2005年度（2005.4～2006.3）　ワークショップ講演

目次へ戻る

Record of Workshop/Lecture

Date: May 26, 2005
Lecturer: Mr. Ichiro Morinaka, President of F&M Co., Ltd.
Theme: Pursuing “services as useful as tap water”
Recorded by: Shoko Sakamoto and Takaaki Deguchi

1. Profile of Mr. Morinaka
After working at LCA Corporation and Venture Link Co., Ltd., Mr. Morinaka realized his dream when he established F&M Co., Ltd. in his twenties. In July 2000, the shares of his company were listed on NASDAQ Japan (presently, Hercules of the Osaka Securities Exchange). Starting with a bouquet delivery business, he expanded his business into bookkeeping, administration, and other back-office services for sole proprietorships and small- and medium-sized companies.

2. Summary of the lecture
Mr. Morinaka based the business model of his first business, a floral bouquet delivery service, on the idea that it is effective as a marketing tool to send flowers to customers on their special days such as birthdays when they feel easier to accept gifts. The main customers of this business were the customers of life insurance salespeople. Mr. Morinaka’s company delivered flowers to these individuals on behalf of the life insurance salespeople. The business performed well at first; however, demand shrank substantially after Japan’s economic bubble burst. Mr. Morinaka then changed his business from bouquet delivery to a tax return bookkeeping service for life insurance salespeople. Certified tax accountants usually charge 10,000-20,000 yen per month for this type of service; Mr. Morinaka’s company offered the same service for only 3,000 yen per month, and thus succeeded in establishing a wide customer base. At certified tax accountant offices, one person handles all bookkeeping for a single customer; at Mr. Morinaka’s company, the bookkeeping process is broken down and the jobs are processed separately like an assembly-line operation, allowing the company to greatly increase its efficiency. In addition, the company cuts costs by outsourcing data entry to China. While his competitors simply provide documents by mail, Mr. Morinaka’s staff personally visits customers every month. He has enhanced marketing activities aimed at small- and medium-sized companies, providing them with tax and corporate administration-related services. At companies, the administrative department does not directly contribute to improvements in productivity and increases in sales; however, if they can cut administrative costs, companies can help their bottom line.
Mr. Morinaka sometimes creates new business models by observing new services introduced at U.S. companies and modifying these somewhat to fit his customers’ needs. His customer base currently includes 4,600 companies. He plans to offer innovative services such as consulting and marketing expertise provision for small- and medium-sized companies. For example, he plans to develop a chain of information service counters for certified tax accountants and CPAs under the common brand, Tax House. Mr. Morinaka said, “In the real world, we always face various difficulties in doing business. I have taken this fact as a given. Therefore, I do not feel that doing business is a hardship. I rather feel happy to do business during this exciting time in Japan.”

3. Comments by reporter
Mr. Morinaka has retained his entrepreneurial spirit since he was a student and a company employee. He took full advantage of his marketing capabilities to start these businesses. With his vision, “Services as useful as tap water,” he has continued to develop new businesses, riding on the waves of the times and facing the challenges of the times, from which we learned about entrepreneurship. We felt his power and enthusiasm during his low-key speech.

▲このページのトップへ