In 2024 We Are Launching an Overseas Training Program for All Second-Year New-Graduate Hires!

To Become True Suntorians, We Will Travel to the Frontline of Environmental and Social Problems

2nd Year Global VALUE Training is for all 250 new-graduate hires in their second year with Suntory. Participants will travel to Bali, Indonesia for the 10-day program. The Suntory Group aims to become a unique, multifaceted beverages company trusted and loved around the world, and in line with this goal, 2nd Year Global VALUE Training aims to provide young employees, who will drive our growth, with a global perspective and awareness of the importance of sustainability. Training takes place during the second year of employment, when participants are awakening to their role as Suntorians, and is the culmination of basic new-employee training.

Program design and support are being provided by Earth Company, based in Japan and Indonesia. Earth Company is an impact-driven social enterprise that offers transformational support to change-makers, delivers inspiring educational programs and manages a next generation eco hotel in Ubud, Bali called Mana Earthly Paradise. Trainees will stay mainly at Mana Earthly Paradise, but they will also participate in homestays in villages situated close to extensive tourism development.

Trainees will visit a trash dump to study social challenges and the problems of trash disposal.

Indonesia has an established image as a resort destination, but in reality, the tourism industry is the cause of many environmental and social issues. We will consider the waste disposal problems spawned by tourism with a visit to the biggest landfill in Bali that symbolizes these problems, and interact with residents of a village affected by tourism development.

We will experience collecting trash around hotels. Afterward we will confirm the types and amounts of trash found, and study the trash situation in tourist areas.

These experiences are normally impossible to have in Japan, and during the program planning process, I felt my own ignorance keenly. While we may forget the content of lectures and conversations, first-hand experiences generate emotional memories that stay with us. With the support of Earth Company, this training program is designed to allow participants to experience first-hand the environmental and social problems generated by capitalist economies. I’m confident that our second-year employees will be moved by their experience.

Providing Opportunities to Make Suntory’s Founding Spirit One’s Own

In the second half of the program, participants will have the opportunity to learn about the activities of Impact Heroes (social entrepreneurs committed to SDGs who have exceptional capabilities and passion) supported by Earth Company. For example, based on the conviction poverty should not mean one has to give up on life, we will visit Yayasan Bumi Sehat, a nonprofit organization that provides free maternity care for pregnant women, mothers and their babies, plus healthcare for all those in need.

This maternity hospital provides free medical care to the poor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The first step toward solving environmental and social problems is to approach them intently and open your heart, so you can understand the perspective of people who actually live with the problems. As participants experience and are moved by what they witness, we hope they will have a chance to think more deeply about our founding value of giving back to society and consider how they, as Suntorians, can make finding paths toward business growth and sustainability their personal responsibility.

As exemplified by its value of “Yatte Minahare,” Suntory has a culture of ongoing self-challenge. The training program is itself challenging, and with the cooperation of Earth Company, we will launch a project that others said was impossible. Our mission is to create environments where employees can continue to take on new challenges, and our aim is to create many more programs like 2nd Year Global VALUE Training at Suntory University*, our corporate university, to draw out the curiosity and potential of every employee and make Suntory’s growth opportunities unmatched.

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  General name for global Suntory Group personnel development
  programs
  Managers for this program: Shinya Osugi, Hiroshi Mizuno, Sayuri Katada, and Ayako Ichiki