Christina L. Ahmadjian Gives MHI Group Employees Lecture about Diversity

n March 22, Christina L. Ahmadjian, an outside director of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI), gave a lecture to more than 200 employees of MHI group companies in MHI Hiroshima District including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corporation. She talked to participants at all levels from junior to management about the importance of diversity and issues in diversity introduction.

Ms. Ahmadjian, a professor at the Graduate School of Commerce and Management at Hitotsubashi University, made tough comments and constructive suggestions to the MHI Group about dealing with diversity from the standpoint of the foreign woman in the male-dominated MHI board of directors.

In the lecture, she stressed that in spite of difficulty and pain in introducing diversity into Japanese companies it was important to think of how to accept and deal with them for future growth. “Key personnel are managers in their forties and fifties. They should understand the importance of diversity and prepare themselves to take actions,” she said.

Her lecture provided all the participants with a good opportunity to think about how the MHI Group should go global and diversify as a Japan’s traditional heavy industry company.