Getting started at Hitachi solutions

It’s the end of my first month at Hitachi Solutions so I thought I’d share a few reflections. Before joining I’d spent the last 10+ years in Civil Service digital, data and tech teams creating products, campaigns and services for citizens and businesses. Importantly for me, I'm staying focused on the public sector, trying to help solve the many complex problems we face every day.

For those who don’t know too much about Hitachi, we are one of the world’s largest engineering and technology companies – most of you probably think of trains or the energy sector. Less known is the rapidly growing digital, data and technology division (the bit I joined). Built on a powerful partnership with Microsoft, they are one of the country’s leading data, Dynamics and Power Platform specialists. If you don’t know much about this, and fancy spending a few moments dreaming about the art of the possible I recommend checking out our Virtual Assist demo with the talented @Jerome Simeoni.

A few days ago I was having a drink with my onboarding team, and was asked ‘why did you join Hitachi’. I said that I wanted a new challenge having been a civil servant for 12 years, that it was a great opportunity, that the idea of being a home worker with complete flexibility really appealed and that the company had a great reputation for doing things properly not just joining the race to the bottom. All of this was true, but as is often the case the real driver was something a little more intangible – it was mostly a cultural decision.

Hitachi’s mission is to "contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products." If you dig into their ethics, its makes for pretty great reading.

We will contribute to resolving social issues by promoting innovative solutions, accelerating collaborative creation with partners and stakeholders, and further integrating social and environmental responsibility into our business activities.

We will strive to develop technologies that contribute to social development and use them with due consideration of their impact on society.

We envision a low-carbon society, a resource efficient society, and a harmonized society with nature. To this end, we will endeavour to reduce CO2 emissions, use water and other resources efficiently, and minimize impacts on natural capital throughout our value chain.

As a corporate citizen, we will make efforts to build rapport with communities and contribute to their development by working together to resolve social issues.

I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell on the radio this week talking about his new book ‘The bomber Mafia’ and referencing the need for tech companies to think differently about the role they play in society. And clearly this has never been a more prevalent issue, with a high-profile social media boycott over the weekend. I am not suggesting Hitachi are perfect, but in a world where many corporates and technology companies put profit ahead of society, its good to be a part of one with a ‘founding spirit’ of Harmony, sincerity, and pioneering spirit. I reckon in 2021 we could all do with a little bit more of that in our lives.

Social Value is a growing area of government partnerships and Hitachi has this in its DNA. I’m fortunate to be given the opportunity to help flex a bit of muscle here. When you add this to Hitachi’s experience in areas where Government needs support – data standards, crm, case management, grants and erp it makes for an exciting prospect.

Our commitment to Central Government (hitachi-solutions.co.uk)