The newly appointed president and chief executive officer of Kobe Steel Ltd. vowed Friday to restore damaged trust caused by a data-falsification scandal at the firm, saying it is essential to rebuild corporate governance and culture.
¡°Carrying out a drastic reform on governance and corporate culture is my duty and a critical process for our company to regain trust. I am taking this very seriously,¡± said Mitsugu Yamaguchi, currently an executive vice president at Japan¡¯s third-largest steel-maker, who will assume his new position on April 1.
An investigation conducted by a third party on the scandal, disclosed earlier this month, said employees had engaged in misconduct on a series of occasions due to weak corporate governance and pressure from headquarters over profitability. This has led to ¡°a culture that prioritized winning purchase orders and meeting delivery deadlines over ensuring quality,¡± the report said.
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