September 17, 2021 Reasons for Continuous Learning

Recently, I wrote a short recruitment message with the headline "Consider your preferences". It opens like this:

It's often said that in the web industry "technology trends change rapidly", but is this true? Well, I do think it's true, and I believe that everyone in our industry, regardless of their job title, needs to keep their knowledge up to date.

In fact, throughout the history of the web, many different technologies have emerged. Some have been standardized and widely adopted, others have fallen into decline and become obsolete. If we look at frameworks and libraries, we can see something akin to a battle between rival warlords.

As professional website developers and managers, I'm sure many of you will agree that changes in technology trends are a good reason for continuous learning.

However, this isn’t the “only” reason. In this Column, as Corporate Director (CTO), and perhaps sounding a little internally focused, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on why our staff should keep learning. While there’s some overlap, there are three main reasons. They are:

• Realizing Our Identity/Mission
• Supporting Client Needs
• Achieving the SDGs

Coinciding with the message (in Japanese) update referred to at the beginning of this Column, our Vision, Identity/Mission, Concept and Values were also updated and can be found on our "About Mitsue-Links" page. “Our identity / Mission” is as follows-

With advanced technology, designing superior communication

As previously mentioned, technologies evolve over time and can even become obsolete. So, regardless of what constitutes "advanced technology", without continuous learning and improvement it’s difficult to realize our identity/mission.

Advances in technology often lead to changes in the methodologies used for marketing, branding, public relations, and investor relations, which, in turn, equates to changes in the needs of our clients. If we don’t continue learning how to meet these new needs on a daily basis, we may soon find ourselves out of business.

At the same time, changes in technology also bring changes in the tools, techniques and processes used to build and manage websites. If we don't keep abreast of these changes, we may find ourselves in a situation where we need to expend more time and effort than our competitors to deliver the same results. Doing so, will, sooner or later, make it difficult for our clients to continue working with us.

However, if each of us continues to learn, either by increasing our skillset or by improving the efficiency of what we already do, we can create opportunities to provide new value for our clients. From our point of view, this can be described as "uncovering needs", therefore, continuous learning is essential to improve our ability to respond to our clients’ needs.

As part of our SDGs Initiatives, we’re working towards Goal 4: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning opportunities”. Our specific activities encompass a range of internal initiatives, and various training and education programs.

As public entities, companies have a responsibility to enhance the value of each of their employees - through our current commitment to the SDGs, we are doing this.

Even though the scope of our training and education is diverse, we want to implement each of our measures in line with the basic idea of the SDGs – that "no one will be left behind”. Therefore, our commitment to the SDGs is another reason for us to continue learning.

Introduced on our SDGs Initiatives page, I’m responsible for both nurturing and promoting our Cross-Horizontal Organization initiative. For example, as a distinct Cross-Horizontal Organization educational measure, we offer a "Growth-up Plan" for those working in Director, UI Designer, and UI Developer occupations. This also forms part of our SDGs Initiatives.

Above, I’ve tried to summarize our company’s support for continuous learning in three brief sections. Personally, however, I believe that there’s only one reason: it is only by continuing to learn that we can survive in the modern world. As life expectancy increases and the need for recurrent education becomes increasingly important, I feel that we’re entering an era where living and learning are synonymous.

I have no intention of imposing my own values or views on life. However, I believe that it would be ideal if we could nurture a corporate culture that is positive about learning, and values learning as much as living, and I would like to work together with colleagues to do what we can to achieve this.