In 2019, the NISSIN FOODS Group adopted the slogan, New Digital Era. In parallel, top management demonstrated a strong commitment to the use of digital technologies. The year 2019 was the same year I joined the Group after experiences in mega IT ventures and other companies. Since that time, I have pursued my mission to lead the digital transformation of the Group.

In March 2022, the NISSIN FOODS Group defined five measures to strengthen in the future (Figure 1). Digital initiatives typically encompass a defensive aspect, such as security, and an offensive aspect, such as improving operational efficiency. However, the NISSIN FOODS Group adheres strictly to a defense-first approach. No matter how effectively an entity utilizes its data, once it becomes a victim of a virus or ransomware, the data becomes more of a liability than a useful asset. Protecting an environment for ongoing operations is a top priority, and this approach will help preserve the value of our other measures.

We have also been working to create an organization that supports this approach. In terms of IT security, we established the Cyber Security Office, inviting outside experts, and the Global IT Governance Office (now, the more authoritative Group IT Governance Division), to strengthen global IT governance. The Digitalization Development Office provides technology support for the operating divisions, while the Data Science Office provides support for data-driven management (Figure 2).

In this way, specialized organizations head up each measure, and a glance at the organization chart shows where the NISSIN FOODS Group focuses efforts in this area. This is also a message for the internal and external audience, and we expect our approach will help us recruit data scientists capable of increasing our value to society.

Digital Initiatives to Strengthen Toward 2030 (Figure 1)

Organization Supporting Digital Initiatives (Figure 2)

Symbolizing the defense-first approach, the first of our five initiatives is cybersecurity. Food manufacturers do not collect a lot of personal information about customers, and have been at low risk historically for cyberattacks. As a result, food manufacturer employees have never been overly sensitive to cybersecurity issues. In recent years, however, organizations of all sizes and types of businesses have been targeted, and the food industry is no exception. Since the early 2020s, we have stepped up education for employees and began implementing enhanced cybersecurity measures. For example, we send targeted attack-type emails to employees unannounced, and provide individual education to those who mistakenly open these emails. Through constant training, we saw open rates fall from over 10% at the beginning to an average of 2.2% today, which is below the 5% target established for governmental agencies. While we have seen a certain level of improvement in security literacy, we recognize that incidents will never be eliminated completely. Therefore, we focus on detection and countermeasures, assuming intrusions are bound to occur. We constantly check the monitoring tools deployed on all of the approximately 10,000 PCs and mobile devices used globally, maintaining a line of defense to catch any and all external intrusions.

The second initiative is global IT governance. This initiative answers the question of how our IT departments best contribute to the growth of global business, which is a pillar of our long-term growth strategy. The basic business model of the NISSIN FOODS Group is local production for local consumption, driven by local subsidiaries. However, in areas such as security and AI, where implementation spanning multiple regions is most efficient, our best approach is to exercise governance as a corporate group. Accordingly, the Group IT Governance Division established a system for IT staff in each country to connect and collaborate globally, as well as to share issues and courses of action.

Our current focus in supporting the use of digital technologies in operating divisions is on gaining a wider acceptance of generative AI. One stumbling block for any company in implementing generative AI is that the number of users is limited to a handful of people within the company. When we first introduced NISSIN AI-chat, a Group-only ChatGPT, in April 2023, we saw only a marginal increase in usage, illustrating the so-called 30% barrier. The job of the Digitalization Development Office was to create a Small Successes, Quick Wins movement with the Group. In other words, the office was tasked with finding organizations that were highly interested in—or had needs for—generative AI, collaborating to produce results as quickly as possible. The office publicized the results and value of these wins internally and externally as case studies. By repeating this process, we increased usage to over 60% Group-wide today.

Meanwhile, we took measures to address the risk of information leaks. One example is restricting Group employees to NISSIN AI-chat for generative AI use. In addition, we implement detailed measures to address compliance risks, including copyright infringement, through published guidelines, briefings, and warnings displayed when the NISSIN AI-chat is opened. Again, we took the defense-first approach to overcome concerns regarding risk that would put the brakes on AI usage.

With respect to advanced networks and mobile devices, we continue to invest in our network to keep up with increasing traffic. At the same time, we push the use of mobile devices for accessing data while on the road or in the field. We intend to continue updating devices in anticipation of technological advances, including studying the use of wearable devices.

The last initiative is infrastructure for data-driven management. We launched this initiative in response to the sense of urgency among top management that NISSIN must become an organization that makes decisions based on data. This initiative addresses past tendencies to rely on intuition and past experience given the number of strong brands already in existence, including CUP NOODLE. We began by consolidating data from various in-house systems into a centralized database. Over the course of about two and a half years, we built a company-wide integrated database. This integrated database facilitates access to the data required from each department. AI is evolving rapidly, with current issues, such as hallucinations, likely to be solved within the next five or so years. AI will routinely access data as needed to create reports automatically. The role of IT will be to organize internal knowledge in anticipation of this new era.

The most effective methodology for digital transformation throughout our organization is to proceed top-down and bottom-up. As I mentioned earlier, NISSIN FOODS Group top management has demonstrated a strong commitment to digital transformation, coming up with the slogan, Digitalize Your Arms, which management communicates across the entire organization. As a result, we are seeing an organizational culture taking root in which employees acquire skills in and use digital technology. In addition, I am convinced that accumulating best practices from the field and sharing them laterally, as was the case with generative AI, will transform our organization.

We also emphasize the development and reskilling of IT digital human resources to help drive this transformation. In 2024, we launched the NISSIN DIGITAL ACADEMY, which allows students to freely take courses online across a variety of curricula related to seven priority areas. In FY 3/2026, we will retitle the training to NISSIN DIGITAL ACADEMY Featuring Generative AI, expanding course content related to generative AI.

Through this and other training, we will build an organization that makes the most of IT, even as a non-IT group. At the same time, however, we are fully aware of the difficulty in recruiting and training IT and digital human resources.

Nevertheless, I by no means see the mobility of human resources in a negative light. An organization must continue to renew itself if it wishes to avoid becoming stalemated. People who gain new skills through their experiences at NISSIN will go on to fill successful roles in other arenas, which becomes a net positive for society as a whole. Working with NISSIN allows individuals to use their IT knowledge to their advantage, while gaining additional skills and increasing in market value. Being such an attractive organization should inspire every employee to use digital technology, enhancing organizational performance.

Organizational development of this type will help us continue driving the transformation of the NISSIN FOODS Group through technology.