujitsu was recognized as a company that develops business rooted in purpose."

Clare Burden, Industry&Retail, Fujitsu Australia Ltd

Also at the awards ceremony, Taejun Shin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gojo & Company Inc., gave a special lecture on the theme of “Relationship between businesses that approach solving social issues and purpose” as a speaker from outside the company. Participants commented that “Gojo & Company has people of many nationalities and diverse values. The fact that they were able to achieve rapid growth in such an environment in a short period of time should serve as a good example for Fujitsu as it advances its SX business globally.”

In closing

Every year, the Sustainability Contribution Awards secretariat receives many outstanding submissions, and the number is increasing every year. With an increasing number of projects that create greater benefits for our customers and society, it is sometimes difficult to select the best of the best. The final selection is made after reflecting the opinions of many judges, including general employees, Fujitsu Way promotion leaders, internal experts, and management.

Praising the enthusiastic efforts of the applicants is a good opportunity for us to reaffirm the need to strive as one company to solve social issues. Fujitsu will continue to work with its customers and various partners to bring new social value in order to realize Our Purpose.

Tomomi Takei

CSuO Division, CEO Office, Fujitsu

The CSuO Division is responsible for promoting the integration of sustainability into management. It also promotes the enhancement of company-wide ESG value through financial and non-financial analysis based on Our Purpose and Materiality and plays a role in deepening stakeholder engagement through integrated information disclosure.