What is hhc?

Eisai is a company that focuses not only on developing pharmaceuticals but also the potential of corporative activities that go beyond the provision of medicines. We believe that our mission is not limited to simply delivering the drugs to the patient.

All Eisai employees give first thought to patients and the people in the daily living domain, and discuss what we should do to increase the benefits that health care provides to them, from the perspective of being a customer. Then, we will put it into practice in our business activities, demonstrate it, disseminate it to the world, and change society.

This is our cherished corporate concept, human health care (hhc).

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Eisai’s human health care (hhc)

Eisai conducts its business with a clear understanding that patients and the people in the daily living domain are the key players in healthcare.

Eisai’s corporate concept is to give first thought to patients and the people in the daily living domain, and increase the benefits that health care provides to them as well as meet diverse healthcare needs worldwide. Eisai calls this the “human health care (hhc)” concept. Eisai believes that in order to realize the hhcconcept, it is important for each Eisai employee to first get close to patients and the people in the daily living domain, and see the situation from their perspective in order to learn to empathize with thoughts and feelings that might not necessarily always be expressed in words. Accordingly, the Eisai Group recommends that all of its employees spend 1% of their working hours with patients and the people in the daily living domain.

Our corporate concept is understood and internalized by each employee within the Group, both in Japan and overseas. This understanding is then shared and implemented in the daily business activities of all Eisai employees, and serves to effectively transcend nationalities, national borders, gender and age.

We fulfill our obligation to society by considering the perspectives of patients, and the people in the daily living domain, as well as the global community overall, developing a response to their needs, verifying the social benefits of this response, and finally by making this response available to the world before anyone else.

This is the hhc that Eisai aims to realize.

Corporate Concept

We give first thought to patients and the people in the daily living domain, and increase the benefits that healthcare provides to them as well as meet their diversified healthcare needs worldwide

The Group’s Corporate Concept Logomark combines inspiration from the life and dedication of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who made enormous contributions to the development of the nursing profession and public health, with our own Eisai hhcconcept. As such, the script for the logo is modeled on the signature of this prominent figure, who we regard as having played an immense role in the history of modern-day nursing.

hhc human health care

Mission and Results

Eisai stipulated this concept as one of its Articles of Incorporation with the support of its shareholders. The Articles of Incorporation states, within its “Corporate Concept”, that “The Company’s mission is to increase the satisfaction of patients and the people in the daily living domain, and to empower them to realize their fullest life through an hhc ecosystem developed through collaboration with other industries and groups. The Company believes that revenues and earnings will be generated by first fulfilling this mission. The Company places importance on this sequence.” This order of mission and results motivates Eisai employees to gather and work at Eisai, rather than elsewhere, and shows the way we should go.

“Socialization” is Key to Conceiving and Implementing Our Activities

As an initiative to embody Eisai’s human health care concept which gives first thought to increasing the benefits to patients and the people in the daily living domain, set forth in Eisai’s corporate concept, what we value most is to understand the thoughts of said patients and people. The feelings that can be expressed in words are only a part. We believe that we need to be aware of, feel, and empathize with the deepest feelings behind the words or the indescribable feelings of patients. To that end, Eisai recommends all officers and employees of the Eisai Group globally to spend 1% of their working hours engaging in “socialization”, spending time with patients and the people in the daily living domain or sharing experiences such as eating or working together.

More information

The dementia café at Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry in Kawashima Industrial Park (Gifu Prefecture, Japan )
Interaction with People with Lymphatic Filariasis (Primary Health Center, India)

Eisai’s Initiatives to Realize Innovation Based “Knowledge Creation Theory”

At Eisai, in order to realize the hhcconcept, each employee is committed to think outside of the box through their day-to-day work and achieve innovation that eliminates the anxiety or addresses the needs of patients and the people in the daily living domain, based on “Knowledge Creation Theory” advocated by Ikujiro Nonaka, Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University. The “SECI Model” is the core framework of Knowledge Creation Theory to innovate systematically with exchanging and transferring tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge within an organization. The model theorizes knowledge creation in four phases.It is important to keep turning the 4 phases of this knowledge creation spiral in order to strategically create knowledge.
Based on the SECI model, Eisai practices the hhc process “Anxiety Driven Model” with the aim of understanding and resolving the anxiety of patients and the people in the daily living domain.

Origin of Eisai 'Anxiety Driven Model'
from Empathy(All employees spend 1% of their working hours) to Extracting/understanding anxleties from Extracting/understanding anxleties to Strategy to remove anxieties from Strategy to remove anxieties to Implementing strategy from Implementing strategy to Empathy
Reference : Information Meeting – March 26, 2021

At Eisai, all officers and employees, of which there are more than 10,000 around the world, have dedicated 1% of their working hours to spending time with patients and the people in the daily living domain. The most important part of the “Anxiety Driven Model” is that, through these efforts, we feel the thoughts, especially the anxieties, of the patients and people as our own, and empathize with their emotions. We gather the anxieties that each of us capture through this process, and extract and understand the anxiety of patients and the people in the daily living domain through repeated discussions in groups or teams within the company. Thus, Eisai’s fundamental principle is to develop corporate actions and strategies to eliminate these anxieties and to implement these actions and strategies in order to create an upward spiral through the knowledge creation phases.

hhc Driven Innovation Activities (hhc Activities)

The activities within the organization, sharing the awareness gained through socialization with patients and the people in the daily living domain, and formulating and implementing specific action plans to meet their potential needs, are called the “hhc Driven Innovation activities (hhc activities)”. At Eisai as whole, more than 500 activities are carried out globally every year.

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Eisai holds an annual event named “hhc Initiative” to recognize and commend outstanding activities among the hhc activities being carried out that have made significant contributions especially to patients and the people in the daily living domain. Members representing R&D, production, sales, and management departments from around the world will participate in the event, where they present their best practices, and are thereby able to learn and exchange the “knowledge” created in the process. Through the “hhc Initiative”, Eisai is actively promoting knowledge sharing globally.

hhc Activities

Eisai aims to have each employee create individual knowledge and then share it with other employees.
In order to have each employee recognize Eisai's hhc concept as a shared value rather than as the ideas of an individual, and to express that concept in each employee's daily work duties, we ask the employees to participate in hhc activities in their separate divisions or organizations. We regard patients and the people in the daily living domain as the most important participants in the health care process. In order to increase the benefits to them, approximately 500 different hhc themes are being developed globally as everyday hhc activities. We will continue to accept the challenge of doing the best we can for patients and the people in the daily living domain.

Empowering People to Realize Their Fullest Life

Eisai continues to evolve. In our medium-term business plan “EWAY Future & Beyond”, Eisai has expanded its main role in healthcare, that is, we should contribute not only to people in the medical domain but also to people in the daily living domain, and aim to deliver solutions based on the hhc.

Improving Access to Medicines

Making our medicines available to those who need them

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