Executive Perspectives: From the President

Bharat Rupani

Weathering Mother Nature

In the last month our teams have faced flooding, earthquakes and even a volcano eruption.

With a global workforce, you realize what takes place in your local environment does not represent what others are facing around the world, and Mother Nature is a perfect example. In Southern California, for example, we face wildfire dangers every year but we are unfamiliar with snowstorms. Our colleagues in many other regions know all too well the effects of snow and ice. At times, the actual retail locations we work in are affected, and more often than not our associates are impacted in their personal lives.

As some of you may be aware, southern Japan was recently struck by twin earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.2 and 7.0 in the Kumamoto Prefecture. I spend almost 50 percent of my time in Japan working with our teams, and was there at the time of the April 14 quake. While our offices were not near the epicenter, many of our associates were affected. Our Aeon team reported that 32 Sales Advisors were in the Kumamoto region at the time. At least two Sales Advisors’ homes were destroyed and five Sales Advisors were in the evacuation center for their safety. We cancelled our events in Kumamoto through mid-May because the stores were too damaged to operate.

To aid in the recovery of the disaster-affected areas, Aeon held an emergency disaster relief and recovery fund-raising effort at several stores and business offices across Japan. In addition, organizations like GlobalGiving and the Red Cross have set up earthquake relief funds. If you would like to support relief efforts, included below are a few sites to choose from.

Kumamoto Japan Earthquake Relief Fund
Red Cross
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan

Our thoughts are with our associates, their families and the communities affected by the earthquakes’ damage. We hope their return to normalcy is quick, and we offer our support.

All my best,