Our finance department is actively involved in all phases of our daily activities. Overall responsibilities include strategic planning, budgeting and analysis, mergers and acquisitions, accounting, treasury, risk management, and taxes. This department also supports other Kao businesses under the auspices of Kao America, Inc. Finance is instrumental in instilling financial discipline in the company, leading to significant improvement in profitability, and to the implementation of the EVA management system. Because finance associates are physically located with the groups they support, communication and teamwork between associates is greatly improved.