QUNIE CORPORATION
Mizuho Bank, Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan – November 18, 2024 – The Japanese consultancy firm, QUNIE CORPORATION (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Shigeki Yamaguchi) and Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Masahiko Kato) have entered into a business alliance agreement as of November 15, 2024, to support corporate supply chain disruption risk management caused by natural disasters, pandemics, geopolitical risks, and other factors.

Background of Efforts
Amid disasters and conflicts in various regions as well as geopolitical risks such as tariffs and trade barriers, the risk of supply chain disruptions (*1) is increasing, particularly in the manufacturing industry. For companies, these risks not only impact procurement, production, logistics and sales but also extend to financial and settlement aspects such as revenue, working capital, and payment.

In this context, it becomes crucial to implement more comprehensive risk measures that address not only procurement, production, and logistics from the perspective of the procurement and SCM (supply chain management) departments, but also cash management and settlement from finance and management departments to support the supply chain.

However, many companies face challenges in enforcing their preparedness for such risks due to a lack of specialized personnel or expertise. In some cases, companies struggle to implement comprehensive analysis and responses that involve not only procurement, production, and logistics departments but also finance and management departments.

To address these issues, QUNIE and Mizuho Bank have decided to collaborate by integrating supply chain management consulting (*2), which had previously been conducted separately, with financial expertise provided by banks. QUNIE will strengthen its support for disruption risk analysis and response through consultants with extensive experiences in manufacturing and procurement, while Mizuho Bank will leverage its expertise of global cash management and trade finance synchronously.

Details of Initiatives
QUNIE and Mizuho Bank will contribute to resolving clients' challenges by leveraging their respective strengths in consulting and the financial services, ranging from analysis of supply chain disruption risks, development of policies and targets to formulation and implementation of concrete measures.

QUNIE: Assisting the analysis of disruption impacts due to natural disasters, pandemics, cyberattacks, or geopolitical risks, and the development of countermeasures across the entire supply chain from procurement to production, logistics and sales.

Mizuho Bank: Providing knowledge and relevant information on cash management, settlement, and trade finance related to the target supply chain in coordination with QUNIE’s analysis.

Both companies: Mutually introducing clients to each other’s services

The main process of this support will follow these steps:

STEP 1: Policy Development:
Establish initial hypotheses on countermeasure directions, scope of implementation, and goals based on knowledge and expertise on supply chain disruptions.

STEP2: Risk Analysis and Identification
Specify potential risk scenarios, visualize and evaluate their impact on both business operations and finances.

STEP3: Countermeasure Planning
Identify necessary measures addressing personnel, goods, money, and information to be implemented during both normal and emergency situations, and translate these into actionable plans.

STEP4: Implementation Support
Support the execution of proposed countermeasures through detailed planning, assignment of roles, and execution of tasks at the operational level.

Future Outlook
As uncertainties of the external environment grow, addressing supply chain disruption risk is becoming increasingly complex. To tackle such challenges, it is necessary for companies with diverse expertise to work together. With the conclusion of this business alliance agreement, QUNIE and Mizuho Bank will further leverage their collective knowledge and assets to provide enhanced support to companies facing supply chain disruption risks.

*1: Supply disruptions caused by the halting of certain processes or breakdown of network resulting in supply shortages due to disasters, disputes, regulations, etc., in a supply chain that consists of processes from the procurement of raw materials to the manufacture, demand and supply management, logistics, and sales of products and goods.

*2: Efforts aimed at providing overall optimization and customer satisfaction by managing the flow of goods, money, and information across multiple business areas and companies for the purpose of inventory optimization, cost minimization, sales maximization, and cash flow maximization.