Sasaki:You joined Mizuho as a mid career hire with an interesting background. Could you share why the Corporate Culture Office was created and what role it plays?
Sotani: In 2021, Mizuho experienced a major system failure, which made the need for cultural reform impossible to ignore. We gathered employees from across the Mizuho group to form four working groups, engaging in repeated discussions with management. One key recommendation that emerged was the establishment of a dedicated role—the Chief Culture Officer—and a specialized Corporate Culture Office to lead cultural transformation.
My career began at an advertising agency, where I worked on corporate and product branding for major Japanese manufacturers. Later, recognizing the expanding potential of digital, I moved to Adobe and led marketing-related digital transformation initiatives.
When Mizuho began revising its corporate identity and refresh its brand, I had the opportunity to join as Corporate Brand Director in October 2023. Although I was new to the banking industry, colleagues across departments welcomed me, understood what I aimed to accomplish, and allowed us to move forward together.
Adding a “Twist” to Internalizing the Purpose
Sasaki: The financial industry is strictly regulated, making differentiation and brand building particularly challenging. Improving customer experience requires cultural change. How did you approach this?
Sotani: In the advertising field, people themselves are the core asset, so people‑driven branding was always at the center of my work. At Adobe, I learned how directly customers experience ties to brand growth. In finance as well, the experience we provide to customers is what ultimately shapes the brand. If employees are the most important touchpoint to shape a brand, the key question becomes: How should each employee act? That must be the foundation.
In May 2023, we revised our corporate identity and introduced a new corporate purpose, the Japanese version of which is literally: “Together, we challenge. Together, we grow.” We also defined five values that guide behavior to actually realize this purpose. Brand building and internalizing a corporate identity are inseparable, which is why I oversee both.
Sasaki: A corporate identity means nothing without mechanisms that embed it across the organization.
Sotani: Exactly. Our executive team, led by Group CEO Masahiro Kihara, frequently visit offices and branches to directly engage with employees. They hold more than 100 sessions a year to hear employees’ thoughts. There have been moments when Kihara, after listening to employee feedback, has taken actions to address the matters on the spot. Employees clearly feel this passion and enthusiasm, which fuels momentum across the organization.
To strengthen employees’ connection with the corporate purpose, we focused on making experience entertaining and raising recognition. For the “entertaining” aspect, we created playful initiatives for employees such as featuring the phrase “Together, we challenge. Together, we drink.” on the popular “It’s the CEO’s treat” vending machine. Seeing employees spontaneously expressing the corporate purpose in their own words was a great start.
To raise recognition, we revamped the intercompany “Mizuho Awards.” Previously, large‑scale projects often dominated, however, we redefined the criteria to focus on how employees embody our values in daily work instead of focusing on the scale of projects. For example, one branch started a “NISA Café,” offering investment consultations over coffee outside business hours of the branch, and this activity spread nationally as other branches said, “If customers appreciate it, let’s do it in our branch too.” By recognizing such efforts, employees learn what is expected and how they can contribute, and these efforts accumulate into improved customer experience and genuine cultural change.
Brand Is Built Through Everyone’s Behavior
Sasaki: Each employee’s behavior becomes a part of the process of shaping a brand. It seems concepts like empathy and customer‑centricity are taking root.
Sotani: Yes, I believe we’ve taken a meaningful step forward in that regard. To have customers understand the value that Mizuho offers, every employee must understand and embody the corporate identity. That’s why internal branding is so crucial.
At the same time, we want customers to actively sense our transformation. Last autumn we launched a new corporate brand campaign in Japan themed “Taking on Challenges with Blue.” We also expanded storytelling on our website through “Mizuho Journal,” highlighting initiatives that previously might have gone unnoticed.
Sasaki: Many companies focus on their products and services and overlook internal branding. For companies with a global footprint in particular, they are having a hard time communicating governance around identity purpose and brand vision with their branches worldwide. Your approach reaffirms how essential it is to repeatedly communicate a company’s purpose internally and have employees express it through their own roles—ultimately reaching customers.
Sotani: Our Corporate Culture Office consists of around 60 members, many of whom come from non-banking backgrounds, including former creative directors, art directors, TV producers, and journalists. We also have many homegrown employees who are deeply committed to improving Mizuho’s culture and brand. It’s the combination of these strengths—the “chemical reaction” of internal and external perspectives—that enables us to do meaningful work. We will leverage this strategy to continue evolving.
Sasaki: At Kantar, we publish Kantar BrandZ Global Top 100 and Kantar BrandZ Japan Top 50 brand rankings, which quantify the brand value of leading companies.
In supporting brand building of our clients, we focus on clients’ customer “memorable experiences” grounded in behavioral economics and neuroscience. Differentiation does not come from increasing the number of customer touchpoints, but from elevating the quality of customer experiences. To win in competitive markets, internal transformation should be paired with the accumulation of “Meaningful Difference”. Continuous activity of brand measurement and improvement, and the everyday behaviors of employees are what build brand value. From what I’ve seen, Mizuho is beginning to succeed in the results of this approach.
Thank you very much for the discussion today.