NEWS
Lecture Series by Global Corporate Executives: No.3 by Mr. Masayuki Waga, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Update: November 18, 2021
On Thursday, November 4th, the third lecture presentation of the Lecture Series by Global Corporate Executives was held. Hosted by the "Responsible Global Corporate Executives and Financial Professionals Training Program" of ICU Graduate School, this lecture series invites corporate executives who are active in the global arena and also respected for maintaining a strong awareness of corporate social responsibility. The aim is to inspire students' awareness and learning by directly communicating with such business leaders. This time Mr. Masayuki Waga, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation was invited. He gave a lecture titled "Management in the Future Chemical Industry" as part of the undergraduate course "Business and Society in Japan" that Distinguished Professor Katsuhito Iwai teaches in the Business major. More than 100 students participated in the lecture.
During the lecture, Mr. Waga clearly outlined the history of the chemical industry, the challenges surrounding petroleum which has long been central to the industry, and future directions that should be pursued by the industry, occasionally introducing efforts made by Mitsubishi Chemical and the philosophy behind those efforts.
He provided valuable learning for the students, for example, by touching on the growing social needs for biochemical technologies including biodegradable plastics and artificial photosynthetic materials and explaining how, although it may seem easy, it is actually not an easy task to supply such products at a competitive price without compromising on product quality.
In the question-and-answer session after the lecture, many questions were raised by the students. In responding to the question "Do you take account of the conflict between biochemical products and existing products?," Mr. Waga replied "All products have their own life cycle. If other companies are bound to cut short the life cycle of our technology, then we'd rather do so ourselves," revealing the company's determination to keep on challenging. Fervent exchange of questions and answers continued until the time ran out.
ICU Graduate School "Responsible Global Corporate Executives and Financial Professionals Training Program"
https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/academics/gs/studyprogram/